Good point! What would you consider to be the right amount? $5 / $10 / $20? My gut says 10 bucks ....

 

I just had the dealer rotate my tires for me. I asked if he had to retrain the TPCM. He told me that retraining the TPCM is only required on the F250/350, mustangs, and the vehicles with higher tire pressures in the back. Retraining is not required on my truck. I asked why my owners manual says you need to retrain the TPCM. He said that the manual is kind of generic for all the Ford trucks. He also showed me a service letter from FMC.

 

Hi mak2403 and welcome to FTE! If you refer to page 249 of the 2012 manual, found here, it states:

this aligns with what the dealer told you, as all 4 tires are all the same pressure requirement on the f-150, this means that the TPMS does not need to be retrained after rotation. Hope this helps!

 

My question about retraining is that doesn't the system tell you which tire is low based on a low pressure? Even if all tires have the same pressure requirement, wouldn't you want to know which tire is low on pressure? Retraining isn't hard, I've done that on my F150. Just put it in learn mode (in your owner's manual) and let out some air at each corner. The truck will honk each time you've trained a sensor. But before you put it into training mode, make sure to drive the truck around a bit to wake up all the sensors. 1 mile should be enough distance.

 

That would be great, unfortunately, our trucks dont do that, all we get is this "idiot" light and we have to hunt down the low one, it never tells you which one is the low tire. So, realistically there is no need to retrain the system when rotating tires.

 

That's unfortunate. My old Sky (only other vehicle I've owned with TPMS) would display the idiot light and use the LCD console to tell which tire.

 

Yup, it is a pretty useless system unless you neglect checking your tire pressure often. It's really for those who never check their tires and they get dangerously low. Most recommend checking tire pressure once a month, I do at least once every 2 weeks.

Jalopnik did an article about how useless the TPMS is Why The Tire Pressure Light Is The Most Useless Warning Light

Like Mario Andretti said in this safety commercial, check your tires (after the Firestone tire issues...)

 

I found the article to be a bit amusing and I agree with some of his points. If you have a sudden blowout on the freeway, TPMS isn't going to help.

However, I was travelling in my 2004 Expedition. loaded to the brim when the TPMS light did appear. It came on between fill ups so nothing looked out of place while getting gas some 3-4 hours earlier. It turned out that I had picked up a nail somewhere and was losing air at a slow rate. I may have been fine till the next fill up and then upon normal inspection I may have seen that a tire was low and had it fixed. This could have been disastrous for us as we were loaded with eight people and gear. A sudden blowout on a heavy Expy is never a good thing.

Which brings me to the next point. On the very same trip to Maine, we did have a sudden blowout and I damned near rolled us. Somehow I managed to keep her in the lane and upright, pissing my self the whole way to the shoulder. In this case, the TPMS was useless. Yes, the OE tires that came on my Expy were garbage and were replaced as soon as I got to Maine.

 

The Jalopnik contributors can get a little "excited" when they write up an article. Still a good laugh

Very good point about the nail and slow leak, didn't think of that one. I could see where the TPMS would alert to an issue in this case. Guess I always thought that many drivers are oblivious to the fact that tires need to be checked frequently.

Glad you were able to make it to the shoulder safely with the Expy during the blowout, always scary, especially with family in tow

Some vehicles have awesome TPMS that display pressure on each tire (this one even shows tire temp and for the spare! from an Audi)

 

Ford blows my mind sometimes. They build the best damned truck in the world and can't come up with a decent TPMS system for anything below the trim level of a Lincoln.

The rub here is that these trucks are built to work and when you hunker them down with gear, trailer and people, a much safer and reliable system is warranted. For pete's sakes, some of these half ton trucks carry at 17100 lb GCVWR! I think a better system is appropriate here.

I am the one guy in my neighborhood who performs bi-monthly vehicle checks. The lady across the street brings hers over once in awhile if she sees me out.