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BMW Mini tyre pressure
piddy - 7/1/10 at 05:28 PM

A friend of mine’s daughter has a BMW mini.
This runs on run flat tyres and has a light on the dash that lights up when the tyre pressure is low.
I was just wondering how this works and where the sensor is positioned etc.

luke - 7/1/10 at 05:30 PM

Sensor is in the rim, connects through the hub.

electronic version of when you see the pressure dials in the centre of the bus rims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire-pressure_monitoring_system

[Edited on 7/1/10 by luke]

flak monkey - 7/1/10 at 05:37 PM

quote:
Originally posted by luke
Sensor is in the rim, connects through the hub.

electronic version of when you see the pressure dials in the centre of the bus rims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire-pressure_monitoring_system



Wrong....

It works on monitoring the relative wheel speeds of the tyres on each axle using the ABS sensors.

It can give false triggers (mine used to regularly) if you have had a tyre changed (10mm difference in diameter is enough to trigger it) or if driving in a lot of ice or snow and you get a lot of wheel spin. Or even if a tyre pressure drops by more than a couple of psi.

You can easily reset them, it tells you how in the manual.

But from memory.

Press and hold the button in under the handbrake

Turn on the ignition and wait until the light flashes.

Turn off ignition

Turn it back on and it should be reset.

David

fesycresy - 7/1/10 at 05:56 PM

Common for BMW's to show the puncture light, nice lady from BMW told me not to worry and explained it like I was a numpty (she's probably explained it a 1000 times before).

As Flak says its on wheel speed.

MikeRJ - 7/1/10 at 06:29 PM

Hmm...so would it fail to register two flats on the same axle?

flak monkey - 7/1/10 at 06:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeRJ
Hmm...so would it fail to register two flats on the same axle?


Only if they were both equally as flat to within a couple of PSI yes.

I would say the chances of that are incredibly slim.

001Ben - 7/1/10 at 07:00 PM

on the newer model the reset is on the left hand stalk.

Mark G - 7/1/10 at 07:54 PM

pressures are 2.2bar for 16" or 2.4bar for 17".

hobzy - 7/1/10 at 10:26 PM

Flak is right - i had one before the indy. Fairly often needed resetting especially in poor weather or after a track day when the wheels were spinning often.