2000 TPMS Tread Act a Federal requirement

For those of you who decide to permanently disable your TPMS. I saw someone in another post about saying they called Toyota and they were told it was a safety issue. Probably what Toyota was referring to was the following and all auto manufacturers are required by law to have some type of TPMS in place.

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TREAD Act of 2000

The TREAD Act was passed in the fall of 2000 following the Ford/Firestone crisis. Congress wanted to make tires safer for the motoring public. The TREAD Act has nine components that affect the tire industry.

Ø Tire testing standards
Ø Tire labeling requirements
Ø Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems
Ø Early warning reporting system
Ø Safety recalls in Foreign countries
Ø Sale or lease of recalled ties
Ø Reimbursement prior to recall
Ø Acceleration of recall
Ø Disposal of recalled tires.

Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS)

The TREAD act requires the installation of tire pressure monitoring systems that warn the driver when a tire is significantly under-inflated. It includes all passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000lbs or less. That includes almost all Passenger and Light Truck vehicles with the exception of vehicles with dual rear wheels. The TREAD Act is very specific in that a TPMS system need only warn the driver in the event that a tire is determined to be significantly under-inflated. According to the specifications of the Act, this could mean a tire would need to be under-inflated by as much as 25% before the TPMS telltale would alert the driver. The current TPMS mandate applies only to passenger cars, SUV's, vans and Light trucks below 10,000 lbs GVW. However a ?phase II? ruling covering vehicles heavier than 10,000 lbs is already in the works. Although the current mandate began with 2004 model year vehicles, TPMS systems were first seen in the US on some 1997 vehicles. Regardless, by September 1st 2007, all vehicles sold in the US must have tire pressure monitoring systems.

See the final legislation here:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/rulings/TPMSnprmPost2Cir/TPMSnprmPost2Cir.html


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