Mrs BS needs some winter wheels for her car and the car is factory specced with tyre pressure monitors. Do I need to put them on the spare wheels too, or are normal valves just fine?

Normal valves will allow you to drive the car just fine,but obviously you wont get any pressure data displayed in the car, and you may get error messages on the dash because of the missing valves.

There are systems with pressure telemetry from the valve to the ECU, but there are simpler systems to achieve the same end – the ‘flat tyre’ warning on the Mini for example is interpreting data from the ABS sensors about relative wheel rotation to decide if one wheel has lost its air.

What they said

My BMW 1 series had the special valves on the OEM wheels. When I swapped them for winter tyres (without special valves) the system complained and threw up an error, then left the warning light on all winter until I changed them back. It obviously didn’t affect the car’s function but I found it irritating as hell. YMMV.

It’s a 2016 Ford Fiesta ST, I’ve read replacements need calibrating to the system but I’ll probably just bite the bullet as can’t be doing with any more binging and bonging going on in the cabin!

I get an initial dashboard ‘worded’ warning which I easily switch off. This leaves an orange ‘exclamation mark’ warning which I hardly notice now. Summer tyres have been marked with their original position on the car. Once these go back on the warnings disappear with a couple of minutes once the system has recalibrated.

Is the answer not in the owners handbook?

There’s a simple set of button presses to reset the warning in the Mini when you’ve changed the characteristics of the wheels by new tyres, wheels or addressing a low pressure problem with a pump…

Is the answer not in the owners handbook?

No, hence asking if anyone with more experience than me had the answer.

I’ve just put winter tyres on our fiesta st told the chap doing the job all done no problem. there is a reset for the tpms in the menu on the screen, find it check your pressures the old fashioned way then reset, any warnings are cleared.
I have wondered about putting the wrong pressure in,and resetting to see if the system just accepts the incorrect values. I think only under inflation triggers a warning though.

so itstig, did you fit TPMS to your winter wheels or just standard valves and reset the warnings? sorry if i’m a dullard and reading wrongly.

The winter tyres have been put on the rims with the tpms already installed (only have one set of rims) I will likely run them all year as I have in the past.

Just got some new alloys and winter tyres. I also bought the new OEM TPMS sensors so that I won’t get a winter of irrating messages. Alloy Wheels Direct and they provide TPMS either OEM or aftermarket for most cars.

I have a Focus, 2 years old, probably a similar system to the Fiesta. I bought a spare set of wheels with winter tyres and TMPS sensors, 2 years ago. For the first winter, I couldn’t find out how to get the car to recognise the sensors, and I had the warning light on all the time, and it beeped occasionally. There are various reports on the web that you deflate the tyre to wake it up, or hang a magnet round the valve – neither worked for me.

I then bought an ATEQ VT15 actuation tool (£135 on eBay) – each time I swap the wheels from summer to winter or vice versa, I do a sequence with the ignition key and the brake pedal, then go to each wheel in turn and point the VT15 at the sensor, which wakes it up and the car recognises it.

Something to watch for is the sensors on the aftermarket wheels have metal valve stems, not rubber. After the second summer, two of the tyres had gone flat in storage, and I found leaks round the valve stem. Had to get two new valve stems, £90, not happy. If you get metal stems, I suggest greasing the outside of the stem to keep the road salt off; I think it was corrosion that did for them.

I may be wrong but I think it’s an MoT fail if the car is showing an error on the TPMS, so you need sensors in and recognised when it goes for the test.

I may be wrong but I think it’s an MoT fail if the car is showing an error on the TPMS

That’s right. If it came fitted to the car it must be working at the time of the MOT.

My BMW 1 series had the special valves on the OEM wheels. When I swapped them for winter tyres (without special valves) the system complained and threw up an error, then left the warning light on all winter until I changed them back. It obviously didn’t affect the car’s function

This ^ I bought some sh wheels and fitted winter tyres without TPMS.
Small warning message, but nothing that bothers me.
I enquired about moving the sensors between rims, but was told they can be a bugger to reseal AND the wheels I bought may but have the space for them. I’ll but summers back on before the MOT.

Most folk, including me, don’t need winter tyres. If you are out in the stykx then yes, it’s useful. Not in Greater Manchester, despite the hills, not enough days when it’s bad enough.

Most folk, including me, don’t need winter tyres. If you are out in the stykx then yes, it’s useful. Not in Greater Manchester, despite the hills, not enough days when it’s bad enough.

Maybe. On a day like today in the snow I can actually get out, because I have winter tyres. For the rest of the winter, they’re just safer than summer tyres.

Up to you if you think that’s worthwhile or not. Hard to imagine why you might need winter tyres in the Styx though…

I used to commute every day on the bike – icy days with Schwalbe Snow Studs, otherwise my road bike. My back was smashed 2 years ago by a driver. I drive now, on regular tyres, as does my wife.

There is no need where I live in Greater Manchester for Winter Tyres. It’s wet and mild 95% of the time ?

I’m hacked off I can’t commute by bike now, but I loved the snow commutes off road with spiked MTB tyres. My wife would kill me if I even tried to cycle commute now – I ended off work for a long time, and it could have been very bad.

Winter tyres on the driving I do where I live, and having done 20k per year at some points, not worth it. Just drive carefully. Tyres aren’t the answer…

Even the studded MTB tyres I have for the 26″ don’t defy physics…

PS I got out today, on summer tyres, and because I wasn’t a ‘dick’ I got everywhere, including up a steep hill that was to my disabled MIL. It’s driver’s skills that are the issue.

Winter tyres are not snow tyres; apart from snow, they have better grip on tarmac at temperatures below 7ºC. My conclusion was that I plan to keep the car for it’s whole life, so I’m going to wear tyres out anyway, and I might as well have winter ones 4 months of the year. The tyres aren’t costing me any extra, I just had to buy extra wheels. One the other hand, if I’d know how much trouble I’d have with the TPMS I might not have bothered.