TPMS, real or not?

[El Speed3]

Hey everyone,

I have a question since the dealer made me hesitate.

I was with the post-sale manager working out some problems, when suddenly he dropped a bomb on me: "I really though these cars had TPMS". According to my knowledge, they have, or they were supposed to have at least. My warning light on the dash lights up every time I start the car but reflecting on the issue, Ive had a couple of nails on my tires with air coming out through them and the sensor never once went off.

He pointed out the valve stem, In my car it had a complete rubber assembly. He mentioned the difference on the Mazda6 which he showed me, it had a metal assembly, which is due to the TPMS...

Anyone know this to be true or false?? Does the US-Spec / Canadian-Spec / Aussie-Spec have the same assembly? Does that mean we really don't have TPMS?

Thanks for your help!

 

[solez]

This is true. If your car has a TPMS then your valve stem will be grey or silver in color.If it doen't have a TPMS then it will be black.
I believe all recent models have TPMS system standard. your car should've come with TPMS standard when you bought the car assuming you bought the car brand new from the dealer? otherwise you can find a set of TPMS sensors on ebay or even on this forum. good luck!

 

[El Speed3]

Really???? I kinda feel ripped off! I remember seeing on the brochure that It had TPMS... This is really weird.

I bought my car, brand new with 8 km's, from the dealer...

Not sure what to make off this whole thing...

 

[SASK P5]

there are some TPMS kits that wrap around the middle of the wheel and some do actually have rubber valve stems and the sensor screws onto the bottom of the valve stem, these still use special valve stems but they are black rubber.i learned that one the hard way, broke the sensor taking the tire off cause i thought it didn't have TPMS haha. but it is mostly ford i have seen with these two types. mazda uses the metal valve stems in everything that has it im pretty sure

if you have a TPMS light then you should have sensors. you wont have a light on your dash if you dont have them i would go back to the dealer and get them to put them in.

 

[Ryank401]

Ya, especially since they are expensive for no reason.

 

[El Speed3]

Well... just checked it. Now Im sure I dont have TPMS...

Im really confused as to where did I see that but really, since brand new, I was pretty sure the car had it...

Bottomline, Mexican-Spec cars, do not have TPMS.

You guys in the US and Canada have them??

 

[oaklandopen]

Any car going to the usa or manufactured in the usa as of 2008 must have tpms. They can either be banded to the inner wheel, have metal valve stems, or have rubber valve stems. Some of the older monitoring sytems just utilized the wheel speed sensors to be able to tell if one wheel had less pressure than another

As of I believe 2014 every car in the usa must be equipped with some sort of vehicle stability control, just fyi

id like to know how you are so sure your car doesn't have tpms. One way to definitely find out is set your pressure to like 10-15 psi less and go for a little spin around the block

 

[El Speed3]

Well, first off, my car is Mexican, which is by no law forced to have TPMS.

2nd, The dealers are stating that. Ive spoken to the Post-sales manager, as well as the Chief Mechanic and they all say it doesnt have them.

3rd, Ive reviewed the light on my dash, and I had a minor mix-up, I do not have a TPMS warning light going on at startup...

Finally, Ive had a couple of nails going into my tires and no warning light. According to Mazda, tires should be 35 (front) and 34 (rear) psi's. When I noticed rubbing on speed bumps and my tire being a bit low, it was @20 psi's, if TPMS was there, it shouldve went off right then and there...

Perhaps I said the wrong word, Im not entirely sure, but as you can see, all the evidence points out towards me not having the TPMS

 

[oaklandopen]

I was just throwing out tpms facts, that's all. I knew from your info and other posts your car was mexican.

So what was the light you were looking at then? I call the tpms light the "butt" light because to me it looks just like one

 

[BlackCherry06]

It's possible for your guage cluster to have the TPMS light without your car having an active TPMS system. Since Mexico probably doesn't mandate TMPS, Mazda saved a few bucks by not installing the wheel sensors and turned off the TPMS system in the ECU. If the brochure was referring to Mazdas sold in Mexico and it advertised TPMS as standard equipment, you could raise a stink, but to me it wouldn't be worth it. Just check your tire pressure once a week, like we all did before TPMS came along.

 

[El Speed3]

Lol @the butt light oaklandopen... I was confused and started imagining the fuel cap light as a sort of nail going into the car... yeah, no comments, really... (confused)

I may have based my opinion on the research I made about the car, which I made by checking constantly for news at the UK, US and Canadian Mazda websites, guess thats were I got the idea of it having the TPMS. So, since I dont really know where that came from, plus the fact that I really share the same opinion with you Blackcherry06, theyre not worth it, Ill just stick to checking the tires constantly...

Thanks everyone!