Tire notification rant
 

I am pretty upset right now,

I dislike that our Z's cannot tell us what tire has less air. Today I woke up got ready for work and got in the car on my way to work the Dumb air notification light comes on and I stop to see what is going on. I did not noticed any of the tires to be low on air. I just cant understand why they would not choose to not show the air pressure for each tire. For precaution I turned around went back home and took my jeep.

Sorry just ranting because I had to turn around and go back home.

They also don't report when the tires pressure is too high. When I first picked up the car, I promptly warmed up the tires having fun with the new car, and the rear driver side tire bubbled like a football. I then drove my brand new Z back to the dealer on the spare :ugh2:

I agree, but apparently the way it blinks will tell you what tire is the one that is low. I never bothered to figure that out though.

That would be a nice feature but you will need to check each tire with a gauge.

Understandable point. After the winter, my light came on because my passenger rear tire was low. But I had to mess with all 4 to figure it out. Time consuming and annoying :shakes head:


.......still love my car though :icon17:

Put a tire gauge to it. If you can pump gas you can check your pressure. Sounds like straight up laziness.

You expect OP to actually have to bend down.. ******** I say.. There outta be a law.

IIRC, there was already discussion about why they went from the PSI gauge from the 350Z to simply an indicator for the 370Z. The sensors would vary with temperature and raised false alarm. Wouldn't you go nuts constantly monitoring PSI on each tire when it is off by 1-2 PSI? Nissan would probably get tons of calls on this.

i remember reading a few years back that nissan got sick of customers coming into the service shops because each tire wasnt reading the exact same tire pressure when they used to show the number. (ie 350z) even though the tires were at a safe level they were not exact and people flipped out.

dont shoot the messenger on this one, just something i read.

oops, almost the same thing DIG said.... :P

I'm confused. Don't we all check our tire pressures every few days when we check our fluids, or am I the wierd one?

It is not about being lazy, its convenience.

Not when you have a maintenance free battery or maintenance free tires that came with fresh air installed. :p

:ugh:

Check every few days? I'm not that anal about it.

Maybe once a year - though they check it all when I have my oil changed. -- I don't even do that myself. :icon17:

Wow. I guess I am the wierd one. I check the oil/coolant/tire pressure every two or three days. Takes about 5 minutes. Tread depth gauge every couple of tanks of fuel.

I'm too lazy. I get home and just want to sit down, not stand in a 110 degree garage and do that stuff. :icon17:

I feel you. That's why my garage has 2 air conditioners.

I check oil/coolant/brake/clutch levels every time I fill up with gas (~2 weeks). It doesn't waste my time because I do it while the gas is pumping. I check tire pressure when they look low or before a cruise or out of town trip. I keep tabs on the tread depth, but I don't specifically check it regularly (I wear out rears every 6-8 months - I replace the fronts with every other rear change). I get an alignment about every quarter, so that helps me stay on top of it, too.

:bowrofl: Stop it!

You fooled me the first time. Not this time!

:icon18: :tup:

btw, im just kidding, op. :D

I check my tires when the gauge turns on. Takes a total of like 15 minutes to drive to the air machine, pull out the pressure gauge i keep in the glove compartment, check all 4 tires to find the culprit, fill the tire and get back to work.

Pure and utter laziness if this is too much work for you to do.

Oh and yes I check my fluids 3 times a week and before going on a cruise. It's a vehicle. A machine. If you don't keep it up it will break down and then you will come on here crying about how you don't know whats wrong.

If 1 tire is low, then they are all probably low, unless you have one tire that is leaking air, due to damage.

I found that cars will actually loose about 10 psi per tire over about a 2 month period , if not checked weekly.

For Christ sake, talk about first world problems.

gsxr- that depends on ambient temp too. 1psi change per 10F ambient temp change.

This.

My tires came filled with nitrogen, and I've only had to add ~10psi total over the last 18 months. It gets topped off with regular air, though, so I'd expect that to increase as the percentage of nitrogen goes down. That's ok since the air hose for my compressor is hanging from the ceiling 3 feet from the car.

i prob check my tire pressure about twice a month. oil level every 1500 miles or so. clutch and brake fluid get checked during the oil level check. and im always looking under my car at my tire wear. only cuz i need an alignment. :/

Guys, you own a high performance sports car. You need to have a quality tire gauge in your glovebox and bother to check the tires every couple of weeks, and also do a visual inspection for nails or screws that seem to have an uncanny ability to get oriented point up and puncture the tires. And also check your oil and other fluids frequently, and check the pressure in your spare every 2-3 months as it needs to be at 60 PSI to be safe and will slowly lose pressure over time.
A few weeks ago just as I was about to get on the freeway, the TPS went off. I pulled over, got out my gauge, did a quick walk around and sure enough found a phillips head screw in the left front tire. It had already lost almost 10 lbs. Luckily I was close to a gas station, inflated the tire back up and went to Discount Tires for a patch job right away. It would not have been pleasant to change the tire on the freeway shoulder although I am completely prepared for such an emergency.
Take the responsibility of owning and maintaining your Z seriously or turn in your man card.

Once again for good measure. This often gets forgotten, and it would really blow to have a tire issue and find that your spare is flat too.

After reading this thread, I guess I should put "check tires" on the weekend to-do list. They look fine to me, but it has been about 6 months since I actually put a gauge on them.

At least I know they have tread on them and am not riding around on slicks.

Good call. Don't forget to pick up a tread depth gauge as well.

This is one of those double edged sword issues. I had an electronic tire specific psi gauge in a Z06, and it absolutely drove me nuts that it seldom matched my tire pressure gauge readings. Also, from time to time, one would show "low tire pressure warning" and the pressure would be fine. We will seldom have our cake and eat it too. You just have to get out and check the pressures weekly. Not a big deal, and part of the ownership responsibility on a performance car.

Tire pressure info is stored in the BCM (ECM?). It would be very easy for Nissan to display the info but, as stated earlier, dealers would probably be swamped with false alarms. I don't see tire pressure listed as one of the standard PIDs but tuning (or other CAN/OBD) software may be able to access it.

oh boy.....talk about dejavu. Not much of a story, but I have to share.

I was filling up gas yesterday and hear this guy honking his horn and signaling to me like he was in trouble. I walk over and it's a guy in the passenger seat, about 55-65 years old, and ask if I could help him. I'm thinking he needs directions to the hospital close by or something crazy.........nope......I kid you not....his low tire pressure light was on.... left front tire to be exact. I look down and it looks a bit deflated. I tell him "there is an air compressor about 20 feet from you, just put a quarter in." He looks at me confused and asked if I could do it.....in which I reply "I don't work here." I tell him he might have a nail or something and should just fill it with more air until he can get to a shop. He ask if I can take a look at the tire again and see if there really is a nail. I take a quick look and don't see anything. I tell him again to just fill his tire with air.....He says, it can't be a flat, he just had his oil changed a two weeks ago. I just walk away and let the gas attendant do it. He goes to the attendant and gives him the same speech. The attendant shakes his head at me and smiles as I pull out of the gas station. I see him in my rear view mirror putting a quarter in the machine and putting air in the tire.

How a grown a$$ man has gone through decades of life without knowing how to put air in a tire is beyond me. I just couldn't believe it happened a few hours after reading this silly thread.

Wow. That's why TPMS is mandatory now. People like that wouldn't notice until they had a blowout and killed themselves.

Well I got home yesterday after a long day of work and checked my tires with my gauge. Found that my left passenger tire was missing air and saw a nice nail on it. I will be taking it the tire to get patched up today.

missing air means there was 0 psi? :icon14: