Car Smarts

The GTI did a strange thing to me yesterday. Well, actually a good thing. It has more gee-wiz electronic devices than even a computer nerd like me wants to know. I kind of sorta know… 🙂 The low tire pressure indicator came on first thing (5:40 AM) as I backed out of my drive. I jumped out (while in the street) for a quick check for a flat tire. I have an air compressor in the shop/garage so an air up would be possible. The sun wasn’t up yet so it was hard to see, but I could not detect a true flat.

I drove a mile to the first open gas station and pulled in for better light (the car was driving OK). I checked the tires visual again and spied the $0.75 fee to get the air compressor to run. The GTI has these very low profile tires but again all looked well. I no longer carry real hard money so I would have to get change from the clerk inside from the credit card. There was also no gage visible… Hmmm.

I decide to continue on about 24 miles to work, bad idiot light?

At lunch I go out and look again. Tires in broad daylight look fine. Back out of my spot and now not only the idiot light but the entire enunciator panel is screaming at me that I have low tire pressure. I feel like I am about to crash and burn or otherwise destroy the entire vehicle! This is a bright red text message!

I drive a mile to the Discount Tire and stand in line to have my tires looked at. The clerk grabs a pressure gage and says he’ll find the problem. Every tire checks out at 30 PSI on the button. I check the door post and it says the tires require 35 PSI.

The clerk orders a tire technician to put 35 PSI in every tire. (I go to Discount Tire because this service is free and I buy all my replacement tires there.) Low and behold all the warnings go away. They have stayed away for the last 24 hours so it looks like that was the only problem. I had EXACTLY 3999 miles on the car. This was the first air check.

So there is a 30 PSI warning built into every wheel. Since every tire was that low, the computer must have been going crazy with four low tires! The warning was very adamant I do something NOW! A lesser or is it brighter person would have parked the car and called a tow truck. Ha!

Now the detective in me wants to find out how VW puts a sensor in every wheel that can report tire pressure from a spinning wheel. One method I heard about senses wheel rotation and reports the tire that rotates at a different speed from the others. Since all tires were low, the GTI must use a different method.

UPDATE: There is a pressure sensor in every wheel just under the tire valve, inside the rim. It is linked by RF (radio) to the computer in the car. The temperature here in Texas has been between 80 and 100+ degrees since I purchased the car. The hurricane has just brought cold air into Dallas in the 60 degree range. That temperature (cold) lowered the pressure in the tires enough to set off the alarm in all four tires.

There is an amazing amount of computer power in the GTI. But my wife’s car does one more thing that the GTI hasn’t done. It sends her an email when it is time to change the oil. This is the age of smart machines.

Tags: computermachine