This week, in our second blog for fall car care month, I present a mystery solved by our Service Director, Dennis Cullen. Thanks Dennis! Do you have questions about taking care of your Subaru or ANY car? Put comment on our post below, get in touch with us on Facebook, or email sales@premiersubaru.com and we'll get an answer for you!
Q: This light came on in my car. What does it mean? What should I do?A: That's a great question. Before I answer that ,let me start by saying with any light that should come on step one is to refer to the owners manual fora full explanation of the fault.
That light is referred to as the (TPMS) fault indicator. That's an acronym for Tire Pressure Monitoring System . In 2008 the Federal government mandated that this system be installed on all vehicles sold in the U.S. In a nut shell, what it does is just that. It continuously checks to make sure you have the proper air pressure in all your tires. What I normally tell our customers is to check and set your tire pressure every 3rd tank of gas.
As the weather gets cooler, the air pressure in your tires will drop one pound per10 degrees of air temperature decrease. Keep in mind, we may have set your tire pressure in the summer.
As for the tires themselves, it is common to lose a pound of pressure a month. For those two reasons this time of year is when we see an onslaught of phone calls just like yours.
This is what we tell our customers: after first checking your tires for damage, reset your tire pressure in accordance with the label on the drivers inside door panel. The light should go off after driving for a few miles.
If within a week that light should reappear you most likely have a puncture in one of your tires. At this point you would need to come in for a repair.
Although this light showing itself a few times a year seems like a pain, I can only imagine how many lives it has saved in the past 2 years alone.
Happy Driving!
Dennis
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