TPMS Question, smells like BS

4

4rkram

New member
Hey Guys,
I had a solid error light on my dash indicating that I may have a low tire a couple of weeks ago. Gave it my standard "I deal with it real soon" approach, and a few days later walked out to find a flat in my driveway caused by a tire with a screw in it. No sweat. Changed the tire and took the flat back to the Express Tire that sold me the BFG's a year or so ago.

They fixed the flat, rotated and balanced the tires and I was on my way. As I'm pulling out of the parking lot I see the same error light is now blinking. I pull around and ask them to check it out. They said "it's probably a TPMS sensor". At this point I'm annoyed because A, they should have seen the blinking error light before they sent me on my way...and B, my (personal peeve) is to take the car or boat to a mechanic and have things coincidentally FAIL while it's in the shop.

I walk the car with the mechanic and he checks the signal on all five of the TPMS sensors. All five of them put out a good signal, although he changed diagnostic tools midway because he said one of them was working slow. I personally watched them all register on the diagnostic gun. A half hour later, they say they don't know why the light is still blinking and we all agree it shouldn't be. Terrific, they wish me luck.

My next stop was Costco for a few items and I explain to the dude at the tire center what happened two miles down the road. He takes his tool out there and the first sensor fails to read. Then the next one fails to read. Three out of five fail to read, so he checks it again and four out of five of the TPMS sensors fail to read. He said it's common that they all fail around the same time. Seems reasonable to me that within a few weeks or a month that a type of battery may fail... but four out of five inside of an hour? I thanked him and split. Any experience with these sensors failing in unison like that? Any help would be appreciated.

Mark
 
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My TPMS had to be tested a couple times and they had to have the tester right against the tire near the stem to get a couple of then to read otherwise they thought they were dead.

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I work at a Costco tire center. And I hate TPMS, especially Toyota.
Many times, we have scanned a car on the way in with 1 dead sensor. By the time we install 1 new sensor and new tires, the remaining sensors are now toast. Sometimes immediately, sometimes within a day or two. I cannot give you a definitive reason why, but the best we can come up with is that the relearning and testing procedures eat a lot of battery life. We almost always recommend a person to buy 4 or 5, just to prevent this.
And sometimes our reset tool will show a dead sensor but the car is fine with it. And sometimes the sensors are fine but the car won't read them. And so on and so on. Costco should scan them for you for free, try another Costco to confirm results? Come see me at the Cypress store if you're ever in the area...
 
Just my 2 cents but. Was on the obx for a week in the 4x4 area so left the tire pressure low. Needed to air up to do some pavement driving and the light started blinking. Decided I'd deal with it when I got home. So when I back to the sand I aired down again and back to a solid light. When it was time for me to leave I added air again and all was right with the world.



Tl:dr you left yours light on a while like me and had similar symptoms. Try taking your psi down to 18 in all tires and then airing back up to normal


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gfluff said:
I work at a Costco tire center. And I hate TPMS, especially Toyota.
Many times, we have scanned a car on the way in with 1 dead sensor. By the time we install 1 new sensor and new tires, the remaining sensors are now toast. Sometimes immediately, sometimes within a day or two. I cannot give you a definitive reason why, but the best we can come up with is that the relearning and testing procedures eat a lot of battery life. We almost always recommend a person to buy 4 or 5, just to prevent this.
And sometimes our reset tool will show a dead sensor but the car is fine with it. And sometimes the sensors are fine but the car won't read them. And so on and so on. Costco should scan them for you for free, try another Costco to confirm results? Come see me at the Cypress store if you're ever in the area...
Click to expand...

What tool are you guys using? Toyota seems to use about 3-4 Frequencies I think for their various TPMS sensors and the newest units have an 8digit code.

I've had hit/miss results with aftermarket TPMS tools, OTC (ironically makes the factory one) makes a nice one that works as did MaxiDAS.
 
All 5 of my original sensors failed within a few days of each other.
Have Wurth sensors in there now. Much cheaper than OEM
 
BlackWorksInc said:
What tool are you guys using? Toyota seems to use about 3-4 Frequencies I think for their various TPMS sensors and the newest units have an 8digit code.

I've had hit/miss results with aftermarket TPMS tools, OTC (ironically makes the factory one) makes a nice one that works as did MaxiDAS.
Click to expand...

We use bartec
 
Can we say annoying?
I put the summer tires on an it's blinking since there's no sensors in them.

Sometimes it blinks, sometimes it's just off. Don't know why.
No rhyme or reason to it. I'm just going to by pass it.
 
If you have a blinking light, and don't want to trust them to tell you which sensor is bad, just air down/back up each tire individually. When you air down it should go solid. If it goes solid, air back up. If it doesn't go solid then that's the bad sensor. I had Discount Tires try to tell me the same thing. One tech told me it was 1 sensor, then another tech told me all 5 were bad (within 35 minutes?) I found the suspect sensor, took it back a month later, and had them change ONLY that sensor. I was completely fine from that point on.
 
There does seem to be some kind of learning experience going on. I had new BFG KO2's installed last September at Discount Tire. Balanced and drove beautifully. Drove it to Grand Junction (300 miles one way) a few weeks later and the TPS light started blinking about half way over. Checked tire pressure and all OK, so proceeded with trip. Got back and took it to Discount, and they said 1 sensor had a weak battery. I was reluctant to have them go in and change it because of the known balancing problems with KO2's, and I didn't want to risk spoiling the perfect job they had done the first time.

I was getting all set to do the defeat mod, when a week or so later the light turned off, and has stayed off ever since. (It still lights at startup, so I know the light itself still works).

Seems like the sensors and the computer got out of sync, and eventually figured things out again.
 
I just put 4 new wheels and BFGs on my rig, no sensors. So my old tires are in a stack in the back yard but the stock spare still hangs under the back. So far, no lights at all, blinking or otherwise. That gives me a real warm fuzzy about the sensor system that I can be missing 4 sensors (not just low pressure) and the truck doesn't even notice.

I was planning to just bypass the system but so far it hasn't been an issue....when in doubt, just bypass and go on. Looks like it's way more of a pain than it's worth.
 
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