TPMS on the Kona

[Francois]

Living in Quebec, Canada, where by law I have to use winter tires from December to April, I am thinking of getting two sets of wheels for my Kona so I can alternate my set of my wheels twice a year from home myself rather than going to a garage to switch tires.

Does the Kona support 8 captors?

Does some programming or set-up need to be performed by a professional on every change of wheels or does the car somehow perform this on its own?


Just thought of a related question... Even there was only a single set of wheels and a single set of tires all year long.... We are still supposed to perform a rotation of the wheels every X thousand km or miles so that they wear out equally.

So if my physical wheel that was previously on the left-side in front of my car now ends up on the right-side in the rear of my car, will they be displayed in their old position on the Kona's dashboard? How does the Kona keep track of their position? Super-short radio waves with a precision of a few inches? Or does this have to be hardcode/programmed on each rotation?

 

[electriceddy]

Living in Quebec, Canada, where by law I have to use winter tires from December to April, I am thinking of getting two sets of wheels for my Kona so I can alternate my set of my wheels twice a year from home myself rather than going to a garage to switch tires.

Does the Kona support 8 captors?

Does some programming or set-up need to be performed by a professional on every change of wheels or does the car somehow perform this on its own?


Just thought of a related question... Even there was only a single set of wheels and a single set of tires all year long.... We are still supposed to perform a rotation of the wheels every X thousand km or miles so that they wear out equally.

So if my physical wheel that was previously on the left-side in front of my car now ends up on the right-side in the rear of my car, will they be displayed in their old position on the Kona's dashboard? How does the Kona keep track of their position? Super-short radio waves with a precision of a few inches? Or does this have to be hardcode/programmed on each rotation?

I would have to dig it out but I remember reading that there is a sensor in each wheel well to pick up the signals from the rim transmitters so no reprogramming required.

 

[Francois]

When you say "there is a sensor in each wheel well to pick up the signals from the rim transmitters,.... By wheel you are not referring to the actual wheel (rim plus tire) but to part of the car unto which you bolt on your wheel to, right? If that is where the signal is picked up from, then it would explain why the car still knows which tire is situated on which side of the car even if you rotate them since the place that you bolt your wheel to is not moving. Makes sense.

However , I thought that pressure sensing mecanism was in the valves , not in the rims.

 

[ericy]

When you say "there is a sensor in each wheel well to pick up the signals from the rim transmitters,.... By wheel you are not referring to the actual wheel (rim plus tire) but to part of the car unto which you bolt on your wheel to, right? If that is where the signal is picked up from, then it would explain why the car still knows which tire is situated on which side of the car even if you rotate them since the place that you bolt your wheel to is not moving. Makes sense.

However , I thought that pressure sensing mecanism was in the valves , not in the rims.

Valve stems, to be exact, but there would also need to be a nearby pickup of some sort that can read the signal from the TPMS sensor.

Some manufacturers have gone away from this and started leveraging info that they already have from the ABS system to measure differences in tire rotation rates to figure out when one of the tires is low. It saves them a bit of money, and for the consumer it is one less headache to deal with.

 

[hobbit]

Ah, the great TPMS struggle. I read quite a few of the early papers
from when they were trying to figure out if reading wheel speeds
would be good enough or if direct pressure/temp sensors would be
needed per wheel. Consensus eventually went with the valvestem-based
sensors, as they were more accurate and could give a direct, absolute
figure. Meanwhile, I came up with a hack to represent wheel speed
differences to a display in the Prius, but it definitely requires
human interpretation. Saved my bacon a couple of times with an
early warning of a leak, though...

The 4 Kona sensor receivers are right in the wheel wells close to where
the sensors are going around, behind the wheel-well plastic. From what
I understand no special "retraining" is necessary -- the pickups
should just read whichever sensor has the strongest signal in that
corner. I haven't tried letting one tire go soft and then swapping
wheels around, however... figured I'd try that when I go to rotate
the tires.

I've been running the 51 PSI Nexens at around 60, and think it's
hilarious/stupid that the TPMS display tops out at 51 instead of
just reading the pressure properly. [Before y'all jump on me over
that, understand that the hypermiler community has been running tires
well over sidewall pressure for years with no negative effects, and
enjoying better tire life as a result...]

_H*

 

[Francois]

Thanks Hobbit, I know understand all that I wanted to know about tpms.

However I am now puzzled about that hypermiler community. Lol

 

[electriceddy]

Thanks Hobbit, I know understand all that I wanted to know about tpms.

However I am now puzzled about that hypermiler community. Lol

Mostly necessary in Gen 1 leaf. It was fun to do but with the capacity of the Kona pack I hope not to have to worry about it for some time. (but you never know when in the outback)

 

[Francois]

Mostly necessary in Gen 1 leaf. It was fun to do but with the capacity of the Kona pack I hope not to have to worry about it for some time. (but you never know when in the outback)

Being able to run long stretches without having to recharge is also what attracted me to the Kona. But even though we'll have good range and despite electricity being cheaper than gasoline, squeezing the most out of the vehicule can be a fun thing, nearly a game even. I can see myself taking notes every night to see what autonomy I've achieved by tweaking the regen setting so X level that day and things of the kind.... Until I get over it and stop taking notes altogether.