The tire pressure control system BERU TSS helps save fuel – surely

Increasing numbers of safety and comfort-conscious drivers make a clear decision for a tire pressure control system when they pur-chase a new vehicle. The BERU Tire Safety System TSS is also a financially sound investment.

(Ludwigsburg, August 31, 2005) If you don’t check the proper air pressure in your tires, you may notice that your wallet is feeling slightly deflated in view of the current fuel prices. Experts have cal-culated: roughly a third of all automobile divers are on the road with 0.2 to 0.7 bar negative pressure – and therefore take their own finances to tax. An example: if the tires have 0.6 bar too little pressure, the fuel consumption rises by around four percent. Experts have calculated that in Germany alone, the correct tire pressure would save roughly 200 million liters of gasoline each year. If the tire pressure is too low by 0.2 bar over a longer period, wear on the tires is increased additionally. Consequently, the service life of a tire is reduced by approximately 10 percent. 0.4 bar of insufficient pressure cuts life expectancy by 25 per-cent, while 0.6 bar slashes it by almost 50 percent.

The tire pressure control system BERU TSS should therefore be af-forded high priority when purchasing a new vehicle, simply for eco-nomic reasons. The additional advantages of the BERU Tire Safety System, which is only available as factory fit:

• Greater comfort due to the removal of the laborious checks of the tire pressure at the gasoline station. The tire pressure is only corrected when it is necessary;
• Greater safety due to continual, automatic monitoring of the tire pressure when the vehicle is stationary and when it is driving.

The BERU TSS alerts the driver of a potential tire failure with a “hard” warning as soon as the pressure loss hits 0.2 bar per minute. There is good reason for this: tires can burst spontaneously when the pressure loss exceeds 0.2 bar per minute. Drivers are given a so-called “soft” warning if the pressure loss takes place over a longer period and are instructed by the Tire Safety System to increase the tire pressure at the next opportunity.

A glance at the accident statistics reveals how important the correct tire pressure is: According to the Federal Office of Statistics in Wies-baden, 1,316 accidents with personal injury in 2004 were directly due to technical malfunctions relating to the tires. Comparative figures published by the British Ministry of Transport are even higher, re-cording around 2,600 accidents per year. A survey by the General German Automobile Club (ADAC) and the British Ministry of Trans-port show that roughly seven percent of all accidents are due to defects in the tires and the wheels. These numbers correspond with the results of a current survey by the federal German Association of Tire Retailers and the Vulcanization Trade (BRV) that indicates that roughly 75 percent of all car drivers are not at all concerned with their tires.

In the United States, numerous spectacular accidents caused by tire de-fects have prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to require the immediate introduction of tire pressure control systems: from September 1, 2005, onwards, 20 per-cent of all new vehicles must have a tire pressure control system on board; the figures leap to 70 percent from September 1, 2006 and all new vehicles with a total permissible weight of up to 4.5 tons must be fitted from September 1, 2007, onwards.

The BERU TSS ensures that drivers are up to date in terms of the tire pressure as soon as they turn the key in the ignition. The sensible safety and comfort feature has been available as factory fit in series and special accessory since 1997; among others in models produced by Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen.