On Sunday my wife and I were returning home from visiting friends from our old neighborhood. I was diving my newest 'toy', a 2017 VW Golf GTI. It's no Porsche or Ferrari, but what a fun little car. Two liter turbo with double clutch transmission. I'm loving it. It's not my only car so it doesn't get driven every day and I forget how to use some of the electronic gadgets.

It was around 6pm and raining lightly so it wasn't dark yet buy starting to get there. All of a sudden I get a warning chime and a message that I have a low tire pressure situation. I know that there is a park and ride lot about two miles up the road by the interstate. I keep driving since I don't feel a tire problem. When I get to the parking lot I check and all four tires appear normal to me. I turned to car off and then back on to see if that would clear the warning, but it didn't. Meanwhile I notice that there is one other car on the lot that has headlights on and it happens to be a GTI. So I head over toward this car hoping that they can help me. As I approach the car I can see the driver making some adjustments. The young woman behind the wheel runs her window down and I can see that she has an infant in her arms and a toddler in the back seat. It had been feeding time and mom was the source of the meal. She had detached and covered up as I approached. I apologized for the intrusion and asked her if she had a tire gage. She thought a second and reached over to the glove box and pulled out a pressure gage. I went back to my car and checked all four tires which were fine. Went back to her car to return the gage. Since she has the same car she then tells me what button to push to clear the tire warning. I thanked her several times and went back to my car. I thought, 'what a trooper'. She stops what she's doing, has what I need and then tells me how to fix the fault. All the while with an infant in her lap and another little one in the back. I felt lucky that I had run into her and was impressed with her composure. I felt really good after that. Also went and bought a tire gage for the GTI the next day.

check the spare tire

quote:

Originally posted by Apphunter:
check the spare tire

If it has a spare...

Could also be a TPMS sensor going bad.

Luckily yours (story) is better than mine.
Mine resulted in a shredded $250 tire & 90 minutes away from the office to get the (flat) spare on.

Member henryaz recommended the Milton S-921 pencil tire gage. I bought one and really like it – accurate and easy to read.

My Hyundai Sonata Limited displays the pressure in all four tires – a really nice feature.

My GTI does have a small temporary spare but I wouldn't think it would have a sensor. I could be wrong.

The car does not give a readout of what the tire pressure is? This is ridiculous if not.

My wife's 2018 civic does not either and it irritates me because we have an 08 plain jane Chevy express van which displays the tire pressures of all 4 tires.

I think my in-laws Lexus does not either.

Sorry for the rant.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikito:
The car does not give a readout of what the tire pressure is? This is ridiculous if not.

My wife's 2018 civic does not either and it irritates me because we have an 08 plain jane Chevy express van which displays the tire pressures of all 4 tires.

I think my in-laws Lexus does not either.

Sorry for the rant.

Just depends on the car, I guess.
Our 2013 Flex only shows go/no-go & you have to manually check each tire.

My former 2016 F150 & now 2015 Mercedes have individual readouts.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikito:

My wife's 2018 civic does not [give tire pressure readouts] either ...

Honda since circa 2015 doesn't use direct-reading pressure sensor TPMS at all. It is indirect measurement. There should be a reset button under the dash.

Figure out what preasure the TPMS alarms at. For example on a Nissan Frontier I had, I believe it was 28psi. Cold weather at time caused it to alarm. Fix was increasing air in tires and some time above 55mph to tell system all was okay.

Dig through your manual for this info or root around online.

I was driving back from Tucson to San Diego in my '18 Accord when I got that warning. Looked at the tires, they seemed OK. Next day checked pressure and they were 28-29 psi, normal 33. Costco blew them up for me, then I had to look up "recalibrate TPMS".
Yes, not helpful they don't tell you actual pressure in each tire.

Couple years ago, our Kia Sportage would have the TPMS light come on at various times. The pressure would be okay, though. Light would go off and I wouldn't think anything of it. Obviously, I checked the spare and it didn't have a sensor in it.

Light came on again and wouldn't turn off. What also happened was the check engine light coming on. Since the car was in warranty, I got both lights checked out. CEL ended up being a clogged catalytic converter which was replaced under warranty. TPMS ended up being a programming error. Kia updated the program in them and the light stayed off until we ended up getting rid of the car earlier this year.

Personally I'm not a fan of TPMS. It's just something that could wrong and not necessary when you should be checking your air pressure frequently anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by Apphunter:
check the spare tire

If it has a spare...

Could also be a TPMS sensor going bad.

Luckily yours (story) is better than mine.
Mine resulted in a shredded $250 tire & 90 minutes away from the office to get the (flat) spare on.

This. Your local tire shop should be able to check the sensors on the car quickly and easily.

Your GTI doesn't have sensors in the wheels (somehow a speed sensor in the ABS does it). You have to set the tire pressure, then use the menu on your radio to confirm the tire pressure (car button I think?) That woman is definitely a real keeper!

quote:

Originally posted by DonDraper:
…... then use the menu on your radio to confirm the tire pressure (car button I think?) That woman is definitely a real keeper!

The 'CAR' button was the correct button to reset. The whole point of my story was the young woman who helped me, but you're the only one who mentioned that. I wasn't really concerned about the rest of it. She was terrific.

The only time I've had a flat in either of my trucks (going on 17 years now between the two) was when the nut holding the metal valve stem in for the tire pressure sensor cracked while I was driving and my tire went flat... super fun changing a tire in an icy parking lot at 10pm when it was 5 degrees out.

Shawn

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by Mikito:
The car does not give a readout of what the tire pressure is? This is ridiculous if not.

My wife's 2018 civic does not either and it irritates me because we have an 08 plain jane Chevy express van which displays the tire pressures of all 4 tires.

I think my in-laws Lexus does not either.

Sorry for the rant.

Just depends on the car, I guess.
Our 2013 Flex only shows go/no-go & you have to manually check each tire.

My former 2016 F150 & now 2015 Mercedes have individual readouts.

My 2013 Mustang is the same as your Flex. I think the higher end packages (mine is a Base V6 with the performance package and the non-touchscreen Sync) did a readout, as I know the sensors are capable of transmitting it, but I never got around to finding out for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by vulrath:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by Mikito:
The car does not give a readout of what the tire pressure is? This is ridiculous if not.

My wife's 2018 civic does not either and it irritates me because we have an 08 plain jane Chevy express van which displays the tire pressures of all 4 tires.

I think my in-laws Lexus does not either.

Sorry for the rant.

Just depends on the car, I guess.
Our 2013 Flex only shows go/no-go & you have to manually check each tire.

My former 2016 F150 & now 2015 Mercedes have individual readouts.

My 2013 Mustang is the same as your Flex. I think the higher end packages (mine is a Base V6 with the performance package and the non-touchscreen Sync) did a readout, as I know the sensors are capable of transmitting it, but I never got around to finding out for sure.

Man some of you’d lose your shit if you had to drive my 99 Trooper or 98 Sonoma. They don’t tell you anything. You have to actually manually check for yourself every few weeks!

The 2008 we have does say if the pressure is low. That’s enough for me since I’m not going to ride around for long on low pressure and I’m going to use my pressure gauge anyway when I get out to fill them.

I’m off, wife is visiting her family near Detroit. I’ve been in high gear being productive.

I added tire checks on the two vehicles. I like a few PSI over the door jam.

As a person that had 3 GTI and now on my 3rd Tiguan. I understand.. Mine came on the other day. I think it was because I was taking people with me and my car was loaded. All 4 tires were under inflated I fixed it and they have all stayed..

At least once a year, sometimes twice, my spare sets off the low tire pressure light. Being a 4 Runner with the tire under the car, a bit of a pain.