My reaction exactly. Three years is a joke. How about 6?? My old ones are just now turning 3 and are occasionally starting with the low battery warning when it is cold. My car is 4.5 years old and still no warnings.
I didn't know I had sensors in my Xterra until I picked up a nail. They came in handy.
I bought it new in 07and just had the two rear sensors go out a week apart. The service department said that after six years they start going out. They're expensive to replace. My opinion is that if its a safety issue it should be good for the life of the vehicle.
I am not looking forward to replacing the two front sensors.
You can't read a tire gauge at 65 mph and a TPS is a early warning that something is wrong.
My F-150 is a 2008 model, that I bought in Nov. '07... still no TPMS battery issues, going on seven years. My 'Vette is a 2006, that I bought in August 2006. No TPMS battery issues, going on eight years. How can they last so long in cages, and not in bikes? Do other bike makes have similar 3-year life expectancy, or is it a Kawasaki issue?
I do not get it.
Not all systems use a sensor in each wheel. Some, such as my VW, use the antilock system to 'see' which tire has a lower air pressure as compared to the other tires. No maintenance required on these.How's that work? Different rotating speeds?
How's that work? Different rotating speeds?
I guessing the issue here is the occasional low battery warning when it's cold out, that goes away after a few miles? I can certainly see it being more of a nuisance if you doing an extended run in weather cold enough to keep the warning on... But I've never had to look at that warning for more than a couple minutes.
Right. The system uses the tone ring from the ABS system to compare the rotational speeds of each tire against the others. A tire with a lower pressure than the others will have a smaller diameter and the system picks up on that and alerts the driver. If all the tires are low, then you're on your own. This is one of the drawbacks of this system.
BTW - my $2 tire gauge has been trouble free.
I'm just sayin ...
Dave
Not all systems use a sensor in each wheel. Some, such as my VW, use the antilock system to 'see' which tire has a lower air pressure as compared to the other tires. No maintenance required on these.
The other is that it is not very precise or accurate.
And how far can you drive in a few minutes? That puts you further and further away from home on tires with unknown pressure. And it means you can't see anything else on the display without stopping and F'ing with the controls so you can instead be blinded by a red light.