Running Wheels without TPMS in a TPMS HHR
 

What would be the issues with running non tpms wheels on a tpms computer equipt HHR. I have an 09 LS and was wondering what would the computer do on the DIC and are there chimes involved. I would like to buy steelies with snows but they do not have the tpms. I can just afford the snows so adding tpms would be too much money.

Annoyance factors?

I remember this from last Winter and it seems to be not much of an issue as far vehicle functionality is concerned.

1. The warning light will be illuminated constantly, if it bugs you, some black tape covering it for the Winter will hide it.

2. You'll get a "Service TPMS" message on your DIC when starting the vehicle.

3. You'll get the warning chimes every time you start the vehicle, but they'll stop "bonging" once the engine is running.

Of course you can always have the sensors moved over to the steelies which is a bit of a pain in the butt, not fond of the TPMS system in general....but we're stuck with it.

Thanks for the quick answer. The message stays on the dic from doing a search on this site for info, but can you press the info for the dic to see mileage at least momentarily and can you use the cruise control?

You can thank your government for mandating the TPMS. Next is the back up camera, I think that will be in 2013-2014 time frame.

Earlier this Summer I had a momentary glitch caused by excessive heat(maybe??)and I could scroll through the DIC displays in my 2011, but that was only an issue with one wheel sensor. At the time I had the cruise activated and it was not affected.

From looking at the manual it seems that when all four sensors are not reading, you'll have the "Service TPMS" warning popping up on the DIC all the time unless temporarily overridden by the scroll function.

My 2008 displays the message when you start the car, but using the info button gets rid of it until the next time its started.

Everything works just fine, it's just the annoying light and message when you start up.

Thanks for all the answers guys. I ended up buying the snows & steelies based on your answers. Tires are in great shape-new they are 13/32 tread depth, measured most tread to 10/32, good for several more seasons.

how bout making a pressurized piece of pipe tubing

and putting the tpms's in that and putting the pipe

some where in your hhr. the tpms will be pressurized to

say 32 psi. and your car will think they are inside each wheel. .

like normal. ~ dont know if it was ever done, but they

talked bout it some over on tbssowners.com

Those gadgets are called "TPMS Bombs" and they are called bombs for a reason, the ones I've seen described are made of PVC pipe, PVC pipe is not designed to withstand air under pressure. So even at 32 psi they can and do explode with enough force to injure you severely if you're unlucky enough to get a shard of PVC pipe blown into an eye or other vulnerable area.

Its one of those "don't try it, don't even think about it" deals, personal safety is more important than an annoying light on the dash and a few bongs at startup.