Discount Tire, Broken Stuff, and Tire Lights....

bigskyeric

bigskyeric

New member
As a long time discount tire fan, I'll no longer be going there. Always good service, always good prices and hey...they repair and rotate your tires for free. 6 sets of tires later.... ... I'm headed elsewhere from now on.

Bought new tires for my girls car last week. While they were getting installed, I decided to get my tires rotated and balanced. 30 minutes later the mechanic broke my TPS/ Valve stem on the driver side front wheel. (tire pressure monitor) Said the cap was seized. Instead of 'working it' with some anti seize lubricant, he used a wrench and broke it. Ok, no biggie.

I went back today to have the new TPS installed and the mechanic broke a stud on the hub. He said it was seized. Funny.... He just had that wheel off on thursday. Now it's seized after a week? And of course, I have to bring it to another shop to have it fixed. But Hey... they'll pay for it.

To make the situation even better (sarcasm) with the new TPS is installed, the mechanic says that all 3 other TPS' are dead. And because of this, the tire light on my gauge cluster won't turn off. The tire light has never been on since I've owned my 4runner. I explained to them that it came on last week when they broke the TPS. And the manager knew this.

I guess I believe that the other 3 aren't sending a signal. (old, dead batteries most likely) But why would the light only come on after they broke the TPS? And how do I turn it off?

Frustrated

:hunter:
 
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bigskyeric said:
the mechanic says that all 3 other TPS' are dead. And because of this, the tire light on my gauge cluster won't turn off. The tire light has never been on since I've owned my 4runner.
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This is BS. Is this a Toyota dealer? I would invest a few bucks in a Chinese cable and Techstream from eBay.
 
A crude explanation is that the 5 TPMS work together like a mini wireless network; with 1 different one now your 'network' is messed up. There is a procedure to 'sync' your TPMS sensors with the receiver in the monitoring system. I unfortunately don't know what that is; hope I was some help though.
 
You need to sync the new TPMS with your car, the light is coming on because the car doesn't recognized the new TPMS as a registered sensor on the car.

Say you had TPMS: A, B, C, and D. D broke, so you replaced it with E, but the computer is still expecting A, B, C, and D, not E, which is why the TPMS light is still on.
 
jbx35 said:
A crude explanation is that the 5 TPMS work together like a mini wireless network; with 1 different one now your 'network' is messed up. There is a procedure to 'sync' your TPMS sensors with the receiver in the monitoring system. I unfortunately don't know what that is; hope I was some help though.
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No, just no. Each TPMS sensor broadcasts its ID and pressure. That is all they do. They don't have a receiver of any kind.
 
I use to shop at the national tire stores for years..but they've gotten to the point of PROFIT over SERVICE. I've yet to find the national store chain (not just tires) that doesn't follow this philosophy.

I haven't bought a tire from a national chain in years. I deal strictly with local tire shops. I find them to be much more knowledgeable...they treat their customers right (at least the ones I deal with)....And I find their prices to be competitive with the chains.
 
Best thing to do is buy from Discount Tire Direct, and then go to your local reputable shop for installation. That way you're saving literally hundreds of dollars, but you're also getting quality service and helping the little guy some. Win win.
 
Jeremy556 said:
No, just no. Each TPMS sensor broadcasts its ID and pressure. That is all they do. They don't have a receiver of any kind.
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So which is it? Do they work in harmony and if one is different, they all shut down? Or is it OK to have a new 'different' one? He said the other 3 aren't broadcasting anything. And can i just turn the light off? I check my tires on my own. I don't need a sensor.
 
bigskyeric said:
So which is it? Do they work in harmony and if one is different, they all shut down? Or is it OK to have a new 'different' one? He said the other 3 aren't broadcasting anything. And can i just turn the light off? I check my tires on my own. I don't need a sensor.
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No, they are independent of each other. You can have a new one, but it must be added to the TPMS system. This is what it looks like in Techstream:
TPMS-018.jpg
 
Best thing to do is buy from Discount Tire Direct, and then go to your local reputable shop for installation. That way you're saving literally hundreds of dollars, but you're also getting quality service and helping the little guy some. Win win.
Click to expand...

That depends on where you live. Especially when you add shipping. The savings is you don't have to pay tax....HOWEVER...not all states have a sales tax (like NH). I've looked at Discount tire and 1010tire...and Tirerack...I can do BETTER locally.
 
Jeremy556 said:
No, they are independent of each other. You can have a new one, but it must be added to the TPMS system. This is what it looks like in Techstream:
TPMS-018.jpg
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Ok, He programmed the new TPS. But the light did not go off because the other 3 are 'dead'. But, the gauge cluster tire light only came on when he broke the one they replaced. Im so confused. Maybe someone bi-passed it before i bought it, and when the tps was broken, it set the light off?
 
If the other 3 are dead, they need to replace them - they don't all just break on their own, at the same time.

On my old Tacoma, when TPMS sensors were still pretty new, I had a tire shop break all 4.
 
Jeremy556 said:
If the other 3 are dead, they need to replace them - they don't all just break on their own, at the same time.

On my old Tacoma, when TPMS sensors were still pretty new, I had a tire shop break all 4.
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Then never touched the other 3 because after breaking the 1st one, i told them to just balance and put the wheels back on. I didn't want an incompetant mechanic ruining anything else. Which he did anyways by over tightening the lug nut that snapped the stud on my next visit.
 
Toyota's TPMS system is very simple. Sensors broadcast signal, computer matches FCC IDs and checks tire pressure threshold, if its all good; its happy and the light stays off.

When you need to replace 1 TPMS unit, you must manual obtain all 4 or 5 (depending on the vehicle) FCC IDs on the vehicle; usually done by manually writing the code on the back of the sensor or using a TPMS tool to get the Hexadecimal ID. Then you program all the sensor IDs within 5 minutes using a capable scantool/TPMS programming tool.

Sensors are normally "asleep" and will not actively broadcast a signal until pinged by the TPMS module and/or tire pressure drops below roughly 28psi. You can "wake-up" a sensor by releasing pressure from the tire, usually a 6-10 psi drop in less than a minute or two will wake the sensor up, or if it drops below 28 psi, conversely a TPMS tool can also be used to "ping" the TPMS units as this is how you get their IDs.

Now that's been explained...

Assumingthe shop did not properly program all 5 TPMS IDs into the system the Tire Light will blink for about a minute or two on start-up and then go solid (indicating a fault in the system). If the light is on solid from the moment of start-up, there is a pressure related issue. I've noticed that even freshly programmed sensors will throw miscommunication codes as they seem to go back to sleep after programming, normally if just sit in the car for about 5 minutes or so after turning it on you can see each sensor wake up and provide information. If temperature or pressure show un-realistic values (i.e. -40 degress, -27 psi, stuff like that) then they are not responding.

If it turns out the sensors have been programmed properly I would have them pay to have the dealer break-down each tire and visually inspect the TPMS units for damage to prove they did not break them and provide an impartial 3rd-party to verify the work was done improperly or properly. If they do not want to pay for that, you can get the reimbursment through other methods if they will not co-operate. Bottom line, they more than likely did not program the system properly and/or were too impatient to verify proper communication; if they did that, then more than likely they damaged the sensors during replacement and are responsible.
 
For what its worth...I just removed all 5 of my sensors and went to regular valve stems and I don't have a light or beeping or anything. Been like this for weeks now. I think the system knows that if they all go missing at once, it's meant to be that way.
 
I would be very interested in knowing if your light stays off. Your TPMS system should be going haywire right now. And as far as Discount Tire goes, I've been using them for years and love those guys. Sure accidents and unforeseen problems can always accur but they are always awesome at making it right. And as far as your damaged TPMS sensor, make sure you keep valve caps on them, they corrode and seize up very easily. Keep us updated about your light staying off.
 
yes, I fully expected my TPMS system to be going nuts, and I had already bought the scotch lock connectors to do the TPMS mod that some have done on this forum. But to my surprise...NO lights and NO beeping at all. I'm on my third tank of fuel and still nothing.

I had a TPMS light on when I bought the 4R...turned out to be a low spare tire. So they pumped it up for me and the light went out. So I know the system works. Besides...if one or more sensors fails, the system should show a flashing light.

To me, this shows that the ECU recognizes that all of the sensors disappeared at once and it must be programmed to allow that. No complaints here... Regular valve stem is $4 bucks. I'll use those forevermore.
 
MikeInNH said:
That depends on where you live. Especially when you add shipping. The savings is you don't have to pay tax....HOWEVER...not all states have a sales tax (like NH). I've looked at Discount tire and 1010tire...and Tirerack...I can do BETTER locally.
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DTD has free shipping, and most of the time you get $30-$50 off for web orders. I looked at 4 or so different companies when ordering mine, and they were by far the cheapest.

OP, I've had similar situations with a Discount Tire near me. Snce they are franchised, some are better then others. Before you find another place, try another close location. I have 4 within 15 minutes of my house. 2 aren't that great, but the other two are fantastic. My father and I have been using them for close to 12 yrs, and no other local store has been able to match their prices and service.

Go to a different location, explain what has happened to a manager, and I'll bet they fix everything for you and throw in a discount for your next purchase.
 
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