idiot lights
I know that technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but I find this little indicator on my vehicle to be so incredibly annoying. I've had my Pathfinder for a little under a year, and the first time this warning light came on, I had to look in the manual to see what the hell it was trying to tell me. Apparently this is the ISO symbol for "Significant Tire Underinflation",
intended to inform you when one or more of your tires pressure is low. So every few months, I'll hear a long BEEEEEEEEEEP and then the dreaded tire pressure symbol turns on. Each time it's happened, I've promptly headed to a gas station to check the pressure in my tires, and each time, there might be ONE tire that is a pound or so different than the others (and none that I would consider "significantly underinflated"). This happened on my way home last night, so this morning on my way to work I stopped by the gas station, removed the caps from all 4 tires and checked the pressure. Doh! One tire was one pound lighter than the other three! Then I discovered that the air compressor was broken. Argh. Well, you'd think that knowing that the tires were sufficiently inflated (at least for the time being) would be enough, but no, there's that STINKIN' indicator glaring at me from the dash. I mean, it might as well be SHOUTING at me as far as I'm concerned. So I drive a little further and stop by another gas station only to find that, again, the air compressor is not working. Finally I get to a third station, find an air compressor that IS working (one where you have to pay for the air, of course), add a little air to each tire and then carefully check to make sure they all have precisely the same amount of air in them, then as I'm driving out of the station I find that the light is STILL on! GAAAH!!! I checked them again when I got to work, and all four were still exactly the same. So I guess after work today I will be searching for that mystical threshold of tire pressure that makes that damn light turn off. Grrr.
intended to inform you when one or more of your tires pressure is low. So every few months, I'll hear a long BEEEEEEEEEEP and then the dreaded tire pressure symbol turns on. Each time it's happened, I've promptly headed to a gas station to check the pressure in my tires, and each time, there might be ONE tire that is a pound or so different than the others (and none that I would consider "significantly underinflated"). This happened on my way home last night, so this morning on my way to work I stopped by the gas station, removed the caps from all 4 tires and checked the pressure. Doh! One tire was one pound lighter than the other three! Then I discovered that the air compressor was broken. Argh. Well, you'd think that knowing that the tires were sufficiently inflated (at least for the time being) would be enough, but no, there's that STINKIN' indicator glaring at me from the dash. I mean, it might as well be SHOUTING at me as far as I'm concerned. So I drive a little further and stop by another gas station only to find that, again, the air compressor is not working. Finally I get to a third station, find an air compressor that IS working (one where you have to pay for the air, of course), add a little air to each tire and then carefully check to make sure they all have precisely the same amount of air in them, then as I'm driving out of the station I find that the light is STILL on! GAAAH!!! I checked them again when I got to work, and all four were still exactly the same. So I guess after work today I will be searching for that mystical threshold of tire pressure that makes that damn light turn off. Grrr.
posted by my imperfect offering at 1:55 PM
3 Comments:
My car has some annoying habits like that too, although not that exact one. How irritating!!!
You know what else is irritating? When your engine fails but the car doesn't tell you that. Yeah, you'd think that'd be kind of an important thing to alert me to!
Good luck with the tires!
Funny... that little light is the subject of a whole commercial for an Acura (I think) SUV. "Look at us. We give you a light for when you need to add air. Obviously, we have the superior vehicle." Or something like that.
I would have never guessed what that symbol meant - my first guess was overweight passenger with flattened bottom.
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