Bravo73 1,299 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, phil flash said: I deliberately ignored what I consider a stupid idea .. It’s a very good idea. The system is so unreliable and inaccurate that I’ve had it turned off for years. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JimH 45 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 Anyone brave enough to try these direct from China at £45 for four delivered? (Evora and other Lotus cars listed in the full description too...) Look what I found on Wish! I'm giving you £4 off your first purchase with code: lknczcr https://dl.wish.com/4B5pj Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Peters4 5 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 Searching for it on AliExpress even shows ‘made in UK’ on the units Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phil flash 156 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 4 hours ago, Bravo73 said: It’s a very good idea. The system is so unreliable and inaccurate that I’ve had it turned off for years. Mine isn't. I checked mine when I first got the car and 3 of them agreed with my tyre pressure gauges, the 4th was so gummed up I couldn't get air in or out. Once replaced it's worked faultlessly for over two years of my ownership. I rely on mine when driving, for confirmation of correct pressure and that I haven't got a puncture .. if I had I'd be putting air in before it got soft enough to overheat and damage the structure. I'm wondering if you've experienced the 'cheap Chinese' variety ... Quote Phil Leave me alone I know what I'm doing - I think. Link to post Share on other sites
Bravo73 1,299 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 Nope. Only Lotus OEM/GM. Still rubbish though. I could go into the detail of why the TPMS is on the car and who it is really aimed at. But I won’t. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mattmahope 225 Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 My new TPMS seems to be working fairly well so far! Also worth checking out the Cup 2 Connect kit, which is expensive but loads great Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phil flash 156 Posted November 25, 2020 Report Share Posted November 25, 2020 On 23/11/2020 at 22:38, Bravo73 said: Nope. Only Lotus OEM/GM. Still rubbish though. I could go into the detail of why the TPMS is on the car and who it is really aimed at. But I won’t. Go on then ... as a Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology I'm always interested in a well considered opinion, but have a low tolerance level when it comes to bullshit... 1 Quote Phil Leave me alone I know what I'm doing - I think. Link to post Share on other sites
Bravo73 1,299 Posted November 25, 2020 Report Share Posted November 25, 2020 Oooh, get you. First, let me find a suitable emoji: Secondly, as an esteemed member of the blah de blah, you will be aware that the TPMS is fitted because of a regulatory/legal requirement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire-pressure_monitoring_system (2008 for the USA, 2012 for the EU). The system is primarily aimed at those sorts of drones who do not, or cannot, check their tyre pressures themselves. So they need to the car to do it for them. Unfortunately, the system that Lotus chose to implement on the Evora is a) very unreliable and b) quite inaccurate. The system produces so many erroneous warning messages that the driver would be de-sensitised to an actual ‘sudden under-inflation event’ (ie blow out). Additionally, I’ve experience indicated pressures which can be 0.2-3 bar away from actual pressures. I would hope that any self-respecting Evora owner checks their tyre pressures reasonably regularly (even visually) and that if one of the tyres did lose pressure quickly, they would feel and/or hear it whilst driving. If they couldn’t do that (and they needed to rely on a TPMS), then I would question if an Evora is really the right car for them. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Popular Post phil flash 156 Posted November 26, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 26, 2020 15 hours ago, Bravo73 said: Oooh, get you. First, let me find a suitable emoji: Secondly, as an esteemed member of the blah de blah, you will be aware that the TPMS is fitted because of a regulatory/legal requirement: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire-pressure_monitoring_system (2008 for the USA, 2012 for the EU). The system is primarily aimed at those sorts of drones who do not, or cannot, check their tyre pressures themselves. So they need to the car to do it for them. Unfortunately, the system that Lotus chose to implement on the Evora is a) very unreliable and b) quite inaccurate. The system produces so many erroneous warning messages that the driver would be de-sensitised to an actual ‘sudden under-inflation event’ (ie blow out). Additionally, I’ve experience indicated pressures which can be 0.2-3 bar away from actual pressures. I would hope that any self-respecting Evora owner checks their tyre pressures reasonably regularly (even visually) and that if one of the tyres did lose pressure quickly, they would feel and/or hear it whilst driving. If they couldn’t do that (and they needed to rely on a TPMS), then I would question if an Evora is really the right car for them. God, I'm an 'old school' Engineer but you're sounding like a proper Luddite. First, let's talk in psi as it provides more precision. In round figures you get 1.5 psi for .1 bar so increments are smaller in psi. 33 psi & 34 psi both display as 2.3 bar, 40 psi & 41 psi both display as 2.8 bar. Using psi, any change in pressure will be obvious sooner than when in bar. ( I also know what a psi is, a bar is where I drink beer - or used to drink beer..) US Tread Law required a system to indicate when pressure had dropped 25% below 'the recommended inflation pressure' so some manufacturers chose to use the ABS sensors and an algorithm to identify a change in rolling radius of a deflating tyre. Called an 'Indirect TPMS' but 'Indeterminate' would be a better name. (We all know how crap the use of algorithms can be for exam results.) .. and WTF is 'the recommended inflation pressure' when manufacturers give you a figure for Cold Tyres that can range from 27 psi unladen to 37 psi fully laden (or for sustained high speed). The Handbook for my Subaru usefully informed me that "Cold Tyres is when vehicle has been parked for at least 3 hours or has been driven less than 1 mile " and "air pressure increases by approximately 4.3 psi when the tyre becomes warm." What is it when hot? The system Lotus chose was the Schrader direct TPMS system, originally developed for GM Corvette C5 in 1997 and fitted in volume to the Renault Laguna from 1999 onwards. After I'd paid £75 to a Lotus Dealer I did some research to try to justify the expense. Schrader's Tech Info said on accuracy "± 5% even at extreme temperatures (-40°C to +100°C)". I have one of the more expensive tyre pressure gauges from Halfords that claims to be ± 1% accurate that I use on my M100 Elans and various other cars. I have never found the Evora TPMS giving a different reading to that. It might be worth pointing out that tyre pressures are the excess above Atmospheric Pressure, a base reference that's always changing. Generally taken as 14.7 psi at sea level but varies during the day (Diurnal Variation) and due to Barometric Variation - looking at today's weather map there's a Low of 955 mbar (13.85 psi) and a High of 1038 mbar (15.05 psi) so that's a possible variation of 1.2 psi purely due to changes in the weather. AP is taken as 14.7 psi at sea level but drive up Stelvio (2,757m above sea level) and it will be 10.5 psi if nothing else changes except the altitude. Tyres will show 4.2 psi more at the top of Stelvio .. when cold! For the benefit of other owners I'll summarise with - "Don't expect to set your tyre pressures and see that figure always on the TPMS display, it will vary, it's not an error, it's what's actually happening". The other reason for keeping TPMS working is the entertainment it brings... In June 2019 I used my Evora for a trip to the south of France, 680 miles from Calais in a single blast (apart from refuelling 'pitstops'), tyre pressures were increased to 'high speed' settings of 41 psi Front, 44 psi Rear. 8 hours of high speed cruising and so nice to be able to see what the tyres are doing. I'd unbolted the passenger seat and pushed it forward into the footwell to transport an aircon unit to my villa before my daughter and her family arrived in August. It's about 50 miles from the village that recorded 45.9°C air temp, the current record for France while I was down there. I'd taken some digital thermometers with me to set up the aircon and used then to find the temperature of my patio tiles was 58°C, I wondered why my bare feet hurt!. Parking my Evora with sun on one side the TPMS told me the 'sunny side' tyre pressures were several psi higher than the 'shady side'. Something to keep in mind if doing a manual check... On the journey home in July the Ambient Temperature on the dash was showing 52°C when travelling on black tarmac roads and the TPMS showing psi in the high 40's approaching the Max Inflation Pressure (50 psi). I then joined a section of the Péage that was concrete and it was about 10° cooler, and the tyre pressures reduced after a time. ... and as for the "I would hope that any self-respecting Evora owner checks their tyre pressures reasonably regularly (even visually) and that if one of the tyres did lose pressure quickly, they would feel and/or hear it whilst driving. If they couldn’t do that (and they needed to rely on a TPMS), then I would question if an Evora is really the right car for them." ... What arrant nonsense ! There's negligible difference in the profile of a tyre at 25psi to it at 45 psi so a 'visual check' is meaningless. I check my tyre pressures very frequently while driving, particularly when 'pressing on' in the Evora - approaching a corner, a quick glance at the TPMS confirms I can brake hard and lean on them hard in the corner with confidence - that's what technology is for! 4 Quote Phil Leave me alone I know what I'm doing - I think. Link to post Share on other sites
exeterjeep 68 Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 On 01/11/2020 at 15:12, exeterjeep said: Have you tried doing this for the later post 2017 cars with part A132G6017F my maxitpms does not read/recognize the sensors in my evora (they are fitted as the come up on the cars display) and the evora options on the machine only have the older part number referenced in its display. I have to the latest version, only really bought it to program via cloning a set of black wheels for my wife's RR evoque, and it worked well for that. The reason I ask is that if i bought a spare set of wheels for the evora i thought i get the tpms working to keep the car happy.. keith. Thought I would update what I have found out. The new lotus sensor is an alligator sensor that can be programmed with the alligator programmer (and is also a lotus part T000T1543F), but it needs the software to be downloaded from the lotus cars dealers web site - not lotus techcentre. Found these details on a lotus tsb 2019/02 - downloaded from a USA website The maxitpms / autel programmer is unlikely to support the new sensor as I emailed them and there response was We checked this model year, it has very little market share, sorry currently we have no detailed schedule to cover this. So this also means that the later elises and exiges will not work on the autel programmer. I have a new lotus sensor and at the moment I do not know if it has been programmed or not, so will have to try it one day. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
exeterjeep 68 Posted December 16, 2020 Report Share Posted December 16, 2020 Went out for a run today after fitting a spare wheel/tyre with the new sensor and the car picked it up automatically after a few miles - the original 3 were shown within a couple of hundred yards. . Have ordered another sensor to fit to the next wheel I have. The guys who fitted the sensor supplied a suitable stem and including fitting it was £10 cash.. (lotus stem cost over £30 + vat. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pacederon 16 Posted December 17, 2020 Report Share Posted December 17, 2020 On 23/11/2020 at 22:38, Bravo73 said: I could go into the detail of why the TPMS is on the car and who it is really aimed at. But I won’t. Please elaborate, who is it aimed at? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mg4lotus 139 Posted December 17, 2020 Report Share Posted December 17, 2020 People who want to know what their tyre pressures are without getting out of the car? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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