How does the Tire Pressure Monitoring System work?

Last week we looked at a Toyota-specific concept technology, so we thought it’d be a good idea to look at a technology that’s standard in just about every vehicle across the market for this week’s How’s This Work. Chances are you checking your tire pressure every once in a while, and if you aren’t let this be your wake-up call – you should be! But don’t worry, in the event that something unexpected happens in regards to the pressure of your tires, the Tire Pressure Monitoring System is there to warn you.

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What is TPMS?

The Tire Pressure Monitoring System is built in to just about every vehicle on the market. It’s an electronic system that notifies you when the air pressure of your tires has suddenly spiked in either direction. Some systems won’t tell you which direction or even which tire, but it is essentially there to notify you that something happened so you can bring it in to figure out what.

If TPMS senses a change in the pressure, an icon will pop up in your instrument panel alongside a message in the multi-information display. Be sure to quickly check your pressure yourself, and if the light persists you may need to repair or replace one or all of your tires. The light could also be triggered after rotating your tires, manually refilling your tires, or completely switching tires.

If you know your tires are fine and the system still displays the icon and message, you can restart the Tire Pressure Monitoring system by holding down the reset button while the engine is on. You will want to leave the engine on for several minutes so that the system can take a reading of each tire’s pressure, and then turn the engine off. Check the icon the next time you turn your vehicle on, and if the light is still on or blinking you should bring it in immediately to have everything looked at. You can watch the video below for even more information regarding the TPMS.