New Rules but Old Car? Tire Guard May Help
Federal regulators are requiring auto makers to start equipping new cars and light trucks with some type of tire pressure monitor. But what about all those passenger vehicles out there that aren’t new?
Retrofitting with one of the systems being required on new vehicles can be prohibitively expensive, costing hundreds of dollars. If you don’t have anti-lock braking, one type of system won’t work anyhow.
A company in Fullerton, Tire Guard USA, may have an affordable answer.
Tire Guard (www.tireguardusa .com) markets a system, developed in Taiwan, that uses individual monitors, preset to specific tire pressures and mounted on each valve stem.
The screw-on monitors take an air pressure reading from the tire, and if it is within preset limits, the tip of the monitor shows green.
As pressure in the tire drops, the green band diminishes and other bands appear--first yellow, then red--letting the driver know it is time to fill the tire with air.
You must walk around the car to look at the things--there’s no convenient gauge on the dash, but with that little bit of effort the system seems to work pretty well.
Fred Weisman, Tire Guard’s chief executive, says the monitors show pressure differences in 4-pound increments. So on a tire rated at 36 pounds per square inch of pressure, or 36 psi, the yellow band should appear at 32 pounds, the red at 28, Weisman says.
We bought and mounted a test set from the company on a 1990 Ford Taurus fitted with 15-inch factory alloy wheels and 205/65R15 radial tires. The monitors were set for 36 psi, and when the tires were inflated to that limit, their caps all showed bright green.
They also showed green at 34 psi and 32 psi--and, in fact, didn’t display yellow until 30 pounds, or red until pressure was down to 27 psi. That 9-pound drop represents a 25% difference in tire pressure.
We also tested a set rated at 30 psi and found it a little more responsive, with yellow showing up when tire pressure fell to 27 psi and red showing at 25 psi, a 17% drop from 30.
The federal standard for pressure-averaging monitors on new cars and trucks is a 30% fluctuation from the recommended tire pressure, so the Tire Guard system, at least when new, seems to provide an earlier warning.
Weisman says the monitors, available at many leading tire retailers for $19.95 for a set of four, last about three years, or about as long as a set of tires.
One potential drawback is aesthetics. People often pay beaucoup bucks for fancy alloy wheels, and the Tire Guard monitors make the valve stems a pretty visible item.
Weisman says the few complaints he has received thus far are mostly from Harley-Davidson dealers, who say their customers don’t like the look on their bikes.
