sooooo. i did not take my own advice.. and got really lazy with checking tire pressure.. i used to check all 4 tires once per week but lately i went flat rate stylez and just checked one of em (different one each week!)
it caught up to me yesterday when i decided to take the 'scenic route' home and bomb thru the mountains after work. when i got home (backing into my parking spot) i noticed the steering suddenly feel weird.. i get out to inspect and one of the tires (front passenger) was completely fubared. it looked like the steel in the sidewalls just got shifted around due to massive overheating, causing the tire to loose air
i totally should have realized this, because i felt that tire get greasy much sooner than the front driver, but i did not put two and two together that something was wrong
sooo yea.. check your tire pressure!! especially right before any sort of spirited driving.. i feel very lucky that the failure occurred in my parking lot at 0.5mph instead of in the mountains at 80mph
i haven't checked my eap rims since ive baught them good old yokohama rubber and u ready to freak out ive never even put more air in them and still running great
ZX3_2NV,Apr 2 2008, 12:14 PM Wrote:i haven't checked my eap rims since ive baught them good old yokohama rubber and u ready to freak out ive never even put more air in them and still running great
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wow
to be honest thats weird....just out of curiosity check what psi u have in them
anyways i try to check at least ones or even twice per week......usually when the weather changes from cold to warm or from warm to cold
i try and check mine once a week need every mpg i can get with gas prices.
yea i dunno.. i went fine for a while without checking.. and then bam.. i got bitten
i'll be checking my tire pressures weekly again for sure..
i have horrible visions of that failure occurring the mountains and me stuffing my car into the mountain or going into a ditch :ph34r:
I've gotten lazy having sensors in all 4 wheels (it's the law!)..
However, when the temps change, especially like they do in Canada, it's important to check more regularily.
darkpuppet,Apr 2 2008, 02:29 PM Wrote:I've gotten lazy having sensors in all 4 wheels (it's the law!)..
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Are they like the the ones at Canadian Tire where they sit on the valve? Just curious what manufacturers are doing, since it's apparently the law (in the US?).
I check the air in my tyres sporadically. But my front left seems to be losing a few pounds every once in a while, and I can notice the steering go a bit off over time, car pulling left.
I need new tyres anyway.
Aka,Apr 2 2008, 03:55 PM Wrote:Are they like the the ones at Canadian Tire where they sit on the valve? Just curious what manufacturers are doing, since it's apparently the law (in the US?).
I check the air in my tyres sporadically. But my front left seems to be losing a few pounds every once in a while, and I can notice the steering go a bit off over time, car pulling left.
I need new tyres anyway.
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nah.. the sensors are sensor units held in place by bands that wrap around the wheel. $80/ea for the sensor, $20/ea for the appropriately sized bands.
Me being the first person to order rims with his car caught the dealership unawares, but they graceously ate the cost of installing (removing tire, installing sensors, remounting and rebalancing tires, etc).
please keep in mind I own a mustang.. not sure about the new focuses
update.. i inspected the tire more closely and it turns out there was a very small puncture in the tread block.... so whew.. i can feel like i'm only semi stupid because the root cause of the failure was the puncture and not my stupidity
i tossed a can of fix a flat into the tire and it seems to be holding.. i should be able to drive it to a tire shop without having to use the damn 'donut' spare tire (ah the joys of AWD... having to obsess about tire circumference...)
new azenis RT615 on the way w00t
piaa has a nice tire press monitor kit. Dont know if it works well though.
Yeah my TPMS is mounted within the tire / on the rim itself, hidden from plain view.
I do try to check my tire PSI evry saturday and do a once over, gives me a chance to top up the washer fluid too.
NOS2Go4Me,Apr 3 2008, 06:40 PM Wrote:Yeah my TPMS is mounted within the tire / on the rim itself, hidden from plain view.
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does it run off batteries and transmit to a control unit in the car? where is the pressure displayed (is it OE?)
it would be cool to have the pressure shown on a display in the dash.. i would really help manage tire temps at the track
I'm waiting to get my Scangauge 2 and to see if it can harvest those readings off the CAN bus. I honestly don't know how it's powered but I'll check into it (RX8club.com - my "other" hangout online). What I do know is that it is temperature sensitive and is really quick to adjust whether it's going off or not.
The TPMS is indeed OE, but it only runs to one LED warning indicator on the lefthand gauge cluster (coolant temp/gas level).
naz,Apr 3 2008, 05:24 PM Wrote:NOS2Go4Me,Apr 3 2008, 06:40 PM Wrote:Yeah my TPMS is mounted within the tire / on the rim itself, hidden from plain view.
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does it run off batteries and transmit to a control unit in the car? where is the pressure displayed (is it OE?)
it would be cool to have the pressure shown on a display in the dash.. i would really help manage tire temps at the track
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Sorry....it was hella that made it...
check them out:
http://www.bavauto.com/shop.asp, part # is TC-400 .
Hella TC-400 Tire Pressure Monitor System