How technology forges ahead, leaving most of us behind…
TPMS…..?
The introduction of compulsory TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems ) was introduced in 2012 and now all vehicles sold in Europe will have TPMS fitted as from 1st November 2014. Yes that is next month.
So are we ready for these changes in our new vehicle range or are we just going to wait till it happens. Yes all vehicles sold in Europe less than 3.5 ton will have to be fitted with these systems.
Okay you are saying that it would not affect us as we are not a tyre shop. Wrong these little sensors fitted in each wheel only has a battery life span of 5 to 10 years so sooner or later your customer will have to have these little guys changed. Each sensor transmits a ID code battery condition and obviously the internal tyre pressure. Once the unit is damaged due to road conditions or battery failure, your customer will expect you to be able to fix his problem. Now replacing the sensor is the easy part except this new unit has to be matched to the current vehicle and that’s were the TEXA or AUTEL piece of equipment is required. The new sensors ID code gets inserted into the cars ECU once being read by your diagnostic equipment.
The process is made simple by your handheld piece of equipment triggering the sensor even while the car is switched off. It fires a frequency at the tyre valve were the sensor is situated at in turn the sensor responds with a return transmission from the wheel. Info that is sent back is the sensors ID, temperature and wheel pressure, obviously. Our hand held piece of equipment stores these bits of information and can use that to reprogram the TPMS ECU. Remember some vehicles have it fitted to the spare wheel also, as to prevent the obvious.
Now there are a few units available to do the testing but only a few can then rewrite the new ID’s to the vehicle’s ECU. The cheaper the unit the less it can do. We have being putting the Autel TP501 threw it’s test paces and have found it to be the most all-round unit to date for price and functions. It can even test your ignition key FOB (remote control) to see if it is transmitting and gives you the frequency. Rather interesting I hear you say.
Features of the Autel TP501 are:
Autel TP501 TPMS
TPMS Sensor
TP501 Kit with cables
Many thanks for your comment on our site. You are welcome and we will be updating with new info as we get it.
Kind regards Adrian
Hi, well yes in the beginning I spent a lot of time on it but during the week one gets ideas to improve it, so then you return to tweak it all the time.
I started to learn on this website and have only being doing it for approx three months in total. This was actually my training website which seemed to turn out real good so I then deployed it.
So remember you will only get out of it as much time as you invest in the project.
Was great fun doing it and I must say it was one on my bucket list which I can tick off…lol