I must have driven hundreds of miles, occasionally at high speeds on a flat front tire. My run-flat warning light never came on.

The first I knew of the problem was when I started to get vibration in the car but at first did not attribute this to tires. A few hundred miles later I noticed that at lower speeds I could detect a rythmic 'bump' that varied with speed. I pulled over and finally noticed a small bump on a sidewall. Thinking the tire was defective I went to a tire shop and they checked pressure, finding none. We inflated it and HOLY MOLY, a huge lump came out in one place and three or four others could be detected.

Well the tires were low on tread too (after only 15,300 miles) so I elected to buy new tires, but NOT run-flats.

I have never been happy with them but am wondering, is that sensor failure common? Seems like a real safety issue to me.

 

Is your's an 04? If so, I think there is a recall on the tire pressure monitor.

 

Yes, it's an '04', but I've received no information regarding a recall. I'm going to call a dealer right now because I just shelled out $600 for new tires!

 

How low on air were the rest of the tires?? If they loose air at a slow, or simular rate the sensor doesn't catch it. I had'nt checked mine for some time awhile back and I was running between 10 and 15 psi in all tires. Since then I check them every few weeks.

Nik

 

Don't think that's applicable here. The one in question was at zero.


I checked the recall info at the NHTSA and found the following...

ON CERTAIN PASSENGER VEHICLES, THE FLAT TIRE MONITORING SYSTEM HAS NOT BEEN CORRECTLY PROGRAMMED. IN THE EVENT OF A FLAT TIRE, AN AUDIBLE SIGNAL WILL NOT SOUND TO ALERT THE DRIVER TO A FLAT TIRE. Consequence:
DUE TO THE LACK OF AN AUDIBLE SIGNAL, THE DRIVER MAY NOT BE AWARE OF A FLAT TIRE, WHICH COULD INCREASE THE RISK OF A CRASH. Remedy:
DEALERS WILL REPROGRAM THE VEHICLE'S SOFTWARE IN ORDER TO ACTUATE THE FLAT TIRE MONITORING SYSTEM'S AUDIBLE SIGNAL. THE RECALL IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN DURING JULY 2004. OWNERS SHOULD CONTACT MINI CUSTOMER RELATIONS AT 1-866-275-6464.

I called the number and there is no recall for my car.

 

But since its not really a pressure monitor then it is important to know what the other tires were running. It works by comparing the rotation of each tire to each other. If one suddenly looses air then it will be spinning faster than the rest, thus triggering the warning. But if they are all loosing air gradually it will not catch it. You could have zero in all tires and it would not tell you that you have a flat.

Nik

 

Four totally flat tires? Unheard of! But, that said anything is possible.

At this point it is academic; I have had four Perelli P-Zeros installed and I'm done with runflats. I have a couple ov nice ones with plenty of tread if anyone's interested.

 

I had that happen to my '03.

 

All of this is why the DoT is very likely to make illegal the sort of "passive" tire pressure monitoring system we have in the MINI. There are alternative systems that actually monitor tire pressure (vs. rotational speed of wheels as a function of tire pressure), and these are supposedly much more accurate. Of course, they're also more expensive to implement...and there's the rub.

But from what I've been reading, MINI won't be able to sell this current system in the US for too much longer. I have no idea of course what that means for all of us who have the system in existing MINIs. The rules change will likely only impact future model years.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=EZ3&url=/accessories/smartire/smartire_all.jsp

Here is your direct monitor, and afordable, under $300 delivered.

Alex