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technology

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Today the wife wanted to go into town for some things we can't get local. Her check tire light came on the last time she drove her vehicle so I checked the tire pressure and when adding air I discovered the valve stem was cracked and partly broken right where the needle and seat threads are. The tire was holding air but wouldn't want to make a road trip like that. I called the tire shop up town Valley Springs and they told me to bring it over and they could change it in a few minutes. I took it right over. They changed the valve stem that are now electronic. $106.00 and not only that it was taking them forever to program it so the light will turn off. After watching them for 30 minutes ( now its an hour doing the job that takes a few minutes ) I had to go as the wife's calling me asking what was taking so long. Now she will have to make an appointment to take it back. WTF I still don't know what was wrong with checking your own tire pressure and a valve stem was a couple dollars. All the electronic gadgets on cars nowadays are fine when they are new then become a nightmare when they Get a few miles on them and now you can't work on it yourself without specialized equipment. We are now being controlled by our vehicles.
 

waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Not to argue, but I love the tech. Not so much when it breaks, but learning how to troubleshoot, and in the process, learning how the damn engineers came up with this stuff.
I'm dealing with a tire pressure light myself, but in the case of the X5 I have, there is no air pressure sensor. The system judges a low tire via tire rpm. Just partitioned and installed inpa (BMW's factory vehicle software) on an older laptop to pull the actual counts. ABS and traction control work fine, which get the same signals as the tire pressure monitor. One would think none of it would work correctly if the sensors or wheel speed were actually different. This is gonna be fun.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Initially, I'm with waybomb, I love the technology ... and then all the bells, chimes and alarms begin to get really annoying and get switched off one by one. So, I end up in mla2ofus' camp.

I still have a couple of alarms activated but that's it, the lane deviation alarm and the max speed alert. I had to have a new set of tires installed after 18K miles, man that pissed me off, and the tire pressure monitoring system has been reading low ever since. Now I have Onstar and my GM dealer continually contacting me to tell me that my tires are low when in actual fact they are perfectly fine.
 

mla2ofus

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Our Subaru has a couple of warnings made for idiots. One is when the ambient temp drops to 37*F it says the roads may be slick, DUH. The other is when one wheel spins it says the vehicle dynamics control system was activated, another DUH. One thing I'm glad of is when the VDC engages it doesn't derate engine power. I'm surprised it doesn't give warning when ABS is engaging.
 

Ceee

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Today the wife wanted to go into town for some things we can't get local. Her check tire light came on the last time she drove her vehicle so I checked the tire pressure and when adding air I discovered the valve stem was cracked and partly broken right where the needle and seat threads are. The tire was holding air but wouldn't want to make a road trip like that. I called the tire shop up town Valley Springs and they told me to bring it over and they could change it in a few minutes. I took it right over. They changed the valve stem that are now electronic. $106.00 and not only that it was taking them forever to program it so the light will turn off. After watching them for 30 minutes ( now its an hour doing the job that takes a few minutes ) I had to go as the wife's calling me asking what was taking so long. Now she will have to make an appointment to take it back. WTF I still don't know what was wrong with checking your own tire pressure and a valve stem was a couple dollars. All the electronic gadgets on cars nowadays are fine when they are new then become a nightmare when they Get a few miles on them and now you can't work on it yourself without specialized equipment. We are now being controlled by our vehicles.
I had one tire that kept showing low on the tire pressure monitor. I think the warning signal might make a woman driving the car more nervous than it would a man. I finally said screw this, started ignoring it, and now just check it every once in a while with that manual checker thing. It's always at just about where it should be.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
I bought some used Audi rims for my VW that didn't have the sensors. I just ignore the light on my dash. My daughter's Envoy needs new sensors but I just told her to ignore the light on the dash. I try to look at her tires every so often and tell her to do it.

I had to buy a special tool just to program the sensors on my wife's car every time I swap the snow tires on and off.

Some of this technology stuff is such a waste of time but I guess people are dumb and need to be protected from themselves.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
All that technology is fine and dandy in warmer climates. Up here with the cold winters and road salt, most electrical sensors and such don't like the temperature changes and corrode prematurely. Almost as if they are designed to fail about 2 days after the extended warranty expires.
 
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