Tire pressure monitor

From my understanding, the TPM system does not show PSI nor does it tell you which tire needs inflation. The system just warns if one of the four tires has less than the threshold of PSI, which I believe is under 30 PSI. Someone can refine this explanation.
 
Nemesis said:
From my understanding, the TPM system does not show PSI nor does it tell you which tire needs inflation.
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It does seem like they cheaped out a little here - our 2006 Ridgeline shows which tire(s) is/are the culprit.
 
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Was informed by mech at dealership that the ABS system checks if there is a tire lower in PSI than others.
There is no direct read of PSI.
 
Unfortunately there is no read out of individual tire pressures and the Clarity doesn’t even have a way to check pressure. The low tire “idiot” light is not very accurate or useful IMHO, because it just measures differences in tire rotational speeds to deduce that one or more tires have different pressure. I found that this system doesn’t respond quick enough and will let you drive with one or more tires at low enough pressure to reduce the low rolling resistance feature of the OEM Michelins and affect your mpg(e). And to add insult to injury, it doesn’t even tell you which tire or tires are low. By the time mine came on after the first change to cold weather, 3 tires were 4 to 6 psi low. Now I check every month (well, at least every 2 months).
I wouldn’t depend on it al all.

I did notice a small but measurable increase in mpg(e) after inflating all to 37 psi (36 is recommended).

I assume Honda choose this system for cost reasons. Software being cheaper than 4 tire pressure sensors and receiver and digital read out display. IDK, maybe it didn’t play well with the wheel resonators or the slime in the tire pump kit? For whatever reason, we’re stuck with it unless you buy the aftermarlet system that some have. The only good thing I can say about it is that years down the road, I won’t have to replace the sensor or battery which I had to do at year 9 on the CRV and was around $100.
See p 425-8 in the manual for more info.
 
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The lack of individual psi and low pressure warnings in the Clarity is one of the biggest disappointments in the car for me. I assumed it would have that capability. I did get a warning indication on the Clarity when one of the tires developed a slow leak due to a nail and it had dropped down to 30 psi. That is pretty comparable to the warnings from TPMS sensors on my older car, which tended to trigger at about 28 psi.

As KentuckyKen said, at least we won't be spending a bunch to replace the TPMS sensors a few years down the road. They were surprisingly expensive for my old Odyssey. Sadly, I had to replace all four within 6 months of my trade-in to the Clarity.
 
Although the system is terrible, I love it because it means I don't have to buy wheel sensors (not so good if you want to know PSI). Wheel sets are about $200 cheaper accordingly and sensors won't fail after several years needing replacement. Pros and cons. It is odd that at this price level they left it out, but I think they were trying to cut costs where people wouldn't notice.
 
Just a note, even though it's the ABS-based TPMS, Honda could still show a more detailed value.
Since when the tires are all "calibrated", they estimate the possible delta in air pressure which triggers the light.
They simply choose not to show the delta that triggered the light.

In general Honda doesn't like to show detailed information for drivers for some odd reason.... Not even for driving/breaking efficiency like Tesla, Ford, and Chevy do.
 
KentuckyKen said:
it just measures differences in tire rotational speeds to deduce that one or more tires have different pressure.
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So in other words it is effectively just monitoring the shape of the tire, then calculating the estimated PSI from that. In another thread it was brought up that runflat tires might not trigger the warning since they maintain their shape or close to it even when the PSI has dropped. Another reason to get an external system.

CreacentMike said:
I bought the Vesafe and it seems to be quite accurate and reliable.
https://www.amazon.ca/Universal-Wir...&qid=1546017203&sr=8-19&keywords=tpms+systems
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I might get one of those but instead of trying to figure out where to mount the display unit in the car I'm thinking about keeping it in the garage mounted somewhere easy enough to glance at when I walk out to the car, assuming the range is adequate enough. Or maybe it's not good to power the display unit 24/7 so I could easily rig up a power switch for it since it seems to be USB powered. Is that better than having tire pressure in front of you at all times while driving? No, but it's a lot better than having to go around to each tire with a tire gauge which I currently do, but not nearly often enough. But if I had a nice little electronic thingy in the garage that will give me a near instantaneous tire pressure readings I would probably look at it almost every day. I would though bring it with me on long trips.
 
I’m not even convinced it calculates pressure from rotational speed since you can reset it at any tire pressure.
 
I don’t see how that precludes it from working by measuring rotational speed. When you calibrate it, it takes the existing circumference/rotational speed as a baseline. If that changes, it means a tire has changed in diameter and hence, probably lost pressure.

As an aside, a few weeks ago it worked as designed - I knew I had a problem long before it became visually obvious. The leak was due to an embedded nail, since plugged.
 
2002 said:
I might get one of those but instead of trying to figure out where to mount the display unit in the car I'm thinking about keeping it in the garage mounted somewhere easy enough to glance at when I walk out to the car, assuming the range is adequate enough. Or maybe it's not good to power the display unit 24/7 so I could easily rig up a power switch for it since it seems to be USB powered.
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I have one. It comes with a non skid pad and I keep it on the wood just above the center display. Optionally you could keep it in the console. The unit works well,
 
Funny thing is, I am delighted with the clarity’s TPMS. For the last 30 years I’ve driven cars with no tmps at all, other than the thumpeta thumpeta noise & wheel pulling when I get a flat. The in-tire TPMS, when I did encounter them, seemed to offer false alerts at a rate 100 times the real alerts, so I don’t miss them. Maybe they’re better now.


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I put mine at the back of the center console. Mounted vertically with two-sided tape it leaves space to the side for the long cable it came with. It's plugged into the lighter socket at the back of the console. Sorry about the blur.

TPMS location.webp
 
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