I apologize if this has been covered, but I couldn't find anything with my little search.

Anyway, late Saturday night, I was heading home out of a parking lot when I noticed my pressure warning light had come on. I stopped, used my light to look around and I could not see any problem. I got back in, drove home at low speed, the light stayed on, but the car felt normal. The next day, I had the light, energy and time to look over the tires and use a tire pressure gauge and all four tires were fine. One was about 2 psi higher than the other three, but well within operating norms. So I got in the car to go get some fuel, the light came on again, but within a block of my house, it went off and I haven't seen it since.

My question, how worried should I be and what, potentially caused this?

 

If all tires were within operating norms, no problem. Its quite possible that the warning light came on as a result of a hairpin turn you made. Just follow the reset procedure outlined in the manual. And yes, there have been several threads on the issue.

 

The tire pressure monitoring system on the MINI is notoriously inaccurate...so if you checked everything out with an accurate tire pressure gauge -- and then reset the system ack to the instructions in the manual -- you should be fine.

And just to add to what MGCMAN said, you can trigger the light by driving over anything that causes one wheel to rotate at a slightly higher or lower speed than the remaining wheels. Speed bumps are a common cause of this problem as are very sharp turns (esp. on low traction surfaces). In these cases, the system often resets itself...i.e., the light goes off as you describe.

And finally, it's certainly possible that the 2psi variance in one of your wheels was able to trigger the system. It probably shouldn't, but given the frequency of system errors, it's well within the range of possibility.

 

I’m with MINI USA. I’m so sorry to read about your problem with your tire pressure warning indicator. If you want our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI and please mention Reference # 1-103299701 so that we can help you more efficiently.

 

>>The tire pressure monitoring system on the MINI is notoriously inaccurate...so if you checked everything out with an accurate tire pressure gauge -- and then reset the system ack to the instructions in the manual -- you should be fine.
In these cases, the system often resets itself...i.e., the light goes off as you describe.
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Same problem happened to my MC, except pressure variance between all 4 tires was less than 1 psi. Tried resetting the switch as per Manual but it did not work. Took it to my dealer and was told the switch was bad. Replaced switch and so far all is well.

 

mine goes off all the time like once a week. some times there is different tire pressure and some times not. i just check it reset it and go on my way. if i had to run to the dealer every time it went off i wold never have a new car to drive.

 

Mine doesn't go off very often. The times it has the tire in question was down 15 psi with a slow leak - The only reason I found out was because the car started feeling a little squirelly. It should go off with around 6 psi lower in one tire. If it worked this could be a worthwhile system - but it doesn't.

 

You don't need to worry. I've had this happen twice when (esp just after turning on car for some reason) I've gone over a speedbump with one wheel but not the other, or taken a driveway at an angle in such a way that one wheel leaves the ground (and therefore doesn't rotate at the same speed--which is how it detects a flat.)

It resets itself after some number of times starting/stopping the car, and all's well. I still have a tire gauge in the car just so you can determine if there is a legitimate problem.

(The angle between the parking garage ramp and the street at work is pretty steep, and if I leave the garage at an angle the frame is stiff enough that one wheel will come off the ground every time. This also means that if you're in a rush you have one wheel spinning! Drives the traction control nuts if I forget to turn it off.)

Final note. If you *do* get a flat you really can't easily tell which tire it is by appearance. Definitely have a tire gauge at all times.

Jeff