By Admin, BuyLocalBG.com, BuyLocalBg@gmail.com/
Thursday, July 31st, 2014 2:00 PM CST
If you ever have been driving down the road and the symbol above has flashed on your car, you may have wondered what that symbol means:
It lights up in your instrument panel and looks like a U-shaped pictograph with treads and an exclamation point in the middle. Do you understand what it means now (Hit the video if you are still wondering)?
If you guessed a low tire-pressure warning, you are right. If you didn’t recognize the symbol, that’s also understandable because one out of three drivers do not, according to Schrader, a company that makes tire pressure monitoring systems.
The warning for the TPMS lights up when one or more of your vehicle’s tires is 25% below the manufacturer’s recommended pressure. The system is now required on all vehicles starting with the 2008 model year.
The issue here seems to be that the public hasn’t been properly educated on the warning symbol, which is supposed to be “idiot proof” and understandable across a wide variety of cultures and languages. Yet 46% of drivers couldn’t figure out that the icon represents a tire and 14% thought the symbol represented another problem with the vehicle entirely.
Properly inflated tires are vitally important to your safety. Low pressure will affect your braking, acceleration, stability, cornering and fuel economy. The government instituted the TPMS mandate after tire failures in 2000, a controversy that was partly attributed to inadequately inflated tires. Also, for any auto needs call S&R Tire, located at 1101 Lovers Lane, 270.781.8828. Also fan them on facebook.
