mav238

I know this is a little off topic... but there is no "off-topic" forum here...

so here goes..

I have been using the pneumatic spring loaded air-pressure tire gauge, pencil type, on my two cars, the RDX included. Been finding it to be rather finicky and challenging to ensure accurate consistent tire pressure for all four tires. Given it is an AWD drive system, I figure having all tires having air-pressure close to within 2-3% of each other is important for drivability and directional alignment during driving.

Can you gurus out there indicate if the ACCUTIRE digital pressure gauge is worth getting? In terms of air leakage during measurement, my manual tire gauge also leaks air slowly.

XLR8R

Cheap tire gauges are notoriously inaccurate by 2 or 3 pounds, sometimes more.

A good quality tire gauge is worth the expense of $20 or so, but check it against a known quantity (the TPMS in the RDX Tech for example) because even quality gauges can be off.

The electronic digital gauges are at least not so likely to be damaged by dropping as the mechanical ones.

mav238

Can you clarify what you mean by "check it against a known quantity (the TPMS in the RDX Tech for example)" ?

How do you do that yourself?

sasair

If you are assuming the TPMS system in the RDX is a "known quantity", then why would you need a tire gauge?


How can you be off-topic in a general discussion area? If you mean off-topic from the RDX, then there is an off-topic section.

XLR8R

What I mean is: even good tire gauges have to be checked against a known accurate instrument to be sure they are accurate. It could have been a purchase/return to the store or someone may have dropped it at some point.

Check it against a high quality shop mech's gauge, or use the TPMS in the RDX which is a high quality, accurate system. Drive a few miles, then check the TPMS and get out and see if the tire gauge gives the same readings.

As an project I bought 5 $20 to $50 tire gauges and checked them for accuracy.
I found variations of up to 8 psi and the $20 mechanical gauge from Slime was the most accurate and consistant.

XLR8R

One could just use the TPMS readout to monitor tire pressure, and I like to do that at the end of the day just to make sure I haven't picked up a slow leak (we get a lot of puntures in this area).

It's nice to have a gauge though for setting cold tire pressure in the morning as the days get warmer.

mav238

Alright... I admit I don't know my RDX as well as you do... mt TPMS system is simply a graphic display, and I thought the only time it indicates anything other than saying "normal function", is when the tires' pressure are "LOW".

Can you please enlighten me on how you get the TPMS system to read out the exact tire pressure of each tire?

mav238

By the way, the ACCUTIRE 4000 digital tire pressure works quite well. Quick readout, but it takes some getting use to in getting a good tight seal during reading. Works way better than my old spring pneumatic pencil type.

MikeRDXNJ

mav do you have the tech pkg? if you go to the TPMS display and hit the middle button it will show you the psi on each tire

mav238

Thanks!

Man, I should really spend some time reading the manual.

mav238

How precise is the TPMS tire pressure reading? +/- 1 psi?

XLR8R

Well, it does not give fractional pound readings, so yes it's just +/- 1 psi but within those limits I'd say it's highly accurate.

The RDX is my third car with TPMS (the others were VW and Chevrolet) and all of them were very consistant and accurate. The computer monitors the quality of the signal from the in-tire devices and will issue a message if it's not reliable.

Chas2

I would use one of these dial type gauges. You can get with or without the fill feature shown below. Racing teams use a much more expensive version of the dial gauge, though like many things, they are going digital too. My experience with digital is I do not like to hassle with the batteries. Your car get really hot, like 140 degrees plus in the summer sun and it just kills batteries. I always just leave the gauge in the glove compartment because I never know when I might need it, and it does get hot in there. Changing the batteries, even once a year is painful--go to Radio Shack, pay $5, etc.

For me the old analog works just fine...but you are correct, the pencil gauges are notoriously inaccurate, however, and most are not even made out of metal these days.

http://www.autosportcatalog.com/inde...id=2348&cid=90

You can actually get the same thing at autozone or similar places for about $11.00

mav238

I actually got the ACCUTIRE 4000 digital gauge for $8.00, whivh I think is a pretty good deal.

I checked the accuracy against the RDX TPMS, and it is quite good. withing 0.5 psi of each other. Also, it appears quite precise and consistent, meaning, I took three consecutive readings of the same tire, and it does not quite fluctuate at all.

In any case, I found it to be fast in readout, reasonably reliable and reasonably easy to use in terms of getting a good seal. Like all pencil type gauges I have used in the past, air will leak if you don't appropriately set the gauge before pushing down to activate the gauge.