Tell Me If I’m Wrong, But I Think It’s Easy To Tell Whether Or Not You’ve Got A TPMS With Battery Powered Transmitters Inside The Tires Or A System That Uses Speed Sensors, Instead.
I own cars sitting in my driveway that have both different types.
I believe that if you’ve got in-the-tire sensors then you’ll have “low tire pressure” alert and a way to display individual tire pressures.
If you’ve got speed sensor activated TPMS then all you get is the “low tire pressure” alert. You only know that one tire’s pressure is significantly different than the others.
I know there are other varitions on this theme with some European cars, etcetera, but basically that’s it, eh ?
Owners’ manuals should provide some indication, but too often they simply say “see your dealer”.
But the service department should be able to tell by looking up your VIN number.
not all cars with the sensors display individual tire pressures. I know for a fact that a lot of GM and Ford vehicles have TPMS that doesn’t display individual tire pressures.
@db4690, " not all cars with the sensors display individual tire pressures. I know for a fact that a lot of GM and Ford vehicles have TPMS that doesn’t display individual tire pressures. "
Even with the tire sensors, eh ?
I’ve got one GM vehicle with TPMS and no individual tire pressure display, but no tire sensors.
4 of my cars have TPMS and pressure display, but have tire sensors. All have ABS.
I guess if a vehicle doesn’t have ABS then the wheel speed sensors aren’t there to utilize. 5 of my cars have the &^%* ABS (I’m not a fan), so I wasn’t thinking about that. Thanks. CSA
It’s all getting even more complicated (more variations) with the stability control systems. A car could easily have wheel speed sensors for its stability control system and have pressure transmitters for its TPMS, yet not have ABS. I don’t know of one specifically, but stability control systems and TPMS are required, and to the best of my knowledge ABS isn’t.
Stability control uses the ABS components (wheel speed sensors, ABS pump, etc.) along with yaw rate sensors, steering angle sensor, control module, etc. to do its thing.
@db4690
"Stability control is impossible without ABS"
Exactly. Not only that, but all the basic components are intact with it, making stability, traction control, electronic limited slip and all those other fancy names, mostly add on’s to an existing system with very little if any more hardware.
ABS was mandated long (relative term) before stability control was. This crappolla actually works (when it works right). How well it works is dependent upon proper inflation as much as anything else. A severely under inflated tire can make these systems much less effective. So they are ALL (TPMS included) tied together. You don’t like this stuff ? Wait till cars start coming with steering by wire…that’s another scary thought…maybe the computer will drive you home if you’ve had too many “schnapps”.
Remember when automatics, air conditioning, cruise control and stereos were too much “crap” ? We got use to it all… @UC Do you have a choice with some of these items ?
While stability control uses both the ABS system and its wheel speed sensors as a control element and signal inputs (respectively), it’s actually somewhat different in that it detects not only loss of traction in one wheel upon braking, but also loss of traction on acceleration as well as yaw occurance, and it has the abililty to apply individual brakes, whereas ABS only detects loss of traction during braking and can only interfere with (pulsate) a wheel’s brake application. ABS cannot detect loss of tracction on acceleration, cannot detect the beginning of a spinout (yaw), cannot apply brakes, and has no inputs as to the coordination of the car’s front and back end.
Having said that, I suppose that since wheel speeds and the abillity to interfere with individual brakes when applied are a core element of a stability control system, I accept that having a stability control system without also having ABS isn’t possible. I didn’t really think my post through well.
I personally think ABS is highly overrated, having experienced its weak points. I don’t personally like its intereference with the brakle application and its resultant lengthened stopping distances on sheer ice or rippled surfaces. I’m not an advocate of other such systems such as stability control either. IMHO they can give the driver a false sense of security that actually encourages driving too fast for conditions. These systems should IMHO be offered as options, but not mandated.