I've noticed that this is an option on new Rangers and other Ford vehicles, such as our '07 Mercury Mariner. How exactly does it work? Is it actually a sensor on each wheel/tire or a just another way of sensing different wheel speeds via the ABS sensors? The reason I ask is that my wife ran over a screw with the Mariner and the light came on indicating a low tire. It had only dropped to about 22 PSI and triggered it.

 

there are two different kinds. one kind works with the abs and it measures the revolutions of the tire. the other kind has a tire pressure monitor that also acts like a valve stem. you can tell the differrence if u look at the valve stem. if its a normal rubbber valve stem its the abs kind and if it is plastic then it has the monitor in it.

 

Our Escape has a sensor mounted to the center of the rim by a metal band. When we put aftermarket wheels on it, the local dealerships would not remount the sensors on the new wheels. They told us we had to buy new sensors....at the tune of $200 each. So our Escape doens't have the TPMS on it anymore. I've been checking my own tire pressure for almost 30 yrs, I think I can handle it. Besides, it's just one more thing to break.

 

my dads expedition has the monitoring system but it's pissing him off. every week about 4 times, the message center will flash: LOW PRESSURE RIGHT REAR TIRE. he'll check it and the pressure is fine. so he took it to ford to have the monitoring system looked at, said it would cost around $200+ because they don't know what is causing it to say the tire is low when it is not. my dad said "leave it alone, i think i'm capable of realizing when my tires are low and need air"

 

I saw this on ebay. Not really sure how well it works, but it's not a bad price.

 

Interesting. That's basically how the TPMS is mounted on the Escapes. If I could get a set of those worm clamps, I could reinstall our sensors.