So, I decided to blog on Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) which I find it very useful for a car owner. Well, not many car have this, to my knowledge, BMW has it but the feature is only a light indicator which will light up when the tyre pressure is low.
I have one install in my car, an accessories selling after market. The display shows information on Pressure & Temperature of my car's each tyre. I find having it is very useful, as just today itself, I was safe the hassle of having to change a punctual tyre or maybe worse still, damage my tyre sports rim.
I was driving home around 8pm+, suddenly I heard a knocking sound below my car. Then in less than a 10 sec, I heard my TPMS beeping. The display showed my back left tyre only left with 145 kgf only of air pressure (Normally, I pumped to 210 kgf according to my car factory recommendation).
Immediately I turned to a nearby petrol station. Once reached, eventhough is less than 2 minutes,
my tyre pressure has left with 47 kgf. I said to myself "shit!", is a serious punture.
I tried to pump the tyre pressure up, in order for me to have some air pressure to drive to a nearest tyre shop if there is still any "OPEN" at this point of time (is 8.45 pm). But, the pump not able to put in any air into the tyre. Again, I feel more anxious.
Then, a guy who has just pumped his motorbike told me, I got to get it repair and just point me to a shop just beside. Mind me, I was so engrossed on getting my tyre pump up, didnt really realise there is a tyre shop still open just beside the petrol station. So, I just drive my car slowly there, bearing in mind that my tyre is totally out of air and I dont want to damage my sports rim.
When the repair guy remove my tyre, I saw the tyre was totally puncture about a centimetre crack line. Really wonder what causes this damage. Bad luck !!! In my heart, I was hoping, the repair guy able to repair it. He put in the first "glue nail" (dont know what is actually call), and the soap water bubble still poping, then he put in another "glue nail', still bubbles popping. Then I thought to myself, like this I got to spend RM200 for another new tyre and the worst thing is my tyre is just 1 month+ old ! Luckily he didnt give up, he give another "glue nail", then he check the bubbles again, he smile to me and said , DONE !. I'm a bit skeptical on the repair success as the 3 "glue nail" was put into a single crack line. So, he assembled back my tyre and I paid him.
The only thing to do now is, I got my TPMS to monitor whether the repair has definitely stop the leakage or not. When the TPMS is running, I found he has pumped up to 255 kgf which is very high pressure but I don't bother to release the air as I want to monitor whether there is any more leakage or not. The distance from the shop till my home is less than 2 km, I monitored the pressure and is still at 255 kgf when I reached home. But I still need to monitor it tomorrow to be sure of the the sealing job.
So, you see, a TPMS installed in a car is really useful. Thanks to the TPMS, my tyre puncture problem
can be known earlier and able to avoid things like accident, rim or tyre damage or even miss an appointment due to last minute only found out the tyre is totally flat.
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Perhaps, the knocking sound already told u something is wrong. not sure TPMS is really necessary, how much it cost?
ReplyDeleteI only imagine the knocking sound may be due to a stone knock onto my car base. So, I would not check my car tyre even till I drove home. Well, the one I'm using cost me around RM400 (can't remember so well, got it for a few years).
DeleteTire pressure monitoring system sensors do not notify the driver of a tire leak until one out of the four tires is 25 percent below the recommended "cold" PSI. Cold refers to a tire that has not been used for over three hours.
ReplyDeleteI can set whatever pressure value I want to be alerted.
DeleteMeaning normally my tyre is pumped to 220 kPa, I set my alert to 180 kPa, so it will beep when it reached 180. So, no need to wait for 25% below cold PSI.