meridock

Situation - Got into the car to drive to TKD about 3 miles from home. Looked down at the DIC and happened to notice the 33 pounds of pressure in both front tires. About half way the warning light comes on and says Right Front is flat (non-run flats) with 0 showing. I pull over get out and look. tire is fine. I finish the drive, park, and check it. It is still fine. I do class and start up. The dash is lit up with same messages (tire is still fine.) I drive to store pick up some junk, and start home. no warnings nothing. the car is reading normal.


Thoughts? I am thinking TPS sensor. any other ideas?

RicK T

It isn't uncommon to get sporadic bad readings. Could be nothing more than an anomaly. Could be a communication error, temporary interference. Or could be dying sensor.

What year is the car? Original sensors? Any prior problems?

meridock

2006 car. wheels from a 2005. No priors with the sensors.

RicK T

Ah, well, original 2005 sensors are about ready for replacement, even 2006 sensors. There have been a few discussions about them lately. So I would say if you continue to see the problem then new sensors are in your future.

meridock

darn. they ain't cheap. I have a second set on the original wheels though

RicK T

Well, the original '06 sensors should be good for another year, maybe more. They supposedly are 10 year batteries but not every single one goes that long. Whatever you decide to put in, make sure the shop knows the tires don't have to be removed to do the job. A technician who knows what he's doing can just break the bead on the sensor side and push the sidewall in enough to replace the sensor. Good luck.

cclive

Are you sure that the sensors are programmed to the correct wheels...could you have checked one tire when a different one was flat?

BEZ06

Hmmmm.....how long have you had the 2005 wheels on the car??

Did you do the relearn procedure when you put the different set of wheels on?

Whenever you put a different set of tire pressure sensors on the car (replace any sensors, or put on a different set of wheels with different sensors in them) you've got to do the relearn procedure to log the new sensor ID#s into the memory of the TPMS computer in the car.

Bob

SSWEET

Believe he said they were non run flats...If any non run flat had zero pressure I'd think you would know right away.

cclive

Thank you, I missed that...yup, he should know if it's flat.

AngelDeath

I must be lucky, I have a C5 01 with the original sensors and still work fine.

Also I dont know if anyone knows, you can replace the batteries on these tps's for alot cheaper if your handy. I remember seeing a video on the procedure, if anyone's interested I'll find the video and post it up, I think the batteries are like $5-10 each.

meridock

The rims have been on the car for 2 years. (my originals are in storage)


Hadn't of a 10 lifespan on batteries - good to know!

cclive

Yup...I plan on giving that a try when mine finally go bad...it will be a fun project. Nothing to lose, if it doesn't work...toss it and buy a new one.

Dano523

Batteries in the TPMS could be going weak, but might want to have the TPMS reset to confirm it.

On mime from time to time, the TPMS system will wig out and semi forget one of the sensors so although it knows its there, just forgets how to read the pressure on it correctly. A quick reset of the sensors to the car has everything back right as rain.


As for a rest tool, discount tire resets them for free, or you can just pick up the $19.00 reset tool that tire rake is blowing out instead. The tire rake tool will reset all vet TPMS from 2005 to 2012, but on the 2010 to 2012 Vets, you have to use the HHR setting instead of the vet setting.

Gearhead Jim

A guy in our club was having intermittent TPMS issues on his car, the dealer was going nuts changing parts but the problem would always come back later.

One day, they noticed he had a cellphone charger plugged in. They unplugged it for him, and the problem hasn't come back in almost a year.

v26278

I read somewhere that when the sensor batteries die you will get dashed lines in the DIC, indicating no reading, you will not get false readings due to low sensor batteries. Unfortunately I cant recall the source of that info.

cclive

This is important...we always think about it with fob problems, but we forget that it can be an issue with the TPMS system also.

meridock

thanks guys. drove it all over yesterday with no issues. but will need to get a reset after this weekend.

kthomas

My rear driver side tire does this when the weather changes. It goes all the way to zero. You can tell on a run flat if you have a flat and even especially a non run flat.

meridock

Update - Problem has not repeated