Yeah, my ex wife is one of those who "can't" check her tire pressure. Tire pressure warning is just what she needs. (along with a warning sign to stay away from her)

 

a few weeks ago, my ! light came on and knew it was a low pressure tire.. checked all the tires and they where at >30psi.. took it to a local shop just to refill the pressure. went inside to buy a drink by the time i came out the mechanic said all finished. drove it around alittle. TPMS came up.. took it to honda.. tehy said my tires where OVER INFLATED.. they where at <50psi! "you're tires where ready to explode on you"... what a scary thought..

 

After having to endure living with a slow leak for a couple of weeks I can tell you that if the tires are cold the light will go out very within a quarter mile or so. If the tires are hot it will take longer.

Most of the time I would wake up every fifth or sixth morning with the low tire pressure warning and drive a block to the gas station to pump it back up. At these times the light would go out quick. A couple of times I had it come on after driving a long distance and I would go to the nearest station to pump up. At these times I would have to drive several miles before the light went out.

 

Help! OK, so I'm a female not crazy about checking tire pressure--and how can you fill them up if they have that nitrogen or whatever (green cap)?

Anyway my low pressure light came on for the 4th time since I bought my new 2009 Fit last year. I have to be at work all day today so I went ahead and drove into work. I need to get home tonight because I have a dog sitting in the house that has to be let out.

My question is, is this light a 'crying wolf' thing? Why should new tires have a tire pressure light that comes on every 6 weeks? I hate to waste ANOTHER Saturday sitting at the dealership tomorrow for 4 hours (because there are always a million people there). Should I ask them to actually test all the tires for a slow leak? Or should I buy a digital tire pressure gauge and top up the tires with regular air?

ETA: When I got to work, the tires did not look low at all.

Thanks for your help!

 

Thread necromancy.

Anyway, in theory, nitrogen should be a little slower to escape from the tire. In practice, it's not really enough to make much of a difference. You can just refill with regular air.

If the tire pressure light is constantly coming on, you should figure out the cause. It's either a malfunctioning sensor, or you have a leak in one of your tires. Looking won't tell you anything, unless the tire is completely flat; that's why the light became mandatory. Either way, you can do most of the work yourself, and it won't take long.

First, buy a decent air pressure gauge. In my opinion, cheap digital ones are the best. Don't get the pencil shaped ones. Second, its probably worth it to get a small air compressor to keep in the car to refill tires. It's good to have if you ever get a full flat and discover that the spare is also low.

Ok, now to diagnose your problem. Check all your tires' pressure with the gauge. If any are low, refill them with the air compressor. This will take maybe 20 minutes start to finish. If none of the tires are low, you probably have a bad sensor and need to schedule an appointment with the dealer to get them to fix it. If one tire is low, refill it and get on with life.

The next time the light comes on, check the tires again. If the same one is low again, refill it, obviously. Then you need to either go to the dealer to get it looked at, or another tire place. There's probably a slow leak from somewhere that needs to get fixed. From the sounds of it, the dealer is really busy, so a regular tire place would be a better choice.

 

Personally I wouldn't have used necromancy, but then again I can't say I ever heard that term before, but malraux is dead on_

You can certainly drive your car with that light on. Some have even covered it up. Are the tires/wheels OEM or something special. A slow leak can plague you, so get the gauge and keep an eye on things. Good old air is perfectly fine. As I understand it the TPS lights @28PSI - far from being flat. Check the pressure once a week just to see what's what. Do it the same time every time, like before you drive in the AM or in the evening. Exclude the heat of the day/driving.

Don't worry - be happy.

 

Thanks, guys. These are the original tires--I forgot to mention that I have the 2009 Sport model (without navigation). I love my Fit but am getting annoyed with the light situation. I'll take your advice and get a digital pressure reader, and maybe even one of those air compressor things! As long as I can put regular air in on top of the nitrogen, that should be OK.

Cheers!

 

Regular air is mostly nitrogen anyway...it won't cause you any problems.

I am not sure if it's discussed in this zombie thread but:
Once you have filled the tires to the correct PSI, the light still won't go out until you drive around for a mile or so. Wish I had known that the first time it came on

 

I read through the thread from the beginning, so I knew that. Thanks for the reminder!

 

Ah, sweet necromancy, I love the term. My 2013 Fit Sport has the light come on a little too often. I have refilled the tires, as it is cold now and the light came on. The front are now at 34-35psi and the rear are a hair below 33. The light is still on. Does it have to be super duper perfect or something before the light will go back to sleep? What does it WANT?!?

 

This issue comes up with deep cold, so hopefully this is an ok thread to revive. I have a 2013 Sport but had the same issue with my '09 Sport.

For the last poster: I can check and inflate my own, but as cold as it is in this neck of the Midwest right now, and because my hands have poor circulation, today I went to Walmart and acted like a girl ... they will generally check it for free, which might be good to know (sidebar: also because I've only had a license for three years and cannot say enough good things about Fits as a first car. The fact that it started like a charm after two weeks at the airport during yesterday's cold snap was the icing, as it were.).

From reading this thread and experience:

--MOSTLY (!) disappears after you drive a while (I see where cderalow
writes, "generally the TPMS system will reset above 20mph for 1 mile, or 20 miles at low speed"). General pattern for me has been--big temp. drop (see: Midwest, above) in the morning. Wake up, start car, light comes on. Adjust pressure. Drive off. Light goes out pretty quick.

--TWICE it went off but then repeatedly came back on after a Goodyear place pumped it without checking for nails/ screws ,which were .... present. Maybe because they'd rather I come in later with a destroyed sensor? Dunno. I would say ... if you are ever in this position, insist on a closer look if the (!) light stays on. Patching eg. is not expensive.

--WITH THAT SAID ... to my experiences last night. My car was at Dayton airport for almost two weeks, outside. -12 last night. Started very well, but (which I have never seen) (!) went on AFTER I had had the car on on for a little. It took an hour plus to deice and at least an hour to make the :40 drive back into the country, at which point it was 2 AM. This AM took car to Walmart, where tires were pumped to 33 (question based on reading: should it have been 35 to make the (!) go off). Town is a MESS-drove at least five miles to various locations but generally at 20 or under. STILL not off, so I am planning to take it in tomorrow (cold and distance nix that today). Should I be worried, or will it go off tomorrow as some on thread seem to have described?

So, uh, thanks if you read that far ...

 

When you pump air in and check the pressure, you need to check when its COLD (ie, been sitting a while). Because if you set the psi when its hot, it will go under once it cools off.

There's a good chance that it's going under the TPMS threshold and it catches that everytime you let it sit.

 

ah, thanks! I understand about letting it sit in principle ... I have not ever had a problem with it staying on unless it were (a) a nail or (b) the situation last night/ today that I have described above. Perhaps the issue right now is how extremely cold it is outside?

 

1psi change for every 10F ambient temp change.

 

cool, thank you!!