Car horns – or at least some manner of loud noisemaker – have been around a long, long time. If we consider trains to be an early form of automobile (and, really, they are) then we’re talking 1830s or so. Even if we’re much more conservative and limit the discussion to automobiles as we know them today, we’re still talking over a century of cars with horns. And, in all that time, there have been remarkably few innovations in the Voice of the Car, with the only real recent new application of the horn –outside of its usual signal and communications role – being the honks given when locking or unlocking the car via a remote locking system. And maybe the loud, panicked honks of a car alarm. Well, at least that’s what I thought until I heard – quite belatedly – about how Nissan has re-purposed the horn for a really clever function.
There’s a lot I really like about this system I’m going to tell you about, mostly because it manages to solve a tricky and interesting problem using hardware that’s already on the car in the first place, which is one of the best solutions to a problem like this, where it requires no new equipment. I should just tell you what it is already; I’m not sure why I’m dragging this out.
It’s Nissan’s Easy-Fill Tire Alert system! Sure, the name sounds like a marketing team used to coming up with names for oven cleaners came up with it, but the system is just so damn clever I want to spit. Here, look, this is how it works:
Hot pickles, it’s so flapjacking simple and clever! I love it, I really do. This is something that actually takes a real, genuine, actually-occurs-in-reality problem and applies a clever re-use of the car’s equipment to solve it. When you’re inflating your tires, it’s an ass-pain to constantly have to stop and check the pressures. But here, the car just tells you, and it does so in an un-ignorable and wildly simple way: it honks the horn. Oh, and flashes the lights, too. And, if you over-inflate, it honks twice.
You’ll be able to know you hit the right psi even in a loud, noisy gas station, even if you’re only half-paying attention because you’re scrolling Instagram with your other hand or whatever.
Nissan made a little video that addresses just this idea by comparing their novel system to the old, crude way that we used to inflate tires, like filthy animals, and I do like how they had the other guy in the barely-disguised Honda wear a helmet, just for fun:
It’s brilliant. And yeah, this has been around since, holy crap, 2013? Man, I have been sleeping on this.
But I don’t care; a good idea is a good idea, and I feel in this age of subscription heated seats and glove boxes that open from touchscreens it’s more important than ever to call out genuinely good ideas. And, I feel like with how relatively stagnant Nissan has been for the past decade or so, this novel and clever innovation is even more worthy of recognition.
Also, the statistic shown in that video is sort of alarming:
Is this true? Or is this just a psy-op from Big Compressed Air, trying to get us to constantly inflate our tires, kind of like how the Mattress-Industrial-Complex says you need to change your mattress every 72 hours or something like that. I checked, though, and it seems to be true – an NHTSA study found that only 19% of drivers (which is about 1 out of 5) have properly inflated tires! So, really, anything that helps fix that is good.
I’m not sure how I’ve slept on this clever innovation, but I’m trying to make up for it now. And other carmakers have jumped on this as well, like Honda, who calls it Tire Fill Assist:
…though Honda’s system seems to use a dedicated beeper instead of just re-purposing the horn.
This is clever, and I’m just happy to see it. I hope it spreads to all cars! I don’t know if that means Nissan gets a bunch of licensing money, but if so, sure, why not? They can use it.
Here’s How Dirt Cheap Tire Pressure Gauges Compare To Expensive Ones: Project Farm
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Ironic considering 4 out of 5 Nissans are rolling around on donuts which don’t have sensors. Oh and they are also on fire.
Seems like more of an owner problem than a Nissan problem.
“Also, the statistic shown in that video is sort of alarming:”
Bwah ha haaa! I live in FLORIDA. 4 out of 5 drivers here are rolling around on three bald tires and a donut. Which is also bald.
I recently bought a cheap little tire inflator from Amazon that has a digital display on it and you can set what pressure you want. It will inflate and then stop automatically at that pressure. I LOVE it.
Came here to say the same. Got the GOOLOO GT160 Tire Inflator from Amazon for about $50 and it works well. Wireless, auto-stops at set psi, quieter and quicker than most other times inflators.
This has also been a feature on CDJR vehicles since around 2014. Very handy.
My 2014 pathfinder does it, but I never used it.
Even after owning it for ten years
My Fords would use the horn as part of the frequently failed TPMS ID process where you would air down each tire in succession until it beeps to tell you it’s reading that sensor. It could air down pretty damn low before triggering and, if it didn’t beep, you had a bad sensor . . . and a nearly flat tire. To make the system even dumber, there seemed to be no way to move past the failed sensor to check the rest without swapping the bad sensor wheel to the last wheel in the required sequence (that or, the one time I tried it, the next wheel just also happened to have a failed sensor, which was entirely plausible with the failure rate of the worthless POS).
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
My 2010 Chevy Colorado had this, predating the 2013 Nissan you found. You had to do some trick with the headlight switch to get it to activate, but it was there, and I did use it on occasion.
Personally I’d prefer to have my car speak to me in English
… with an Asian accent.
“Presha Tooloh”
“Presha Toohah”
I’d be checking my pressures just for giggles, regularly.
Nissan 2013: “Beep!” (Your tire is full)
“Beep! Beep!” (Your tire is overfull)
Datsun 1982, Eddie Murphy Edition: “*ding* Say, man, you lef’ yo’ lights on! I said yo’ lights is on, man! What the f**k — you blind and deaf? Turn off yo’ ******’ lights!”
“*ding* Hey, man! Somebody stole yo’ battery! I say we go get the m**********r!”
I had a 2015 Murano with this feature. I always forgot about it. I always jumped out of my skin when it engaged. When you’re stooped over in a parking lot and a horn sounds right by your ear, you do a full body spasm.
Yeah, I’m all for the blinking light version, but the horn going off should be reserved for actual warnings like 10psi overfilled.
They’ve been having this thing for 20ish years now, haven’t they ?
That’s cool.
Now how about Nissan and other manufacturers make sensors that can have their batteries replaced WITHOUT having to dismount the tire from the rim or replace the whole damn sensor at $60+/ea?
How about EVERY auto maker figuring out how to do self-learning sensors? The nonsense of having to use a tool to relearn the things is ridiculous. And then there is the fun of some makes not allowing more than one set of sensors, making snow tire changeover lots of fun. Though the aftermarket at least stepped up with “cloneable” sensors.
The battery thing doesn’t bother me much, the shortest lived one I have had so far is 14 years. One of the eight across my pair of 2011 BMWs has failed. And on those cars, the system can simply be coded to use ABS speed sensing instead of wheel sensors anyway. Next time I get tires I will replace the sensors and code it back to using them.
Mine started failing within a couple of months after I got a set of tires. One by one they went, one even went so far as to break its valve stem as I was checking the pressure to make sure it got to the top of my to do list.
Quality.
Based on my Mercedes and BMW experience, I am just going to get new sensors the next time I get new tires past the 15 year mark. Of course, YMMV based on how much you drive and what you drive. For the sensors my cars use, they are only ON when the wheel is spinning, they have a centrifugal power switch. In fact, I just sold the winter wheels I had for my BMW wagon since they haven’t been on the car in a dozen years. My friend put them on his car and the sensors still worked just fine. Will be interesting to see how much longer they last!
For the majority of sensors, the valve stems (which attach the sensors to the wheel) are supposed to be replaced anytime the tires are dismounted. The “TPMS rebuild kit” that tire shops charge you for. So that may have been a cheap crappy kit from the tire shop, or they pre-broke it re-mounting it.
If the valve stems can be replaced the batteries should be swappable too!
They are. You get a new battery with every new sensor. The battery is probably 90%+ of the cost of the thing.
At $60/sensor 90% is markup. My comment on the battery was about the kit, not the entire sensor. In the kits batteries are not included:
“The TPMS service kit usually contains the following components: valve core, valve nut, seal, seal washer, and valve cap. The service kit needs to be replaced every time a tire is serviced.”
https://www.tpmsdirect.com/TPMS_Service_kit_Recommendations_a/692.htm
Yes, I get that you were talking about the kit. There is no point in making the battery replaceable, because the BATTERY is the majority of the cost of the thing anyway. The service kit is just the bit that mounts it to the wheel. A replaceable battery would end up being $45 of a $60 sensor. And then wouldn’t you be peeved when the actual pressure transducer or the radio transmitter failed… Having the sensor as a sealed unit is the most practical way to do this, and they last a REALLY long time – at least on cars that aren’t junk.
Ultimately, it’s becoming a moot point anyway as more and more makers go back to speed-sensor based TPMS, now that the Feds allow that again.
TPMS sensors use a CR2450HR Lithium battery:
https://www.amazon.com/PULADU-CR2450HR-Pressure-Detector-Battery/dp/B0DJVNRL49
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114528003609
These batteries run about $4.25/ea which if 90% of the price of the sensor makes that sensor worth about $4.75.
So 90% the price of that $60 sensor is indeed markup.
Most of the price of any finished good is “markup” throughout the supply chain. Doesn’t change the fact that it make zero sense to make the batteries of these things replaceable. Which is why absolutely nobody does that.
But hey, maybe you can be the Elon Musk of TPMS!
Why does it make more sense to force the user to visit a tire shop and pull the tire off the rim just to replace a $4 battery? That makes as much sense as gluing batteries into smartphones so users have to replace the whole $$$$ phone when the $ battery dies.
Even if you had a replaceable battery, you are still going to have to pull the tire off to replace the battery. Unless you propose the entire industry adopt some sort of new wheel standard where the battery is on the outside. Good luck with that!
As I said, a moot point as most manufacturers are going to speed sensor based TPMS anyway. now that nearly every car has a GPS receiver, they don’t even have the problem of not alerting if ALL the tires are low anymore.
“Unless you propose the entire industry adopt some sort of new wheel standard where the battery is on the outside. Good luck with that!”
Challenge accepted!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VgfrOQhqvl8
Well that was easy!
How completely pointless. And I would imagine easy to damage.
Hardly pointless since you can effortlessly replace the entire sensor by unscrewing it from the valve stem. And also retrofit cars for which such sensors were not OEM.
Sour grapes much?
Nope – as I said, out of a dozen sensors across two cars, I have had exactly ONE fail in 14 years. And who knows if it was the battery that failed? Could just as easily have been the transducer or the transmitter. My other car with sensors is now 11 years old, no failures there either. If one fails, I will just replace them the next time I need tires anyway on that car. The other two can just be coded to use speed sensing in the meantime.
The last thing I want hanging out in the breeze waiting to be damaged by something is a TPMS sensor.
Or make it not need a battery, or not as often. If watches can wind themselves off of wrist movement surely a tpms can leech enough power off of tire movement.
I thought of that. Watches (e.g. Seiko kinetic) can also recharge their batteries. Automatic watch mechanisms are a bit pricy though.
I however the heat resistant batteries doesn’t like to be recharged the mechanism of charging becomes moot.
The older I get, the more annoying unnecessary noises are. Happy that my 2010 MB has a very subdued alert tones when locking, whereas most current cars are obnoxious. Just flash the corresponding turn signal, or slap the overinflator with a trafficator.
Long post alert, TL;DR – anecdotes on annoying beeps so no reading necessary.
That’s become a big pet peeve of mine lately too.
My Sorento would loudly chime multiple times and flash an orange warning light whenever the temperature dropped below 36ish F to indicate the possibility of ice being present – sometimes multiple times in the same drive but usually at startup in winter. Since it was a Theta II also, it would startle me and I would think “this is it! The engine is finally going!”
There was no way to turn that off, it was pretty peaceful other than that. Except the backup sensors didn’t work and it beeped every time it was shifted into reverse.
My SO’s HR-V beeps whenever you walk away from it or close all the doors, etc. I get what it’s doing but I do not like it.
I appreciate my 4Runner because I could change the external beep volume to a minimum and there’s no obtrusive “there might be ice” warning beeps, rear seatbelt warning beeps, no backup sensor beeps, or the backup sensors aren’t working beeps, blind spot beeps, etc. Yuck! It does have that forward collision beeps but I can live with those.
I can’t remember what they were but I rented a CX-50 recently and it had a host of extra annoyances like the aforementioned rear seatbelt beeps.
I couldn’t figure out exactly why they were tripping on the rear seats and I attempted to move cargo around to alleviate it but I ended up buckling the belts.
I wish more attention was paid to the type of sound too. Like how POS systems can have more pleasant bongs versus harsh buzzing.
The ice ones are always annoying, because temp variations in the same drive will trigger it over and over.
Re: the HR-V – you might be able to turn the volume down or off on the beeps similar to the 4Runner, via the same way through the infotainment screen. Found that Honda even allows you to change the volume of the seatbelt chime and turn signals that way which, while probably common on more cars now, wasn’t something I’m used to seeing. Unless your SO likes the beeps in which case that’s a different battle.
GM also would let you change the volume of the warning chime and turn signal, at least for the time they had the radio-generated “bong” chimes.
I’m not sure about the new Global B GM cars with the new chimes.
BMW lets you code damned near everything. My cars are all but silent.
Of course, since I only buy non-stupid BMWs, mine never have warning chimes to start with. Anvils should be so reliable as my pair of 2011s.
One of the common symptoms of PTSD is a heightened irritation with alert noises, particularly the kinds of higher pitched and/or loud sounds modern electronic junk tend to use, and it’s especially so when they are completely unnecessary BS and hit suddenly. Post PTSD, the sudden-onset rage brought on by these things has stayed with me and that’s another reason that, if I’m ever emperor, the purges start with the electronics industry.
I have PTSD from BMW’s “gong” chime. I’ve had two or three problematic Bimmers. Hearing it makes me jump out of my skin.
Hold on good idea bad concept. Sure if you have a flat tire you know what tire needs filled. But if low what tire? In day time if you are filling a rear tire how will you see headlights flash? If possible have the horn beep when tire is okay maybe flashing if over filled.
My wife’s ’17 Nissan Rogue shows all four tire pressures on a menu in the screen between the tach and the speedo.
I’d rather have the tire pressure notification system wired into the window and headlight washers. Just seems like more fun, kinda like a mini Bellagio water fountain show whenever you fill your tires.
Gm uses the horn to communicate when the TPMS programming is accepted at each tire. Pretty clever and super easy.
But TMPS units fail all the time. They suck.
Why should you even have to do that? The BMW way. Install sensor on wheel, mount wheel on car. Drive car. Sensor then works. Swap wheels between cars, or swap winter wheels onto car. They just work. Rotate tires – they just work. No programming bullshit required.
The programming is so the car knows which sensor is on which corner. Makes rotating tires super easy. An added 3 minute step, but another dumb tool in the box.
And yet better cars can do that all on their own, no stupid tools required.
If you’re gonna be stuck with TPMS this is a good thing to have. Though I could imagine James May rigging up an air compressor to all the tires when parked to make the car play the song of it’s people all night….
I completely believe the quoted statistic, based on both the number of people at work who complain about the tire pressure light on cold mornings, and the local meteorologists who casually mention that your tire pressure light will probably be on in the morning (but don’t offer any suggestions for dealing with this issue).
I ended up buying a small air compressor, since both the free and coin-operated compressors at gas stations in my area always seem to be broken.
Honda’s system doesn’t really use a dedicated TPMS beeper per se. It’s the same beeper that is used for the keyless access system for alerts like lock/unlock feedback, leaving the key in the car, or opening/closing the tailgate. I’m glad we went to a much more dulcet tone for the keyless because the sound of horns honking all the time really raises my blood pressure (looking at you Chevy and your obnoxious horn alerts).
Don’t forget the people that need to press the lock button five times just to make sure the doors are REALLY locked at 2am.
I’d like to add GM vehicles which think it’s a good idea to illumine the reverse lights whenever a button the fob is pressed, makes me think I’m about to get backed over every time.
This is such an obnoxious feature that it makes me irritated at the people who own the cars.
Oh, the so-called perimeter lighting. It’s obnoxious, but I’ve gotten good at using context clues to figure out if someone’s really reversing out of a spot or not. Also, it can be deactivated, though most people never do.
Same. My sister’s 2014 Soul uses the horn to indicate a lock event in such a way that it literally sounds as though someone has honked at you. It’s not a subtle chirp at all.
If she’d had the upgraded system with keyless access/push-button start, it (a) wouldn’t have been stolen at least once, and (b) would have a demure exterior beeper for lock/unlock events.
Both Sheetz and Get-Go in Pittsburgh area have free air. It honestly pisses me off if I am travelling and cannot find free air if I need it. I still carry a handful or quarters and small change in the car but really…
I have a full compressor at the house as well as a 12V small inflator.
My local tire store will do it for you for free. Don’t even have to get out of your car.
The Discount Tire/America’s Tire chain does free drive-thru pressure checks/inflates.
Kwik-Trip/Kwik-Star in the Midwest also have really nice free air pumps.
I just had to spend $2.50 at a Shell in LA to pump up my in-law’s tires, which made me miss home.
Costco has free nitrogen inflators that let you enter the correct PSI, so the machine will stop at the right time. Also, since there’s no real way to check for memebership, anyone can use them!
I lived in Western PA for a few years, and when I moved back to New England, it was an unpleasant surprise that I had to remember to carry around quarters for air compressors again.
QuikTrip does a well, and they’re actually good about maintaining them. They haven’t really spread outside the great plains area much, though.
In lieu of my cars not offering this feature, I just drive over to my local Wawa, which not only offers free air (and really, why the Hell would I pay for air?), but the machine also both beeps and shuts off when I hit my target air pressure.
Anywho, thanks to this article, I’ve found exactly one thing to appreciate about Nissan.
The inflator at Costco is baller as hell. It’s fast and shuts off at the pressure you set.
Everywhere else I just don’t even try for air. It’s broken, or there’s a cost associated, or there’s someone deciding that the air pump is exactly the spot to do a deep detail of their car and clean out the McFishy wrappers and turkey legs.
That’s the Stig’s Suburban Dad Cousin
Someone get this article to Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe post haste!
We just found his reason to team up with Nissan.
My programmable inflator cost $35 and I keep it under the rear seat. It shuts off when it gets to the number I put into it, and it’s done it every time for years. Why not just get one of those?
Exactly. I have had inflators that do this for years now. Even the few I have without auto shut-off have a digital gauge on them.
Aubreeh the single mom isnt going to buy one of those. This is for those people who “dont have time.”
Why buy a separate device when your car could notify you for free?
See below.
Why? This is built into the car and there are gas stations with free air. Free is cheaper than $35. I could use that cash for several bags of chips.
I haven’t seen free air in years. Of course I haven’t had to look. And you have to stand around in a gas station for this. Plus I’m amortized at $3.50 a year now.
The last inflator with built in gauge and shutoff that I had was very, consistently wrong. As in: set it for 32 PSI, it runs until it hits 32 on its own readout, shuts off, immediately shows 28. And then shows 27 or less on a gauge after detaching the inflator. Ridiculous. So, don’t trust yours unless you’ve verified it with a separate gauge.
I do. So far so good. Good advice though.
My past 2 Ford work vans have had this feature for years. It is rather brilliant.
Same with my previous gen ’18 Sierra 1500, incredibly convenient and underrated feature. Not sure what year they fist added it tho.