Tire Pressure Monitors Required on 2006 Models

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I forgot to post this when I saw it last month.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/nhtsa_tire_pressure.html

April 8, 2005

All passenger cars must have tire pressure monitoring systems beginning with the 2006 model year according to a new motor vehicle safety standard made final yesterday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA.)
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This is NHTSA's second attempt to follow Congress' instructions. Its first rule relied on "indirect" tire monitors which would have operated off the antilock braking system, as opposed to the current rule, which requires sensors attached to each wheel.

Public Citizen sued NHTSA over the first rule, saying the indirect monitors were ineffective. A federal appeals court in New York agreed and threw out NHTSA's regulation.


Public citizen = Busybody group formed by Ralph Nader.

So thanks to these "helpful individuals", I get to pay more for my next car for something I don't want and will get to pay even more if I want to put aftermarket wheels on the vehicle.

Please save me from people trying to help me. I can't afford it and don't need the extra work..
 
The government is our friend it is here to help us be happy. ....Some thing I have to pay for that I don't want like airbags and antilock brakes and feul injection.
 
You have to love that! People are too stupid or lazy to check the tire pressure so Big Daddy gets involved! I'm too stupid to provide for my retirement so I have to put money into Social Security and get crappy returns on it. If I invested money in a fund that performed like SS - well I wouldn't invest in a fund that performed like SS!
 
Outisde of all the grumbling, this is a bad deal for the aftermarket wheel people. In it's simplest form it could amount to just another hole in the wheel to accept the pressure transmitter. Somewhow I don't think it's going to be that simple...
 
quote:

Originally posted by BigDenCCMD:
You have to love that! People are too stupid or lazy to check the tire pressure so Big Daddy gets involved! I'm too stupid to provide for my retirement so I have to put money into Social Security and get crappy returns on it. If I invested money in a fund that performed like SS - well I wouldn't invest in a fund that performed like SS!

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The markets can crash, and they are not insured by the GOVT. The GOVT can even influence the market crashing in the 1st place. 1/2 secure and 1/2 insecure may be the way to go...If the markets do crash, you don't lose everything.
 
It is funny that ABS that does a job most drivers can't isn't required, but air bags, little use to somebody with their seat belt fastened, are. The worst under inflation problems can be seen just walking up to the car. The rest are easily checked with an inexpensive gage. Now I am going top have to pay for the monitors too. At least they shouldn't kill women and children like the air bags.
 
Don't forget that OBD-II doesn't make the air any cleaner than a properly functioning OBD-I vehicle with the same powertrain and emissions targets-- minus around a dozen redundant sensors.

I wouldn't mind the OBD-II so much, except automakers are allowed to encrypt much of their datastream, requiring proprietary readers. Jeez, add bluetooth or 802.11 so when its in your driveway you can securely log in wirelessly from your house or palm pilot and see what's up.
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PS, wife rented a suburban for work that had a malfunctioning tire pressure monitor. And the thing only had ~15k miles on it. Imagine your tire having adequate air but failing a state inspection for a malfunctioning tire pressure system and having your vehicle be illegal to drive. Is probably in the future.
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quote:

Originally posted by labman:
It is funny that ABS that does a job most drivers can't isn't required, but air bags, little use to somebody with their seat belt fastened, are. The worst under inflation problems can be seen just walking up to the car. The rest are easily checked with an inexpensive gage. Now I am going top have to pay for the monitors too. At least they shouldn't kill women and children like the air bags.

Exactly. An expensive mandated solution for the problems of .000001% of the driving public. To go along with the "safety features" that kill some occupants and cost all of them lots of money in even minor crashes. While safety features that actually work are optional or unavailable on some models...
 
I wonder if some people in office/else where are running out of things to do, thus coming up with stuff like this to provide an excuse for their continued employment. Whose interests, really?

With the increasing workforce and ever increasing automation, I bet we'll have to deal with more of this kind of "business" in the future.
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don't forget that in many cases ABS can cause the stopping distance to be longer due to the brake modulation (instead of steady pressure/pumping).

ABS was designed to keep idiots from removing themselves from the gene pool "you mean i shouldn't slam on my brakes in a corner?" I loathe when i have a nice smooth line going, cruising along @ the speed limit, and some ******* in front of me has to slam on his brakes in the middle of every corner. GRRR

Without ABS, traction control, auto-drive (haha) and other tools, you'd eliminate traffic problems entirely, because 80% of the people out there wouldn't be able to get their cars down the road.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Russell:
Steve S.
What is wrong with ABS? great safety feature. I also like traction control. Of course, I cannot fix either one. I just believe they make a much safer daily driver.

Now I am a bit concerned that with as many electronics we have in cars now, they will be worthless when they go out of warrenty! Too expensive to fix or who can fix them. Perhaps this is why I like "not so old-older cars" that can be worked on somewhat by an individual.


I am glad you believe it.
 
Steve S.
What is wrong with ABS? great safety feature. I also like traction control. Of course, I cannot fix either one. I just believe they make a much safer daily driver.

Now I am a bit concerned that with as many electronics we have in cars now, they will be worthless when they go out of warrenty! Too expensive to fix or who can fix them. Perhaps this is why I like "not so old-older cars" that can be worked on somewhat by an individual.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Russell:
Steve S.
What is wrong with ABS? great safety feature. I also like traction control. Of course, I cannot fix either one. I just believe they make a much safer daily driver.


Nothing is wrong with ABS. I like ABS. It's the things that the government mandates by law that keep jacking prices up. Now if the consumers demand that a car company have these "features" as standard features or they won't buy their cars, then that's another scenario.
 
The thing that is wrong with ABS, tire pressure monitors, and many other features is they make a car more expensive to purchase, more expensive to fix when these features go bad, and make regular maintenance that much more difficult when you have to get around all the 'spaghetti' in the car. A lot of this technology has become self-serving for the car itself. For goodness sakes, I'm only trying to get from point A to point B.

Plus, I don't like these features rammed down my throat because some moron doesn't drive safely or can't maintain her car.

I also notice that these people who have enhanced safety features now drive more aggressively, as though they are invincible. People didn't drive that way years' back. The best safety feature for these people would be a javelin sticking out from the dash pointed at them... then we'll see how agressively they drive!
 
quote:

Originally posted by slugsgomoo:
snip.... loathe when i have a nice smooth line going, cruising along @ the speed limit, and some ******* in front of me has to slam on his brakes in the middle of every corner. GRRR


Well maybe if you left a little space between you, you wouldn't have the problem.
 
How much in expense will the monitors add? Any numbers beyond opinion?

I can't remember a time when any survey showed less than 75% of cars had improperly inflated tires. And, yes, it does make a difference in handling and safe braking.

Just yesterday I was northbound out of Big D (almost to the point where the speed limit finally raised to 70 mph due to the lessening of metro traffic giving way to long-distance traffic) and "we" hit a squall line of 50 mph winds and rain wherein visibility was reduced to 30-40 travel (if that) for several miles. Compounding this was construction that narrowed us to one lane (north and south) inside of concrete barriers.

Just as we left the "narrows" an old fool in an early 90's GM intermediate spun out onto the grass shoulder. Old ****, disabled (like me) with crappy tires (all different no name brands) and the three I could see with improper wear patterns. AND, low pressure (way low) on at least one.

Granted, safety devices don't always work out (ABS doesn't seem to have tilted the statistics much in its favor), but not trying a "cheap" one seems counter-productive.

The only problem I "see" with monitors is, if one is to use them effectively, one needs an adequate and easily available source of pressurized air. It ain't like thirty-five years ago when service stations were on every corner (since steadily driven out of business by the reformed Standard Oil/Federal Government collusion); and what few sources there are require money to use. Anyone have anything good to say about water-filled lines, badly-maintained hoses and short filling times?

Few, if any, motorists understand that tires need cold pressure checks and that one has to account for this with hot tires to get proper filling.

It'll be like seatbelt interlocks: Everybody will hate them (way too much trouble to get the tires "right" to get the dash light to go off), and they'll not last long if required.

One would have to have corresponding legislation to see that the states could rectify registered car populations with publicly-available pressurized air sources within geographic areas for the monitors to have a reasonable chance to affect safety statistics.

Of course, on-board air supplies and filling capability is not beyond reach. But tires would have to last the life of the vehicle (say, 150m miles) before that worked.

In the meantime, trying to imagine a bunch of women, dressed for work, in hot weather, considering the you-always-get-dirty-around-the-tires-and-air-hose is pretty funny. Throw in hoses too short, return springs waay too strong, inadequate manuevering space, etc; well, it brings a certain smile.

DESPITE the obvious safety benefits. Exactly what I wanted to ask that old moron yesterday after he spun out.

If they want to make tires (thus, cars) "safer" then require a minimum as to hydroplane resistance for passenger vehicles; new and worn. Start from the source, perhaps.

And however "wrong-headed" the idea (likely backed by a statistical analysis, but, guessing, without "real life" corrections), arguing that my poverishingly small expense outweighs any public benefit is disgusting from the get go.
 
I just KNOW that tire pressure monitors will make drivers more negligible. Judging by the number of cars with visually notceable improperly inflated tires on the road, many drivers will rely soely on the tire pressure monitoring system. That is totally idiotic. I check my tires frequently visually, and I check tire pressure about once every two weeks, or more often if I drive much. I have repeatedly found a nail or screw stuck in one of my tires during my routine inspections, and I have not been left stranded with a suddenly flat tire in years! A tire pressure monitoring system won't do squat if you lose tire pressure rapidly, or catastrophically -- nothing at all. Checking tires eyes and hands-on is important. Not only do you increase the chance of catching a nail in time, but you will also notice abnormal wear.

When should a tire pressure monitoring system be mandatory? Run-flat tires require it of course, because the driver won't feel the loss of pressure due to the stiff sidewalls. Trucks should have them, especially the ones that have more than 4 wheels. Anybody who drives long distances at high speeds should consider a tire pressure monitoring system. A tire pressure system must be advertised as being SUPPLEMENTAL and not as being a replacement for common sense -- aka checking your "shoes" on a regular basis.

For most people and their commuter cars, a tire pressure monitoring system will lead to more neglect and increased reliance on technology. Whether a tire pressure system makes sense statistically speaking, I simply do not know. How many people have accidents because their tires are improperly inflated? How many people will have accidents because they trust a tire pressure monitoring system? The numbers will show eventually, I guess.
 
quote:

Originally posted by labman:

quote:

Originally posted by slugsgomoo:
snip.... loathe when i have a nice smooth line going, cruising along @ the speed limit, and some ******* in front of me has to slam on his brakes in the middle of every corner. GRRR


Well maybe if you left a little space between you, you wouldn't have the problem.


I was going to respond to your post, but i realized that since you didn't actually read the last one, why bother.

Here's the short of it:

Following distance isn't the problem here. The problem is that braking in corners upsets the balance of the vehicle making it less safe. That moron up in front is endangering ME and my passengers because he doesn't have 2 clues about how to drive.

[ May 26, 2005, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: slugsgomoo ]
 
Oh yeah, for some reason a large percentage of drivers do not know that they are supposed to decelerate before a (substantial) curve and accelerate out of it for improved roadholding. I hate it when some incompetent driver coasts in 4th gear into a curve, often braking all the way, then lugs his 5 series out of the curve. Driving school should be mandatory before one can get a license.

[ May 26, 2005, 03:57 PM: Message edited by: moribundman ]
 
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