TPMS and cold weather

[PaulR83]

I have the TPMS that gives each wheels pressure.
This time of year its driving me mad as the air is cooler so constantly telling me to check tyre pressures. Especially on short journeys. On long ones they get upto temperature and it stops moaning at me.
Should I up my pressures a bit? What to others do?

 

[DXX]

The last time I had a warning the tyre pressure had dropped by 25%, way more than thermal contraction in a typical temperature drop.

 

[JamesS]

The reason it’s warning you is because the inflation pressures stated for the vehicle are cold inflation pressures. This means they should be set when the vehicle is in the ambient conditions it is going to be driven in, before it is actually driven, so tyres are cold.

European TPMS regulations require a warning when your tyre is 25% below the recommended cold inflation pressure, so if you’re seeing the TPMS warning, your tyres are significantly under inflated.

You are saying that it takes a long journey for the warning to be extinguished, which means you’re driving on under inflated tyres for quite a while, so your fuel economy will be suffering, and you are running a higher risk of damage to the tyre.

My recommendation is go out in the morning when your vehicle is cold and inflate your tyres to the recommended cold inflation pressure, and all your problems will go away.

 

[PaulR83]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.lFeeling a bit stupid now as always do them when it's cold anyway, but I set them last in the autumn when it was warmer and now they are obviously colder. They should be reading at 44 but the warning comes on at 38 which is what they seem to be at now when cold. Ironically the rears are always fine at 41 or thereabouts, it's just the fronts.
It does drive me a bit mad though as I've set them in the summer before at 44 and they go upto 50 when hot which seems rather high.
Vans a 199 dsg so fuel is terrible anyway . Thankfully I don't drive it much.