Lol, welcome to the dumpster fire that is Volvo’s tpms. They had a proper functioning direct-tpms in 2016 that actually indicated individual tire pressure, then decided to downgrade to indirect-tpms from ‘17-on. This system uses rolling circumference to determine if a tire is low, and does NOT measure or display individual tire pressure. It does (or is supposed to) at least indicate which tire is low, but from experience with our ‘19 it is often inaccurate and glitchy. Looks like Volvo took the downgrade a step further and now it doesn’t even indicate which tire is low.

For such a wonderful (and expensive) vehicle that places a high emphasis on safety, it really boggles the mind that Volvo decided we don’t need to know tire pressure. The tpms (or lack thereof) is my biggest gripe with this car

 

I can't measure it now but by look, all tires seem ok. But by the very elementary logic: if the system tells that some tire has a low pressure, it must come to that knowledge somehow, seeing that some tire has lower pressure? (not all tires but one particular tire?). So it somehow measures the pressure of each tire? If not, how could it know that there is some pressure change? And if it knows which tire has lower pressure - why on earth it does not tell it ???? It makes absolutely no sense ?

 

When you pump air, you want to pump all tires, not only one.

And I did see one tire is marked orange in my case. I also see it doesn't warn me when all tires are 5-9 psi lower.

And it doesn't measure pressure. It measures the turning of each wheel to see the tire diameter is different, hence pressure is different.

It may or may not work in some cases. It is not perfect.

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It does not measure tire pressure at all. It counts wheel rotation and the system is triggered when one wheel spins at a different speed than the others over a period of time. IMO the biggest issue I have is that it generally will say low even if it's high... it just knows a wheel is spinning at a different speed. Pretty low level coding effort here. It assumes you are checking all four tires when the message comes on anyway... so they figure no need to identify which wheel. The plus side of all this, no batteries to go bad and the sensors generally last the life of the vehicle without need for repair. Some people get driven mad by not having pressure readings, which I don't see much value in, so those folks generally should not buy a newer Volvo. There are very cheap 3rd party valve stem pressure readers. I bought a pair for under $30 just to see if they worked well. I find it annoying but also too lazy to take off, they work fine on my XC70... though someone correctly pointed out the wheels should be rebalanced when using them.

 

On my 2020 XC90 the details should show a top down view with each wheel highlighted. One week ago we had a big temperature drop and sure enough all four wheels were highlighted. Pressure was down 5 psi per wheel. Last year I got a warning and one wheel was highlighted for low pressure. A nail gave a slow leak and the tire was down about 6 psi.

I'm surprised that your car does not have that detail screen. I wonder if it is a change for 2023.

I do carry a good full dial pressure gauge in the car. So far I find the Volvo pressure system useable.

 

Personally, I prefer the tire pressure being inferrerd by using the wheel speed sensors versus the extra hardware (and expense) of sensors mounted in each wheel. I recently went through the hassle and cost of replacing and programming the new sensors on one of my cars. That car was not a Volvo, as Volvo cars fortunately, figure out a new sensor has been installed on its own without requiring programming.

Checking the pressure of all 4 tires to find which tire is low is not that big of an issue for me.

The only problem with using the wheel speed sensors to infer tire pressure is when the temperature does drop and all 4 wheels loose the same pressure, the car will not detect that tire pressure is low because all of the wheels still rotate at the same speed.

 

Well, most cars in this category show the tire pressure values ... But still - having these 3 levels of messages and being pushed to the next one and to receive the same info in the end as in the beginning does not look very sophisticated, intelligent and useful in general ?

 

One could argue that being told your tire pressure is low three times and continuing to go looking for more details isn't all that sophisticated either.

What it looks like to me is programming placeholders. Programmer is given the task of setting all these menus up. But then the menus aren't ever used in more depth for some topics... they're basically just programmed tasks but no real consumer facing info beyond the low pressure, which is all a customer should really need to initiate the task of verifying pressure and making adjustments. The same structure for other messages that go through the car status system, all programmed the same just pointing to different messages.

IMO it's a bit like a fuel gauge... I've never seen a complaint that a fuel gauge doesn't give the volume of fuel left. It might say miles these days, but the exact volume has never been needed. When you fuel your car, you might watch the price going up... but you don't likely say "well this is a 16 gallon tank and I am going to add 12 gallons. You fill it up. Tires though, don't really need the amount of lowness to know you should check them and add, and you don't use the cars system to see how much to add either.. as low is bad, you should fill up, not sit there and say "well I can go another 5 psi". Same with the deletion of temp gauges... folks do complain about that... but modern temp genuinely aren't helpful. You have a sensor for low coolant and you have a coolant hot sensor. Day to day driving, and even damage prevention, isn't aided by knowing more than these two concerns.

 

Well, not really ... It is big difference if your tire loses little bit of air (0,1 etc.) or a lot - which is good to know ... And instead of spending time with blind checking which one it is, it should be just essential to be told which one it is directly by the system.

And as for showing the fuel level and remaining range it is really BAD with this new car. You go exactly the same speed for few hours and it keeps changing like crazy ... You take fuel on the way, it shows range 800 km and in 10 min it shows 400 Km and in another 20 min 600 km , then 300 km , you stop , you start the car and 500 km ... and these just 4 small points where you really don't really see how much fuel you still have ...

 

Well, not really ... It is big difference if your tire loses little bit of air (0,1 etc.) or a lot - which is good to know ... And instead of spending time with blind checking which one it is, it should be just essential to be told which one it is directly by the system.

And as for showing the fuel level and remaining range it is really BAD with this new car. You go exactly the same speed for few hours and it keeps changing like crazy ... You take fuel on the way, it shows range 800 km and in 10 min it shows 400 Km and in another 20 min 600 km , then 300 km , you stop , you start the car and 500 km ... and these just 4 small points where you really don't really see how much fuel you still have ...

The fuel gauge is still displayed. Just go refill when you see it is 1/6 or 1/8 or less. Simple.

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Passive TPMS keeps track of wheel speeds, and compares all 4 to each other, and stored values. If 1 wheel is noticeably different from what it calculates they should be, it will tell you that wheel is high/low.
if multiple are off, it doesn't know which is high or low, just that something isn't right. Like if 2 are higher than the other 2, it doesn't really know if they are HIGH, or the other 2 are LOW.
It does let you now that "Hey, sumptin' aint' right" pretty good, just some times, you have to still be the final brain involved in the process.

 

So the end of the story: the warning message about low tire pressure kept going on all the time. I went to a tire shop today, they measured the pressure and found that the pressure is normal and standard and exactly the same for all the tires. So thank you my dear car for informing me well about some problems ...

 

So did they/you do a re-learn?

 

Have had the same issue multiple times in our ‘19…tpms warning with perfect tire pressure. I wouldn’t care if it were primarily my vehicle (my old ranch truck has been missing sensors and has had a tpms light on for over 350k miles), but this vehicle was purchased for my wife to keep her and the kids as safe as possible, and I guess that includes not having to stop unnecessarily to check tire pressure. After the first false alert, I now tell her to ignore warnings unless a tire appears visually low and I just check things when I get home. We’ve been lucky with no false alerts for the last few months, but I have zero faith in the tpms at this point.

Otherwise a fantastic vehicle but the tpms has been nothing more than an annoyance

 

I had tons of issues with the passive TPMS on my XC90s. Both a ton of false positives (like above) and failing to detect real drops. I had 15 psi drops go undetected. And utterly useless for cold days.

It is a disgrace, for a company that prides itself for safety. On a car, the T8, without a spare. You have to go wonder who the heck OKd that choice... sure, save $200 on sensors on a $80k vehicle - because that is what Volvo customers are looking for, right? To sacrifice a bit of safety for $200?

To add salt to the wound, the first SPA XC90 I bought, a 2016 D5 in Italy, came with an active TPMS system that worked wonderfully.

 

I had tons of issues with the passive TPMS on my XC90s. Both a ton of false positives (like above) and failing to detect real drops. I had 15 psi drops go undetected. And utterly useless for cold days.

It is a disgrace, for a company that prides itself for safety. On a car, the T8, without a spare. You have to go wonder who the heck OKd that choice... sure, save $200 on sensors on a $80k vehicle - because that is what Volvo customers are looking for, right? To sacrifice a bit of safety for $200?

To add salt to the wound, the first SPA XC90 I bought, a 2016 D5 in Italy, came with an active TPMS system that worked wonderfully.

I was happy to hear it was indirect TPMS but sad to hear the implementation sucks. Such a waste to have to replace the entire TPMS sensor when the battery dies (

There is no sensor...only measures rotation. If all four tires drop the same amount and measure roughly equal psi across all four, there will be no warning. One of the many flaws of indirect-tpms.

the car could easily measure rotations per mile and sense a difference indicating low pressure even if all 4 tires are the same. Do we know it doesn’t?

 

When the temperature drops it’s normal to see the warning. I recommend buying a $10 tire pressure gauge (with actual dial on it, no digital or the flute type) and keep it in the car. I check all 4 tire pressure at least once a month. Check the recommended tire pressure at your left door and adjust. Always on cold tires.

 

When the temperature drops it’s normal to see the warning.

What is then the meaning of the warning ? Telling you the temperature dropped? Also the logic of the message sequence - telling you will see more details in the next message and in the end you will see just the same message 3 times ?

Your front glass is broken ! (when it is raining it's normal to see the warning

 

There is no sensor...only measures rotation. If all four tires drop the same amount and measure roughly equal psi across all four, there will be no warning. One of the many flaws of indirect-tpms.

 

Indirect actually saves you money in the long run, you can pay 200-400 hell sometimes more for programming and install when in 7-10years the sensor fails, or you can use brake cleaner and clean your magnetic pickup if it's dirty for let's say 33¢ of CRC, it's about time a Luxury Car saved someone some money.

 

The question is why this (luxury) car cannot just measure directly the pressure in each tire and have it instantly ready on the display?

 

The answer to your question seems obvious. I have to wonder why the car was purchased if the indirect tpms did not meet your needs.

 

It really doesn’t make sense…Volvo already had this system made for the xc90 then decided to drop it, so wouldn’t have taken any extra engineering. Many much cheaper vehicles have direct tpms, including several base model pickup trucks at our ranch. And the whole replacement sensor argument is silly…both my vehicles with direct tpms still work perfectly (9 yr old ctsv with 30k miles and 7 year old cummins dodge with 130k) and have never needed any sensor replacement. Not saying it doesn’t happen, but at the required frequency it is a negligible added cost for the benefit.

 

I despise Volvo’s TPMS system. IMO, it’s a basic cost-per-unit equation. Volvo did several changes with the late 2016/early 2017 models including things such as: more robust stitching on front leather seats, more machining for “updated” piston rings, standard LED head lamps, etc. These small additional costs must be offset by fat that can be trimmed to maintain the same/similar cost to the customer.

As I’ve stated before, Volvo isn’t in the business of giving customers valuable information like PSI, engine temp, trans temp, etc. Let the computers handle it and make it cheaper to produce at the same time. Win/win for Volvo.


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My tire pressure warning light goes off every few months. Discount Tire said when light comes on check air pressure and reset the TPMS.

 

I'm sure someone has said it already but Volvo uses wheel speed sensors, simple design and honestly a lot of euro manufactures used it and some are going back to it.

All this is, is a notched gear on your axle, there is a magnetic pickup that is overhead this year, it creates a square wave as the teeth pass the magnet, which verifies with a programmed algorithm that "hey the tire is inflated to X amount of psi everything is correct on our end", or when the tire is low it will send that square wave with a different "height" the algorithm will say "hey this is not correct" and send you an error message.

To be honest if you get this light check all tires and not just one. Personally I think the "downgrade" in tech will make people start to actually pay attention to their second most expensive purchase besides a mortgage.

 

Lol, I guess I should tell my wife to thank Volvo for making her stop to check tire pressure with our teenager and infant in the car, instead of looking at the dash to see If she can continue on safely. I suppose the iTPMS wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so inaccurate and glitchy, constantly reminding us how worthless the system is. The one time it properly indicated a couple tires that were off, it was after a service where dealer overinflated two of the tires. Only took 40 miles of driving to tell us there was an issue. Every other time the system has indicated a problem, all tires were properly inflated.

Much better than the d-tpms in my work truck that tells me immediately if the tire shop didn’t set correct pressures after a rotation 🙄

 

👏 👏 👏

 

What did everyone do 15 years ago before TPMS was mandated? I bet they loved their cars, and didn't think "wow, I wish someone made my car cost more so it would have to tell me to check my tires"

 

It would be just enough that the car does not produce such messages and useless obtrusive warnings ? The car is "thinking", not us ... It should just love us ?

 

ohhh now it makes sense. The put in a spot for a tire pressure gauge just to practice for when tire pressure is actually low. So all these false alerts are just the modern automotive equivalent of a “fire drill”

 

It is mandated by law that you be notified withing a 8-10psi or 0,55-0,68 bar or 25% decrease as of I believe 2007. Regardless of you having DTPMS or ITPMS you can buy caps that have a Bluetooth rating that is shown on your phone, I don't understand what everyone's bïtçhing is about when there are aftermarket solutions??

 

The aftermarket “solution” is purely a valve stem cap that props the valve stem open, and relies on the seal of the valve stem cap to keep air from leaking out. These seals often fail (as has happened to a couple of my friends that had these on their trailers) and in essence turns into a slow leak. Nothing like having a flat or low tire caused by one of these aftermarket “solutions”.

Though there is plenty to “bitch” about with Volvo’s iTPMS, in this thread the problem is false alarms. Our tpms has alerted us about a half dozen times…all but one of which all the tires were at proper pressure and shouldn’t have triggered any alert. The one time it actually worked, two of the tires were quite overinflated by dealer during a service and it took the tpms about 40 miles of driving to notice the problem.

From my experience with our Volvo, we would be better off with no tpms than the current system. But at this price point (our t6 had a new msrp of $83k), it’s shameful that Volvo decided to eliminate the dTPMS that the spa xc90 came with originally in 2016

 

Damn. “Only” $75.6k MSRP for my 2021 haha. Thankfully, I’ve had no TPMS lights after 33k miles. I check the pressure religiously on both cars every week or two, however. I did catch a screw in a tire a few weeks ago before any lights could illuminate.

But man… the 2017 and the former 2020? Only one accurate notification of the 6 or 7 TPMS illuminations. Super frustrating.

As I’ve ranted before… I don’t understand how it’s so difficult to hypothesize the extreme safety issues these inferior sensors can cause. Anyone driving on mountain roads with the nearest exit 20 miles away? At night? In the rain, snow, etc? In heavy traffic when it’s 115 degrees in the air but 160+ on the asphalt in the summer? Why are these basic examples so difficult to understand?

It is not safe under any circumstance to pull over and check your four tires in these circumstances, among others I can cite. Unless of course you could safely see the pressure from inside your cabin while driving. All four are too high or too low because of temperature and/or elevation changes? Cool. It’s likely safe to keep driving to the next exit. One dropped 4 or 5 PSI below the others? Cool. I can watch it real time until it’s unsafe to continue. Slow enough leak to make it to the exit? A possibility that is impossible with Volvo.

No… Volvo doesn’t give basic details. There’s simply something wrong and you get to play the guessing game. Risk a blow out by waiting or pull over when idiots are whizzing by you at 80+ mph. [emoji849][emoji849][emoji849][emoji849][emoji849]

Based on my experience, Volvo’s TPMS fail far more often than they work accurately.


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At 75k-85k go buy yourself a nice Acura, Audi, Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus, Mazda, Genesis, Infinity, Christ there are other car manufacturers out there! If you don't ask questions or do your homework when buying a car that's your own damn fault, plain and simple!

 

I’ll happily take the overall safety and comfort of the Volvo. My wife and I work in areas directly related to MVA’s and trauma. However, that does not mean I’m happy with every decision by Volvo. I’d be glad to give up the adaptive cruise/pilot assist, the third row seats, auto wiper function, auto lift gate kick function, etc if it meant the TPMS would provide me real time info. I can articulate why my position is far safer than any of the other options cited. I wonder what Volvo spent on the orange keys originally provided with the 21’s, contrary to customer feedback..

Volvo already gave up the Inscription insignia on the outer chrome trim, in the front head rests, and the third row leather perforation in the 2021 [emoji2369]


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Here's a link read it and maybe all your Volvo headaches will go away...

5 Great Volvo XC60 Alternatives for Less Than $50,000

The Volvo XC60 takes a unique Swedish approach to luxury. But, could one of these XC60 alternative win you over?

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