Tire Pressure Warning Lights can be a tad annoying, especially if you turn on your vehicle to head to work, already running late, and you see it staring you in the face.
As annoying and sometimes less severe as they may seem, you should not ignore the warning.
Tire-pressure warning lights are typically located in the gauge cluster of an automobile’s dashboard. Warning lights are usually yellow or amber and resemble a cross section of a tire with an exclamation point and/or the letters “TPMS.” The icon illuminates to inform you of low air pressure in one or more tires when that issue is detected by the vehicle’s tire-pressure monitoring system (TPMS).
In general, the light will come on when the air pressure in one or more tires is outside the recommended range. Since the tires’ optimal performance and safety benefits are realized within a specific range of air pressure, measured in pounds per square inch (psi), the warning light may illuminate when pressure has dropped as little as 10 percent below the recommendation—long before low pressure is visible to the eye.
Some of the more sophisticated tire-pressure monitoring systems will tell drivers which tire is out of range and/or display real-time air pressure in each tire.
What Causes Low Tire Pressure?
Low tire pressure can result from a leak, change in climate or simply from the result of a tire losing air over time.
The change in outside temperature could specifically affect tires first thing in the morning when a tire’s psi drops, and once the day warms up, the tire’s psi could increase resulting in the TPMS warning shutting back off as a tire, or tires, fall back into their recommended range.
Regardless of the reason, this small icon means it’s time to check your tire pressure, possibly add air and/or visit your local tire dealer, like Tucker Tire, to see if there is a bigger problem that could mean you need to repair or replace one or more tires.
