Tire Accu-Pressure Safetly Cap Warning

[Curruzr]

[:0]

in October of 2004 I purchased a set of four of these puppies to put on my tire stems. They are the tire caps that have a color system that shows you what your tire pressure is... giving you a heads up if your tire is loosing pressure. I bought it from JC Whitney. (Can't post the URL here, it is too long and it wraps, but here is a link to what I believe is the manufacturer ( (http://www.accupressurecaps.com )

I know they would not be super accurate, but I figured that they would provide some information on the status of the tires without having to use a tire gauge.

Yesterday, I was driving home (luckily from a short distance) and I thought the car felt a little sluggish, and double-checked I had the parking break off. I got home and parked and forgot about it until walking past the car later. I notice my rear tire was almost completely flat!

"Great" I thought, "must of run over a nail or something." I figured I would re-inflate the tire and see how slow the leak was, then take it to get fixed. So I took off my Accu-Pressure Safety Cap, and filled the tire. When I put the Safety Cap back on, air was hissing out of the cap itself. I quickly switched a cap from another tire, and all is well. The tire itself is fine, but the safety cap must of lost it's seal or been damaged in some way (I have not rubbed a curb, or anything I can think of) or maybe the product "just failed").

So, I bought these to help insure against low pressure tires and the product ends up giving me a flat! Good thing I was at home, and this did not happen during the night or on a long trip. Could have risked damaging the tire and/or the rim! And good thing two did not crap out at once, giving me two flats with one spare tire!

I don't know if anyone else has had problems with this product, and I don 't know if this was just a poorly made exception... (I bought it less thn a year ago) but I think I will take them all off my tires and go back to the original black caps. Seems too risky to keep on my tires!

[CREWZIN]

Sounds like you got yourself a bad one. It happens. Check air in the tires with a guage about every other week but I visually check every car that I drive when I get out, maybe not every time but pretty regularly.

By the way, do you still have the packaging for the pressure caps? Send the bad one back to the company and they'll probably give you a whole new set.....if you can trust them on your car again.

[Stone-PT]

I think that it is entirely possible that something dinged the cap while driving. A small pebble, rock or other debris could have made a perfect hit, seeing how fast it dropped the pressure. I've been using these types' of caps for 3-4 years now (over a year on the PT) and haven't had a single prob. Even aided in catching a tire going down after Hurricane Dennis.

[nhrapt]

I also have them with no problems also, Except thieves.[xx(]

[Jimbo]

I check tire presure every other Sunday, with gage.
I see to many cars driving around with low tires.
If I'm going out of town I check them before I leave.
Gas just to high to be throwing money away.

[Red GT]

Have had them. I also had trouble with them. Were not accurate a lot of the time. What they said and what the pressure really was were two different things. Got rid of them. Check mine every month with a good gauge that way I'm sure. And of course keep an eye on them.

[quicksilverdon]

quote:Originally posted by jforce

I also have them with no problems also, Except thieves.[xx(]

Yeah, put them on my daughter's car, and they got swiped!

I had them on my '02, had no problems, but consider them next to useless - they stayed green until tire was WAY low, so I didn't get them for my '05.
A good idea, but I'd want to see yellow if I'm 3-5psi low.