I had rented a Malibu a few months ago on a business trip and it had this feature. IIRC, I had to scroll through on the display to see each tire's pressure.

 

Yes,that would be nice.Plus why do we have to reset when we check/add air to tires.None of my other cars performed this way? Cheap system

 

How exactly does the system work? How does it transmit? If I take a friend's OEM wheels with the TPMS already installed in there do I have to do anything? He is going to give me his wheels and I will buy him new TMPS sensors for the $300 to use on his aftermarkets. (I could give him my old ones but that would defeat the purpose of me having 2 sets of wheels - 1 for summer 1 for winter to swap easily) Can I leave the ones in his old wheels for my car and just give him the new ones I buy to use on his car? Or do certain sensors in the wheels have to be paired with another piece for THAT car? Thanks!

 

If the wheel is replaced the system must be initialized.

1. Set the tire pressure to spec.
2. key on Engine off.
3. Press and hold the reset button until the light comes on
4. Drive the car and the process will complete without any feedback.

The system uses wireless sensors to transmit data to the control system when requested by the TPMS CPU. The initialization process instructs the sensors located within the wheels to report their identity which is registered
within the systems memory.

 

According to the owner's manual, the TPS works by sensing and comparing the wheel speeds. When one wheel is consistently faster than the others, the CPU interprets that as a tire going down and trips the alarm. When resetting the TPS, the CPU is recording all the wheels' speeds and calculating an average.

Also, the system on my 08 MCS turns on the TPS light during the reset process and the light turns off when the process is done.

 

It was FTM that compared wheel speeds.

For the past year, by Federal Mandate, MINI (and all other brands) have TPS (my MINI Owner's Manual covers both systems) that need to have the 'sensors' in each wheel to work.

Would expect a universal exchange for wheels would work, but you would need to 'Reset' even after checking pressures with gauge.

 

I think my question got misconstrued. Are the TPMS sensors car specific? i.e. do different cars have sensor on different frequencies? I just want to make sure my sensors would work in any another Mini (late 07/08) without a problem? Also wanted to make sure the ones on Tirerack will work in any Mini no problem. Thanks again.

 

they are not car specific, but they are make specific. for example, both BMW and MINI use the same frequency.

call when you order the sensors to make sure you get the right sensors.

 

Thanks. I was looking into these. Apparently the color of the valve stem makes a difference (not in the module) but you need the same color valve stems

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ksid=p3907.m29

 

The TPMS are from Tirerack made for a r56/r55 mini. I got them from Tirerack when I bought a set of tires/rims combo from them and they seem to work well. Need to reset the monitor as specified earlier in this thread.

 

Does anyone know if the valve caps (the ones that have been described as flying saucers) are important for the TPMS to work? I was thinking of replacing them with regular black caps or even just spray painting them flat black when I spray paint my rims. Any thoughts or info please?

 

Nope they're just indicating caps.The sensors are on the other end.

 

No problem with black caps. Must screw them in reasonably tightly (probably the reason for the saucers). Notice that I do loose psi quite quickly compared to regular non TMPS valves and caps.

 

Ok thanks. That's so strange that I picked that up somewhere. I would normally never think that to be the case but I read someone on NAM that the difference b/w the old TMPS and the new ones can be distinguished by the end caps (flying saucers are the new ones) and that they are required to allow the TPMS to work properly. I guess I misconstrued that somewhere along the line. Thanks for the help!

I'm asking b/c I'm spray painting my rims this weekend and wanted to know if I can leave on the caps or take them off and tape up the valve stem as well.

 

When there are no sensors, is it just the exclamation mark, with no audible continuous sound or is it like the seatbelt?

 

yes, no continuous sound

 

Tire Rack seems to be out of the sensors. My dealer is out of them as well, but last time I asked it was $640 for a set. I'm thinking of just finding a tank, drill 4 holes, install the sensors, pressurize to 35psi, cap it off, and toss it in the boot.

 

Does running without TPMS cause the ! to be displayed on the upper screen of the tach. If so, does it go away ever? I'd miss not having my speed there...

 

you press the end of the stalk and it goes away.

 

How long does it take to come back on?

 

When my sensors went off because of low pressures on all the tires, the icon on my tach would only go away for about 4 seconds after I hit the button to shut it off. Really annoying. I'm not sure if the results would be the same if the sensors were not there at all.

 

If you don't have your TPMS sensors in on the tach you will get a light and chime at startup and both again after shutdown.The light on the speedo will blink at startup and stay on.

 

anyone can use a tire guage, i turned them off with ross-tech's computer program for vw + audi along with other nifty adjustments on her 08 jetta, i love minis but, due to popularity they take you to the CLEANERS however they can, BUT being able to order a car without XTRA $$$$$ BLING i would not want is a BIG BIG +++++++++ and they are just NEATO

 

Don't blame MINI for this.

Due to so many SUV Rollover accidents, TPMS was Mandated by Federal Law as of September 2007.

 

The Chevy Cobalt show the pressure in each tire as standard equipment and look how much those cost.