Got new tires and low pressure warning light will not go out

[Fro-Runner]

Go to the dealer before you go back to Firestone and take the $16 (we wash our hands of your truck) shut up money! The service writer should be able to walk out, take a look at your rims and see if you have the original metal tire valve stems. As a matter of fact you can look yourself, if they took your metal valve stem out of your tire and replaced with a pull through black one; then your TPM sensors are gone. The sensors screw onto the bottom of the metal valve stem and they are not suppose to be remove by the tire installer.

What may have happen is a dumb tire changer tried to yank one out with the ole valve core yanker metal handle thingy and screw up your chip in that sensor. Now the computer is constantly recognizing that one flawed sensor as the problem thus a constant light. Be advised that these sensor comes as a set and/or must be reprogrammed to match your OBC (on board computer) recognition ID sequence. If Fire"tomb"stone screwed up all of the sensors then you are looking at $75 or more for each sensor plus unmount/remounting of the tire to install them into the rim and the dealer reprogramming charge.

That's why others here like myself are telling you to "GO TO THE DEALER FIRST" to see if they caused any damage. If so, you could be out of $500 or more just to get the light to go out on your truck's dash. Take them the bill and then if they try to pawn it off on you.........GET A LAWYER!

Good luck....hopefully it's just one bad sensor that got scraped during the unmount/remounting process and they will pay for it without fanfare.

 

[boston_kevin]

Did you get all 5 tires replaced? If so, then they may have whacked one of the stems while replacing the tires. If you got only 4 tires, I would check the stems on the wheels vs the one on the spare to make sure they are all the same. If they were dumb enough to charge you for the stems in the first place, they may have attempted to pull the stems and replaced it with a look-a-like, but you still have at least one original on the truck. I seriously doubt they would have put other TPMS stems on for $16 per stem.

 

[arouth]

Thanks for all the advice. I took it to Toyota today and actually had them check all the tires. They found out that the back left valve stem wasn't working so I had them pull it off and show it to me.

There were scrapes around it and a part of the sensor was actually broken off. I called Firestone and told them about the situation and they are going to take care of it tomorow free of charge.

I'll also get re-reimbursed about $16 and about $65 for having Toyota pull the tire off.

The tires I got are the Bridgestone Dueler H/T. Anyone heard of them?

 

[arouth]

Btw, if the Bridgestone Dueler H/T are crap tires and they suckered me I'll have them pulled off and get something else.

Thanks for the advice again

 

[holzapfel]

DAMN! After reading this thread, I think I may have wasted 90 bucks.

I order Lexus rims and just had explorer stt's installed on them, with black valve stems. (I am waiting on my wheel spacers to arrive) I was planning on possibly keeping my original rims and tires as backup or to just swap, cuz I like the rims and BFG's.

If I am reading correctly my new rims and tires are not gonna work with the TPS and I'm gonna haveta remove the stems and move them to the new rims and tires?? UGH! Also, I can't just have spare rims and tires hanging around becuase I will always have to swap the stems?? Is this correct???

I also suppose I can't install my own rims and tires myself?

 

[sharp4runr]

There are some rims that the TPMS will not work with. I can't tell which can, and which won't. It has something to do with the amount of space near the valve stem to install the sensor and metal stem.

The TPMS is a nice thing to have, but it isn't necessary. If you watch the tire pressure periodically then you'll be fine. If you run with the new tires/rim without the sensor, you'll be fine for a few miles then the light will come on and blink. This will signal a fault with the system because one or more sensor is out of range of the truck. You could ignore the blinking light, or you could remove the bulb for the light.

 

[holzapfel]

I undertstand what you are saying, my point is, if I want the system to work, I have to move the stems from my old rims to the new rims.... which means I have to have my new tires re-mounted on the new rims with the old stems... And this will have to occur everytime I want to put the original rims back on. How much are these special stems I wonder....

 

[loner]

I undertstand what you are saying, my point is, if I want the system to work, I have to move the stems from my old rims to the new rims.... which means I have to have my new tires re-mounted on the new rims with the old stems... And this will have to occur everytime I want to put the original rims back on. How much are these special stems I wonder....

The TPMS valve stems are very expensive. However, if you watch eBay, you may find a deal. I saw a set of 5 go for about $30 a few months ago.

The problem is, even if you have two sets of valve stems (one for each set of wheels/tires), the TPMS computer has to be programmed to read each individual valve stem. Thus, if you swap to the other set of rims/tires/valve stems, you'll need to have your computer re-programmed by the dealer to read those new valve stems. And you'll need to know the unique ID number on each stem sensor beforehand...

From reading past threads, I believe if you keep your old tire set (with the TPMS sensors) inflated and nearby where you park your 4Runner, the light probably won't come on unless you drive for an extended period. If that occurs, when you come back home the light will sense the presence of the valve stems again, and the light will turn off.

The ideal solution would be install a switch to the TPMS system, so it could be enabled/disabled at will depending on what tires you have on your T4. While this has been worked out for the 06 Tacoma, I don't think anyone has figured it out for the 4Runner. Maybe someone here can be the first...:help:

 

[Uneek]

I undertstand what you are saying, my point is, if I want the system to work, I have to move the stems from my old rims to the new rims.... which means I have to have my new tires re-mounted on the new rims with the old stems... And this will have to occur everytime I want to put the original rims back on. How much are these special stems I wonder....

The truck can recognize a second set of sensors for another set of wheels, but they will need to be programmed by the dealer.

The sensors are about $100 each.

 

[Koz]

For pavement use the H/Ts are pretty good tires. I've used them off-road and on the beach and they worked OK. They also work pretty good in the snow. If you don't off-road frequently the H/Ts will be fine.

Koz