life with the TPMS light

Last week, my tire pressure maintenance sensor light started blinking. Naturally, I thought to myself, ‘Blinking?! What fresh hell is this?’

[NOTE: I have one of those TPMS lights that offers no information other than on/off. So every time it comes on it’s like my car is announcing, ‘One Or More Of Your Tires May Be About To Explode. Or Possibly Just A Minor Drop In Pressure Caused By Cold Weather. CHOOSE WISELY!’]

After dutifully checking my tire pressure and (what else) googling the situation, it turns out my tires are (probably) fine. It’s the sensor itself that’s broken. And in a ‘gotta laugh about it or else you’ll cry’ turn of events, it’s nowhere near a cheap fix.

Alternately, you can do what the garage advised me to do, which is monitor the tire pressure yourself and ignore the light entirely, at least until you can stop laughing and/or crying long enough to make a plan. It’s been going okay so far. Turns out living with a constant potential for impending doom is already pretty much the default setting these days, so there’s that.

And on a more positive note, it’s a great story to tell, and in return I’ve heard more great stories from people about *their* TPMS lights, and various “fixes” they’ve finagled over the years. Good stuff!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.