Disabling TPMS

[Socal147]

Originally Posted by scoobydoo2

Anyone should be able to use a tire gauge.
If you wait for the TPMS to go off, then you are not checking your tire pressure enough. I check mine once every two or three gas fills.

Exactly. Thank You

[Looby]

Originally Posted by scoobydoo2

If you wait for the TPMS to go off, then you are not checking your tire
presure enough. I check mine once every two or three gas fills.

Every few gas fills doesn't help against slow-leak punctures.

TPMS is an extremely valuable early-warning system for cars
with no spare (Miata), cars designed to venture into remote
areas (OB), and cars with tires that, if not repaired promptly,
might require a $1000+ set-of-four replacement (OB, again).

BTW, I have no problem with an owner temporarily disabling
TPMS while aired-down, but discounting TPMS as useful only
to wimps is reminiscent of the "I can outstop ABS" braggings
of macho gearhead luddites.

.

[bradze]

subaru TPMS seem very sensitive compared to the TPMS on other cars. i don't think the TPMS ever went off in my evo, except when using track wheels, in the almost 3 years i owned it. the subarus TPMS light goes on if the tires are like 2 psi low, takes a lot more for other cars, well maybe just my experience...

[kpk02]

Unfortunately, we live in a world of lawyers. Whether an individual or "service provider", I wouldn't want to even take the chance of dealing with potential lawsuits or worse. Regardless of whether they are justified or not, you can be sure they would come if there's even the slighest chance that tire pressure played a role in an incident and the tpms was tampered with. Especially after the new legislation that took effect in 2012, I would bet that a dealer or any repair shop would refuse to work on the car if they found out that a safety system was disabled. Unless, of course, repairing it was part of the work to be done.

Although to be honest, TPMS isn't a problem. It's the particular system that Subaru chose to use that I don't like. The better systems out there that allow you to manage the sensors yourself and show you the exact pressure per tire would be great.

On a related note, I'm having some initially positive results with the ATEQ Quickset TPMS swapping device thing on my 2013 outback. It had no trouble reading the existing sensors programmed, so it gives me hope that it will be able to swap them when the time comes. The only hurdle now is that I need to know the sensor IDs on the summer wheels. Unless my tire shop can read them (or if they are on paperwork somewhere from when I bought them), I'll probably have to pay the dealer one last time to program them so I can grab them with this device.

[Socal147]

If we could program the TPMS ourselves this would be a non issue. The problem comes along when real life situations happen such as winter tires, airing down, ect. I do not want to keep paying for something that I feel comfortable adjusting or setting myself. Perhaps there is a code reader out there that can do this. Unknown to me but I would be willing to use it.

If you were only disabling for off road use, legalities would be minimized [if so concerned].

[reddoak]

Originally Posted by scoobydoo2

When I got the OB (2011) TPMS was not available on the Canadian model...don't know it it is now. IMHO it is a great thing but a royal PIA especially when it comes to swapping tires and rims for the winter. Glad I don't have to deal with that. Plus...anyone should be able to use a tire guage.

If you wait for the TPMS to go off, then you are not checking your tire presure enough. I check mine once every two or three gas fills.

That's good practice. I check my oil about that often too, just to be on the safe side. I have a tire gauge and a small cigarette lighter operated compressor in the car at all times, as my spare is full size, but deflated (mostly) to fit in the well. That said...

3 times on 3 different cars I've gotten use from the TPMS sensor system:

1. In my '08 STI, picked up a screw while on vacation up near "the Dragon" in NC. I checked tires the day before when gassing up. I would not have checked again. Light came on, rear drivers side tire was 5 PSI low. Nice to catch that before driving like an ass all day on it.
2. Wife's car, 09 Impreza 2.5 picked up a nail. She does not check tire pressures. Ever. She told me the "light thingy" was on on her dash, so I found it. Tire was about 10 PSI low.
3. '11 Outback, after an off roading excursion, I aired up the tires and the TMPS light went off after a short distance, as usual. The next morning, the light was on. All tires looked normal. Checked with a tire gauge and found 3 at 35 PSI and one just under 30. Inspected the tire and found a nail in the tread.

Note, on the 1st and 3rd times, I had checked the pressure with a gauge the day before the TPMS light off. I'm not going to put a gauge on my tires daily, and having a real time sensor that will alert when the pressure is low is better than finding out in 500 miles or so. If you don't understand the value of that, than more power to you! The light lighting up is annoying when off-road. And rotating a full size spare is a P.I.T.A. because I have to get the dealer to reprogram it, but it's worth it.

[AO River]

Originally Posted by Looby

Every few gas fills doesn't help against slow-leak punctures.

TPMS is an extremely valuable early-warning system for cars
with no spare (Miata), cars designed to venture into remote
areas (OB), and cars with tires that, if not promptly repaired,
might require a $1000+ set of four replacement (OB, again).

.

+1, I check my pressures regularly but on my last car with TPMS it tripped when I had a bolt stuck in one tire and overnight it had seriously dropped in pressure. Tires were low profile so it wasn't visibly noticieable, but I was glad to have the TPMS inform me.

Originally Posted by bradze

subaru TPMS seem very sensitive compared to the TPMS on other cars. i don't think the TPMS ever went off in my evo, except when using track wheels, in the almost 3 years i owned it. the subarus TPMS light goes on if the tires are like 2 psi low, takes a lot more for other cars, well maybe just my experience...

I would prefer a sensitive TPMS. In my situation mentioned above the pressure had dropped to ~24 PSI from the normal 33 PSI, and although I was glad to have been warned it would have been nicer a little sooner. If I had been driving at higher speeds or hard cornering, it could have been bad.

And to the OP - I don't have a problem if you choose to deactivate the TPMS for your needs. I'm surprised you're not more frustrated that you simply asked for a way to disable the TPMS and instead got a lot of unwanted legal advice lol. It's your car, do whatever the h.ell you want with it!

[Socal147]

When I had my jeep, I was active on a jeep forum. The discussions never went legal as we were more concerned about offloading. Perhaps the group here is just different. Ok with me, the jeep is gone now.

I own a CRV that had a TPMS activate. Did not bother me as this is strictly a road vehicle. Everything has a time and place I guess.

I actually challenged anybody to prove it is illegal. Burden of proof was not met but whatever.

[scoobydoo2]

Originally Posted by Looby

Every few gas fills doesn't help against slow-leak punctures.

TPMS is an extremely valuable early-warning system for cars
with no spare (Miata), cars designed to venture into remote
areas (OB), and cars with tires that, if not repaired promptly,
might require a $1000+ set-of-four replacement (OB, again).

BTW, I have no problem with an owner temporarily disabling
TPMS while aired-down, but discounting TPMS as useful only
to wimps is reminiscent of the "I can outstop ABS" braggings
of macho gearhead luddites.

.

...OMG....what ever did we do before the age of TPMS... Probably what I do now...a visual inspection as part of my daily walk around routine. Hmmm who else does that? Oh yah...pilots before every flight.

Make it part of your daily driving routine and you really don't need TPMS at all. Anyone can recognize when a tire is low on air. Having a tire gauge in the glovebox to confirm those suspicions just makes sense.

Not knocking TPMS but...okay I am...Wimp that I am, after 35+ years of driving, I would rather go with out it. But for others it is a great thing...to each his...or her...own.

[AO River]

^ Before the age of TPMS...there were probably more blowouts as a result of low tire pressure

Hats off to you for doing a visual check before every drive, but like I said above low pressure on low profile tires is difficult to identify (will not usually apply to OB, but other cars - yes). Also, it would be helpful to know during a 300 mile stretch of highway driving if you picked up a nail and your tires are seeping air.

I'm with you Scooby, nothing bothers me more than the oblivious driver (people whose rear view mirrors are askew drive me nuts - could it be more obvious that they don't use it?!). But I don't see the harm in TPMS, especially for someone like you who obviously pays attention to the details and never lets the pressure drop. When would you even ever trigger it!