My FE was dropping pretty low (38-42 per tank)with the cold weather here in PA. I simply thought it was the weather taking a major hit on the FE. My other car had a tire with low air pressure so I thought I would check my HCH-II as well. The tires looked fine, but thought I would check anyway.

They were ALL at 20psi!!!! I was mortified.

Instantly my next tank went back up to 50mpg.

Don't make the same mistake I did. I wasn't checking my tires due to the cold weather. Make sure you check it out.

 

OK, so you have this shiny new Civic Hybrid and you wonder if there is a better way to avoid such embarrassing moments. Yes, I am also guilty of not monitoring my tire pressure carefully and later on slapping myself for the bad mileage a got.

Well, here's what I recommend:

Get a good tire pressure monitoring system (tpms) !

I actually got myself the following TPMS and it works great. This is a must have for any HCH-II owner that values the safety and fuel economy of their tires:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/HONDA-MITSUBISHI-...QQcmdZViewItem

It is an amazing system that actually costs very little. In addition to letting you know when a specific tire is low on pressure is also lets you know when it is getting too hot. This is a direct system in that it monitors each tire individually and also lets you set the pressures for each tire which is a big plus for those of us who run different pressures between the front and the rear tires.

I actually think this should be a mandatory feature for all vehicles on the road (it will soon be for sure).

Anyway, the only thing you need to do it get your tire shop to remove the tires from the rims, install the strap sensors on the rims, put the tires back on the rims and then balance all four tires. Overall the total cost will definitely be under $150.
In my view well worth it - at least from a safety point of view.


Cheers;

MSantos

 

MSantos,

Thats a nice system you posted a link to, thanks.

Question, how are the units powered? Battery or some how recharged by the rotating motion? If battery, what is the expected battery life?

Tony

 

Each wheel has a sensor, and each sensor has its own lithium battery. In this unit, the battery life is expected to be around 5 years or so. The sensors are discarded once the battery is dead. The life of the battery for each sensor is also displayed in the monitoring console.
The monitoring console is installed inside the car and is powered by the +12 battery voltage along with an "accessories" wire that actually turns on the display when the vehicle is "ON".

Cheers;

MSantos

 

msantos,
Have you ever checked the accuracy of the TPMS reading compared to like a digital tire gauge? And also how often is the LED reading updated?
Thanks.

 

same thing happened to me this winter. i had a tpms system in my previous car. very valuable. i agree, it should come standard on our cars.

 

It has become my digital gauge. The accuracy is reported to be around +/-1 psi. So far it is as good as my handheld digital gauge without having to take two samples for verification.

When the car is moving the sensors will broadcast their readings to the monitoring console every 1 second. When the car is stopped for a while the sensors seem to relay the info far less frequently to save their batteries.

Cheers;

MSantos

 

ok, msantos, i just bot one. where did you install the display, and how did you wire it?
tia.

 

The main console comes with a long cable made up of 3 wires (red, orange, black)

The ideal mounting location for the main console is in the area around the rearview mirror, preferably mounted on the windshield (it has an adhesive pad to allow that). However that would have also required for me to remove the headliner or at least remove some trim so that I could fish the cable along the driver's A pilar, all the way down to the fuse box.

Anyway, I did not like that and instead I mounted the main console behind the shifter (right beside the power outlet). After that I drilled a small hole inside cubby hole - just big enough for the cable to pass through behind the dash - and then connected the three wires. Two of the wires went to a couple of fuse taps (orange and red wires) and the black was connected to a ground point underneat the dash (there are many there).

The orange wire connects to the accessories as it powers the display backlight and the red wire connects to the permanent +12V. The red must be always at 12V even when the car is off otherwise the main console will revert to the factory settings and will thus forget your pressure and alerts settings.

Anyway, that is all as far as I can remember. Pretty simple setup definitely taking less than an hour to execute

Cheers;

MSantos

 

cool! with that and the exhaust finisher i just ordered, i'll have some fun new projects next week. would you be willing to photo and post the fuse taps you did? i'm not very electrically inclined, and i don't want to screw anything up under the dash.