Do your research before making any more dumb comments please.

 

Likewise. The blowouts were the result of thermal runaway triggered by under-inflation, the fault of which rests w/ the owner. Simple Physics and responsible maintenance. The rollover tendencies exacerbated by the combination of tall sidewall, high CG, and unsophisticated suspension. Background in tire design and analysis (involving a bit of research).

 

Cameras are great, they make parallel parking so much easier. TPMS is fine so long it is not malfunctioning, hate to see the light when pressures are fine.

 

^ yes and no. the bold text is bang on. however, in these cases the under-inflation was not the fault of owners. Ford/Firestone specified 26 psi as the recommended inflation pressure on models such as the Explorer - which is not a small/light unit. this was done to "fix" an inherent flaw with the suspension design. running a 4000lb+ vehicle on 26 psi is a crazy thought, as we all know.

TPMS would not have done much for these owners since the sensors would have been calibrated using 26 psi as the baseline pressure. everything would have looked OK to the sensors - and they do not detect heat or impending blowouts, only gradual pressure fluctuations (IIRC) which will trigger a warning at preset thresholds. the real problem was the negligence of Ford/Firestone to "cheat" the suspension fix by under-inflating tires when they knew that posed a risk to vehicle occupants due to the potential for excessive heat and de-lamination of the tires. the exposure of the risk from the Ford/Firestone case is what led to legislating TPMS in to new vehicles, with the hope of preventing future tragedies linked to under-inflated tires.


oh, and to the OP: yes, your factory TPMS will work fine when you re+re your wheels in a few months. my winter set (OEM 18"s) has the factory TPMS on them and everything works like a charm every November when i swap wheel/tire sets from summer to winter. the system recognizes the signal, or whatever it does...

 

I agree that in general tire faults rest with the owner. But it also is a bit of naivety to believe all one has to do is check their tires regularly at specific intervals. A slow leak can develop any time after that, and in a matter of minutes can underinflate a tire to a dangerous level. That’s where TPMS can help, and in that regard operating a vehicle without an active TPMS is also a fault that rests with the owner.