wasn't sure where to put this ...

i ordered a cig lighter tire pressure gauge and installed it yesterday. sensors for each wheel replace the valve stem caps, and each tire's pressure is displayed.

i was worried the gauge portion would be too large for the tiny ashtray area, but its actually tiny. i'd probably prefer it was longer and didn't sit so far down inside, but whatever.

it displayed the slow leak on my left rear tire as expected.



sensors:

 

Well the cap itself is leaving the valve open so the only seal is the cap itself, not sure I would trust that.

 

The display was sooo awesome but the valve caps are stupid looking and ridiculous. How much was that?

 

Looks like they are about 80 bucks from ebay

 

$100 with cyber monday deal.

 

$80 on Amazon or eBay ... i forget. ordered a lot of stuff in the past week.

 

did you just replaced the valve cap (unscrew old one and screw on new one) or did you actually brought your car to a tire shop for them to change out the valve stem?

 

Considering the ad says "2 Min DIY" I assume it just replaces your valve stem cap. That leads me back to my original thought is the new cap pushes down your stem valve (in order to read the pressure) so the only thing stopping your tire from going flat is the cap. The valve stems are part of the TPMS sensors. No thanks .....

 

Yeah, not good if that is the case.

 

With you on this one. It's definitely nice to get a tire pressure reading, no doubt. I am surprised the car doesn't display it. Pretty sure the computer knows the PSI. If I were to hook up the right scan tool, I'd get pressure readings. Sad that they couldn't carry that information over to the information display. But like you stated, this cap keeps the valve open and is the only thing holding the pressure at that point. You will probably leak more overtime as the cap wears out or dust/particles get stuck in between the cap and the stem.

You guys ever see those clear plastic caps that show you the PSI right on the cap itself? Those are highly prone to cracking open and then allowing the air to escape.

They look like this:


To the OP, that gauge looks really cool though and it's nice to have that information handy. Curious if there's another way to tap into the ECU to get that information. There might be something out there that connects to the ODBII and can read out that info, but that means you have to have something in your ODBII port all the time and if not engineered right, can drain the battery if it sits too long. IDK just thinking out loud I guess..

 

I’ve had two incidents while adding air where a valve failed and was stuck open. I had to quickly screw the caps back on to prevent any more air loss. I promptly drove to the dealer each time where they replaced the valve stems. But it’s certainly something I wouldn’t want to have on a regular basis.

 

Another interesting option is you can get a wi-fi OBD-II fob for about $30 bucks, download a free app and see your TPMS data live on your smart phone.

This Cig display is really cool as it's small and out of the way, provided you're not using the lighter to charge your phone.

The stem cap sensors are a bit large for my tastes though, and seem easy to have stolen. (Not much value without the readout though).

I'm not too keen on leaving the valve seal open for the sensor to read. I'm sure it seals fine but I like the idea of a double seal; Valve and cap.

 

^^Can you elaborate on this? I have an obd dongle and torque on the phone but have never seen any pids for tpms.

 

is it readable at night? does it light up?

 

Hello?...