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Tire maintenance, hub caps in the way

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by pasadena_commut, Nov 20, 2024 at 5:27 PM.

  1. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2019
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    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Short form: what tire gauges and pumps (manual or electric) do you use to maintain the tires on this vehicle? Without having to remove the hub caps. Bonus points for tools that a reasonably spry elderly person could manage

    Long form:

    I'm currently visiting my elderly mother and even more elderly stepfather. The TPMS light is on in her 2012 Prius. My step father would normally have taken care of this, but he is even older and recent physical problems have put an end to his days of driving and working on tires. Their tire gauge accidentally went away with his car when they gave that to one of the grand kids. OK, thought I, tires are just tires, and pulled the tire pressure gauge and Serfas bike pump out of my 2007 to use them to check and/or fill any tires which are low. (Assuming it wasn't a failed TPMS unit in a tire.) Nope, the hub caps foiled me at every step. First the tire gauge, the kind that presses on perpendicular to the stem, wouldn't seal because there was no angle where it wasn't obstructed by the hub cap. Tried to hook the bike pump fast release on and it wouldn't clear the hub cap, which once again blocked access. The hub cap on the 2nd generation isn't very different from that on the 3rd generation, but the tire stem sticks up far enough out of the notch that these two devices attach without problem, whereas on her car it is down in the notch too far for them to fit. Later stopped at an O'Reilly's and bought their house brand dual headed pencil gauge

    https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/xtra-seal/xtra-seal-10-to-120-psi-tire-gauge/xts0/151031

    which did seat nicely, and showed that at least that one tire was low - 28 PSI on the front. Yikes. (This model gauge is hard to read though, because it has such a large range the values for this car are just a fraction of a mm apart.) I could get a valve extender (should have done that while at O'Reilly's) to use with my pump for now, but that won't be a solution for her going forward. I need to find an electric tire pump that she can hook up, set the pressure, and let it run until it stops - without removing the hub caps. My mother is pretty spry for her age, but there is no way she will be pulling off the hub caps to maintain her tires. Picture a 90 year old doing this:



    Hers has different hub caps than in the video, these:
    [​IMG]


    Thanks.
     
    #1 pasadena_commut, Nov 20, 2024 at 5:27 PM
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2024 at 8:26 PM