Accutire MS-4359B Remote Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) with 4 Electronic Valve Caps and Programming Tire Pressure Gauge

I like the light, but it's hard to get the thing attached to the tire thingy. It takes several attempts. I prefer the old fashioned ones...they're quicker!

Installed this product in early January. Since then, one tire deflated over night because the cap unit loosened up and allowed air to escape. Then, two units kept loosing their program. And the final straw ... noticed a tire low this morning (February), but could not remove the cap. Apparently, it fused to the aluminum stem. In my struggles, I ended up breaking off the stem. Great! Low tire and no way of adding air. Thanks Accutire!!! At least the core stayed in the stem (if only by two threads) so I wasn't stranded in the snow and 17F temps with a totally flat tire. My local tire shop said fusing is a common problem with after-market caps and aluminum stems. Don't buy this product, especially if you have aluminum stems.

They're easy to use and the concept is good, but one was defective out of the box (kept indicating high pressure) and the others give an accurate signal only intermittently. Accutire replaced the initial defective one, but all are misbehaving now. The gauge is good, but obviously you can get a good gauge for less.

I have one car with built-in tire pressure monitoring, and one older car without that feature. The newer car made me realize how convenient it is to have this feature; especially in the cold, dirty conditions of Chicago winter, i just don't check my tire pressure as often as i should.

This device provides a convenient way to do this, but it doesn't operate exactly as i imagined. Basic operation is to calibrate each of the 4 valve stem caps to the desired tire pressure you want to maintain (the procedure for this is a little confusing, but ultimately it only took a few minutes) and then replace your existing valve stem caps with them. Then, when you activate the gauge and touch it to one of the valve stem caps, the cap itself lights up green, yellow, or red, indicating if pressure is close to your target pressure (green), low (yellow), or very low (red). I thought the actual pressure would read out on the gauge, but it does not.

Pros:
- This does give you a quick way to go around the car and check if your tire pressures are OK or not, without unscrewing valve caps and without getting dirty.

Cons:
- Tire pressure has to be low by 10% before a cap will glow yellow rather than green (and has to be low by 20% to glow red).
- You still have to go around and check - the system will not alert you to a low-pressure tire unless you check it.
- The valve caps are larger/heavier than I expected; makes me wonder if they effect wheel balance.

Underinflated tires waste expensive gas, and shorten tire life, and frequently make your car

handle badly. Accutire's MS-4359 is a cool tire monitoring system that allows you to

quickly check the pressure in your car's tires by touching the gauge to the cap. The smart

caps then measure the tire pressure with a 1 PSI accuracy give you a reading using 3

LED's--green=tire pressure OK, yellow=getting low, red=needs air. The gauge can also work

as a standard tire gauge with an accuracy of .5 PSI.

Programming the smart caps is relatively easy. You enter the pressure you need for the tire (the device allows for separate pressures for the front and back tires) and place the smart cap on the gauge. The gauge quickly programs the pressure into the smart cap.

The smart caps come with a built in lithium battery with a 3 year life. Unfortunately the

battery is not replaceable so you have to replace the caps when the battery runs out. So

far we haven't found replacement caps for the device. This also means that you can only monitor the pressure on one car with one gauge. The smart caps are quite a bit larger than a regular valve cap to accomodate the battery, sensor and LED's--not exactly a sleek look.

So is it worth it? It is for me, I have the best of intentions about keeping the tire pressure just right on those expensive low profile tires but always get busy. This tool makes it easy.