Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

Do you need to consider it with your new wheels?

What is TPMS (simplified!):

A Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) is a safety feature that continually monitors a vehicle's tyres and alerts the driver if the tyre pressure changes outside of tolerance. From November 2014, all newly manufactured vehicles use a TPMS system as part of the new legal requirement, however, the technology has been present since 2000 in many vehicles. A pressure loss warning light on the vehicle's dashboard will cause an MOT failure.

Do I need to worry about it?

What year or reg is your vehicle?

There are 2 ways in which the TPMS will operate on your vehicle: INDIRECT or DIRECT.

INDIRECT Systems:
This system operates by external sensors from the wheel assembly (usually from the ABS) and the sensors are looking for a diameter change in the tyre and comparing relative wheel speeds. This will occur when pressure is lost, so the sensor alerts the driver via the onboard computer that there is a pressure loss. No tyre pressure reading is provided and the driver isn't informed which tyre has lost pressure.

For this system NO ADDITIONAL PARTS ARE REQUIRED, which saves you time and money! But you will need to reset the stored tyre pressures on the onboard computer once you are happy with the tyre pressures.

DIRECT Systems:
This system operates by having a sensor attached to each tyre valve (concealed within the tyre), which detects the pressure of each tyre. This is transmitted to the onboard computer and the driver is often able to see the exact tyre pressure in each tyre, and the driver will be alerted if there is a drop in pressure outside of tolerance. Although this type of system is more expensive it will provide a much more accurate indication on whether the tyre has lost pressure.

If your vehicle has this system then there are several ways in which you can approach this:

Purchase new TPMS sensors from us - available on the Options / Upgrades tab on the main product page. They will be pre-programmed for the vehicle to the correct frequency, but you will need to apply the relearn procedure for which additional information will be provided, or can be followed in your vehicle handbook. Some vehicles need additional programming which can be performed at a tyre centre / vehicle manufacturer dealership local to you. If ordering tyres we will pre-fit the sensors for you into the wheels as part of the tyre fitting process.
Transfer your existing sensors onto the new wheels, but this will incur additional costs by a tyre centre as they will need to remove your existing tyres, remove the sensors, refit sensors to the new wheels and refit the tyres. If ordering tyres from us please let us know in advance if you wish to do this, as we can then supply the tyres unmounted to the wheels for you.
You can purchase your own new sensors and send them into us, we will fit them free of charge for you when we fit your tyres here. However, we can accept no liability if the sensors do not function correctly when mounted to vehicle/or are incorrectly supplied to us in the first instance.

Still not sure what your vehicle has?

If you are unsure whether you have an INDIRECT or DIRECT system then you can always contact the vehicle manufacturer (via your local dealership) and they should be able to tell you by checking the vehicle registration number or VIN number.