Tyre Pressure Monitors

My daughter asked to be shown how to change a wheel ....and part of the reason I asked if her 'new' car came with some kind of spare.

‘Some kind of spare’ is about right! I didn’t get one with my Leon. Just a tube of gunk to inject into a punctured tyre. It’s just not good enough. A spare tyre should always be available and not one of these ‘get you home’ tyres either. 

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We have friends, not caravan people, who bought a new Volvo convertible a few years back. when they ordered it they opted for higher spec (Bling) wheels from the options list. the car didn't have a spare just a gunk & pump kit. 

One year when driving to their holiday home in far flung France  they had a tyre blow out, so beyond repair. They had to stay in a remote French village for 2 nights while the local garage had a tyre couriered from the UK as they was nothing available that would fit in that part of Europe.

 

Well all I can say is when you buy a car, if it hasn't got a spare (just the repair kit) then the onus is on you as your the one that has to cope with the situation. The Jeep Cherokee KL that i bought had the repair kit but said to dealer, no spare no deal, they quickly had one in there. The grand cherokee comes with a full size spare.

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Thanks for the last 2 pages of chat.

Back to the original question. Tyre Pressure Monitors are they a Must have or a Nice to have.

well for me now they are here and I've got one I wouldn't go back to not having them, bit like ABS, autonomous cruise control, and autonomous emergency braking, traction control...

They do not replace good practice and maintenance,good driving but helps when things go wrong.

I’ve just had the misfortune of finding that I couldn’t get three of my external tyrepal sensors off. Just had to go to my local true centre to have them cut off and new valves fitted. I’m quite shocked at it as I regularly take them off to swop my wheels from back to front and to increase pressures for towing. In four years this is the first time it’s happened. Tyrefitter told me it’s very commonplace with external after market sensors. Apparently, most times it’s dissimilar metals between the sensor and valve stem. 

Not sure what I want to do about replacements. Either more external sensors or try and get internal ones like fitted to the caravan. Only thing is, the internal ones tend to lose the signal after a few hours driving and I have to reset or the bleeping drives me mad.

Based on my experience, I would now say definitely 'must have'.  Some years ago, we were taking our 3.5m dinghy and outboard on holiday with us to Dartmouth, using a trailer borrowed from the marina.  Happily travelling down the M5 at 60 mph in our Discovery when I noticed the passenger in an overtaking car waving at us frantically.  Pulled over onto the hard shoulder to find that one tyre had blown and was completely shredded and the wheel was damaged beyond repair. Prior to being waved at, I was completely unaware that anything was wrong. I admit that it would have probably been more noticeable with a caravan, but the consequences (and damage) could be even more dramatic.

First thing I did when we got our new van three months ago was to fit TPMS and as per my earlier post, it has already more than paid for itself.

Since the technology is there and the cost is reasonable, to me, it's daft not to use it.