Comments on: Underinflated tires, overinflated regulation

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:02:02 +0000

They ARE mandatory on all cars in 07.

By: martymc2@aool.com

martymc2@aool.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:47:13 +0000

Recently purchased 07 Toyota camry w/standard wheel tire pressure sensors. Had mag wheels installed at a large tire store and they broke one tire sensor. Couldn’t tell which one as they didn’t have the equipment. Told me to go to Toyota dealer, which I did. Long story short – the dealer found and replaced the broken sensor (part was missing).The sensor was $117.15 and labor to initialize the other sensors was $150.00. The 4 mag wheels cost about $20. more than repairing one (1) tire pressure sensor on a camry. Not a cheap system. Recommended solution from a master auto mechanic. Go to WallMart or somewhere & buy a set of air pressure external sensors for $4.87 thats right. Semper Fi, Marty. P.S. these not so cheap computer sensors will be mandatory on all cars in 09 I think.

By: Hawk

Hawk — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:50:45 +0000

How about just getting off you dead asses and checking the tire pressure yourself with a tire gauge. Or doesn’t anyone out there know how to read a tire pressure gauge anymore? One more thing on a vehicle that can break and cause more money to get fixed. Kinda like the “modern” 5 mph bumper requirements. Don’t work and cost a hell of a lot more to fix. I drove a ’46 Doge pickup for years and never had to replace the front or rear bumper because they actually worked, even up to 15 mph. I know, I used it to haul wood for years and have hit more than one tree in the back wooods. Oh, and the tires never gave me any problem. I checked them and adjusted the air pressure when needed.

By: Potential Threat

Potential Threat — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:37:25 +0000

You can have one right now that’s better than the idiot light we’ll probably end up with:

I don’t think we’d have seen TPM on cars earlier because the market demand isn’t really there for it. The automakers aren’t going to expend effort on something like that when they can put in DVD players to distract other drivers…

By: geri

geri — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:25:51 +0000

I think what this is pointing out is not that this would be a useless thing to have but that, because of government interference, we could have had it much sooner and it would have been better built.

I, myself, think that it’s stupid that the government thinks they have to act like a nanny for all of us and tell us what and when to do things. I am, quite frankly, getting sick and tired of it.

Yes, underinflated tires can and do cause deaths. Yes, we should check our tire pressure. (My dad always taught me to keep a guage in my glove compartment and the signs of tires that were too low) but the majority, it seems, are doing this because the death toll from underinflated tires is very low compared to the number of drivers on the road.

My heart goes out to those who have lost family members like this but, seriously, if I dont keep an eye on my brakes, for instance, and they fail and I get killed in a wreck than it’s my own damn fault. And I dont expect the the government to jump up and assume everyone else doesnt have the sense to replace their brakes when they need it.

By: Potential Threat

Potential Threat — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:25:19 +0000

The tire pressure values for most cars are *not* ranges, and on many you’ll find the recommended values listed on a decal inside the driver’s door, glove box or trunk lid.

A lot of people replace their tires and then overinflate them to the maximum pressure listed on the sidewall. That causes just as many problems as underinflation. With a few rare exceptions, replacement tires should be inflated to the pressure specified by the car manufacturer.

I could live with having TPM in cars, because it makes something I do regularly a bit easier. The technology is cheap; we might as well benefit from it. As a motorcyclist, having a car blow a tire and come skating into my line is one of a long list of things that could do me in out there, and the average driver is far less diligent about checking tires than the average biker. (There are TPM systems for motorcycles, and I will very likely install one on my next tire change. Pressure on two wheels is a lot more critical than it is on four.)

I’m a little puzzled about why they picked 25%, though. My car tires are spec’d to be inflated to 30 PSI. 75% of that is 22.5 PSI, which is far lower than I’d be caught dead with them on the road. 10-15% would be a much more reasonable figure IMHO.

–Mark

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:09:25 +0000

How about pulling that stupid “wear your seatbelt” warning form the visor and requiring that the tire pressure values be placed there instead. Certainly a lot more useful than buried in your users manual. (where is your users manual)

By: mdf

mdf — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:35:06 +0000

I don’t remember ABS, but I do remember air-bags. Government mandated, everyone happy … until people who otherwise would have survived the accident were being killed by the airbag itself. Now there are “advanced” air-bags which try and figure out if it is ok to inflate, or inflate without as much force. So now there will be people who would die in the accident who might actually saved by the airbag! No doubt this will converge to the point where the airbag will have no effect whatsoever on mortality — at least on those who have a smidgen of a brain and wear a seatbelt — but will be mandatory anyways.

Just don’t have anything in your mouth. And too bad about your ringing ears and the burns on your face. Smile! The government is protecting you!

All of this illustrates the principle mechanism of “unintended consequences”: lowering the mean at the expense of the variance.

By: velojym

velojym — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 07:37:54 +0000

Naturally, when government mandates end up killing folks,
nobody in said government is held responsible for the deaths.
On the other hand, the companies who have to scramble to meet those gov’t ‘standards’ are then taken to court by the victim’s family.

Remember antilock brakes in the late ’70s?