Now, I was over at some crap shop a week or two ago, STS auto, to get some tires taken off of my stock 350Z rims. For some reason or other, I ended up w/o TPMS, when I thought I should've had them. This may be that the guy I purchased the wheels/tires from originally SAID they were there when IN FACT they were'nt, or... STS most likely "jacked" the sensors from me w/o my knowledge. But that was my fault for not checking before bringing the wheels in as to whether or not the valve stems were metal (TPMS) or not. But ANYWAYS... the guy at the front desk writing up the invocie, etc, amidst what I was sure was a load of BS excuses as to why there was no TPMS leftover, actually mentioned something pretty interesting, to my surprise. He said many cars have the sensors mounted to the chassis, some to the wheels (like the Z). Now I know our car has them mounted to the wheels, as I just mentioned, but that got me thinking if anyone has ever tried this... mounting the TPMS sensors to the chassis? I think it would be an ideal solution for all of us worrying about TPMS, and while I wouldn't exactly know how to go about doing this, I am definitely interested to find out. Any thoughts on this, or has anyone already gone the extra step to accomplish this successfully?


BTW, STS Auto did a crappy job taking the tires off of my wheels, many a rim was scratched up and they handed everything back to me all "soapy" and "dirty" and sh*t, all for me to pay THEM $40. So, I'm sorry, but I reserve the right to hold them accountable. No disrespect to any STS employess out there, but this shop was just not "professionally" run by any means. I am pissed at myself for not checking the TPMS before bringing it in, but you live and you learn, right..


..Anyways, VERY interested in the TPMS thing.. Please post comments.

 

out TPMS are part of the valve stem.

1) they usually replace the valve stems when taking off tires so I bet they chucked them, how they missed the metal stem and big blue box I have no idea....

2) I have no idea how a TPMS sensor could be attached to the chassis other than like the 959 had where it was built into the rim and hub and sent back a pressure signal through that route.

did he give you a list of cars that have them monted to the chassis?

 

if you mounted them to the chassis, they won't tell your tire pressure and the light will still be on, what would be the point?

 

Yeah, he even showed me an example of one at the front desk and I was thinking like "yeah idiot, I know what a TPMS sensor looks like..now give mine back!!" But I had no proof, and I'm pretty sure they went in metal and came back out blk rubber valve stems, but I have nothing to document it (no pics or anything).

And no, I didn't bother to ask about what cars had the sensors mounted to the chassis or anything. I think if I run through some old threads, someone might have mentioned how far the sensor can be from the wheel to accurately read or something, but I may just be making that up.

Either way, it sounds like a cool idea to me and I'd do it in a second if it meant not having to worry about installing TPMS ever again! (Price-consciously, of course )

 

You still paid?

 

You can show them how your tpms light is on and tell them it was fine before you took the tires to them.

 

Unfortunately, I actually never had these on the car bc they were a spare set I bought off of somebody w/only 200 miles on the set, so I can't say for "certain." But I am pretty sure they had TPMS before taking them in. I just have no "proof!"

 

Yeah, they had no problem taking my money..

 

Sounds like you got taken for a ride. TPS sensors mounted on the chassis will serve no purpose.

 

what he meant by chassy is that some cars use the ABS sensors to detect if one tire is spinning slower than the others (less pressure - smaller diameter from sidewall being flatter). if so, it indicates that a tire is low. Not at all the same as sensors that monitor real time tire pressure.

 

Study TPMS. The thing inside the tire is a transmitter. The transmitter senses tire pressure, and sends it to TPMS for display. If you put it outside the wheel, it would sense ambient pressure. Most likely 14.7 PSI is set to zero. So the transmitter would transmitting nothing.

 

i dont see how it would work on the chassis...lol

 

Magic!