Driving for a long distance with TPS sensors

[Viscerl]

Hi all, When I drive for a longer distance (45+ minutes), the TPS sensors start dropping off and no longer reading. Usually its 2 or 3 of them that read XX. On my normal daily commute (25 minutes) nothing bad ever happens. Whats going on? Thanks.

[Luke@tirerack]

sounds like a battery issue ... what model year

[BEZ06]

Originally Posted by Viscerl

Hi all,

When I drive for a longer distance (45+ minutes), the TPS sensors start dropping off and no longer reading. Usually its 2 or 3 of them that read XX.

On my normal daily commute (25 minutes) nothing bad ever happens.

Whats going on?

Thanks.

I don't think your sensors are registered with the TPMS computer - it's as if you had no sensors at all.

Take a look in the owner's manual and you'll find a reference to a "Service Tire Monitor" message. The book says that after approximately 1 hour with no sensors you'll get that message.

So.....I don't think the car even knows you have sensors because the sensor ID#'s of the sensors in your wheels are not "registered" in the memory of the TPMS computer.

When the car is parked and sits still for more than 15 minutes the sensors go into a sleep mode and only transmit once per hour to save the internal battery life.

When you start driving more than 20mph the sensors wake up and start transmitting once per minute (sooner if they detect a loss of pressure). Once one sensor transmits to the TPMS, the TPMS is expecting the others to start checking in. If you have 1 bad sensor, 3 will check in within a couple minutes of starting to drive and when the bad one doesn't the TPMS will give you a message of a bad sensor very soon after you start driving.

If you have no sensors (or 4 sensors that are not registered - same as no sensors) then no sensors check in when you start driving faster than 20mph. That's when the "approximately 1 hour" thingy mentioned in the owner's manual comes into play. That's 1 hour of continuous driving without turning off the ignition. When you shut down the car and restart you'll be able to clear the messages and drive normal again for approximately 1 hour.

I don't think the sensors in your wheels are "registered" - meaning the ID#'s have not been logged into the TPMS memory. Get a relearn procedure done with a TPMS reset tool and you won't have the problem any more.

Bob

[johninar]

Sounds like battery. If they register sitting still or for short periods, and "fall off" on a long distance trip, sounds like the batteries are very weak. When the wheels are turning the TPS signals much more often than sitting still. This puts a load on the battery, and voltage drops off.

That's just my wild a$$ guess, you're mileage may vary.

[CATCH ME IF YOU CAN]

Originally Posted by BEZ06

I don't think your sensors are registered with the TPMS computer - it's as if you had no sensors at all.

Take a look in the owner's manual and you'll find a reference to a "Service Tire Monitor" message. The book says that after approximately 1 hour with no sensors you'll get that message.

So.....I don't think the car even knows you have sensors because the sensor ID#'s of the sensors in your wheels are not "registered" in the memory of the TPMS computer.

When the car is parked and sits still for more than 15 minutes the sensors go into a sleep mode and only transmit once per hour to save the internal battery life.

When you start driving more than 20mph the sensors wake up and start transmitting once per minute (sooner if they detect a loss of pressure). Once one sensor transmits to the TPMS, the TPMS is expecting the others to start checking in. If you have 1 bad sensor, 3 will check in within a couple minutes of starting to drive and when the bad one doesn't the TPMS will give you a message of a bad sensor very soon after you start driving.

If you have no sensors (or 4 sensors that are not registered - same as no sensors) then no sensors check in when you start driving faster than 20mph. That's when the "approximately 1 hour" thingy mentioned in the owner's manual comes into play. That's 1 hour of continuous driving without turning off the ignition. When you shut down the car and restart you'll be able to clear the messages and drive normal again for approximately 1 hour.

I don't think the sensors in your wheels are "registered" - meaning the ID#'s have not been logged into the TPMS memory. Get a relearn procedure done with a TPMS reset tool and you won't have the problem any more.

Bob

Good Info !!!

[CATCH ME IF YOU CAN]

Originally Posted by BEZ06

I don't think your sensors are registered with the TPMS computer - it's as if you had no sensors at all.

Take a look in the owner's manual and you'll find a reference to a "Service Tire Monitor" message. The book says that after approximately 1 hour with no sensors you'll get that message.

So.....I don't think the car even knows you have sensors because the sensor ID#'s of the sensors in your wheels are not "registered" in the memory of the TPMS computer.

When the car is parked and sits still for more than 15 minutes the sensors go into a sleep mode and only transmit once per hour to save the internal battery life.

When you start driving more than 20mph the sensors wake up and start transmitting once per minute (sooner if they detect a loss of pressure). Once one sensor transmits to the TPMS, the TPMS is expecting the others to start checking in. If you have 1 bad sensor, 3 will check in within a couple minutes of starting to drive and when the bad one doesn't the TPMS will give you a message of a bad sensor very soon after you start driving.

If you have no sensors (or 4 sensors that are not registered - same as no sensors) then no sensors check in when you start driving faster than 20mph. That's when the "approximately 1 hour" thingy mentioned in the owner's manual comes into play. That's 1 hour of continuous driving without turning off the ignition. When you shut down the car and restart you'll be able to clear the messages and drive normal again for approximately 1 hour.

I don't think the sensors in your wheels are "registered" - meaning the ID#'s have not been logged into the TPMS memory. Get a relearn procedure done with a TPMS reset tool and you won't have the problem any more.

Bob

How do you replace the battery in the sensor?

[BEZ06]

Originally Posted by CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

How do you replace the battery in the sensor?

Well.....they're a sealed unit, and they're designed so you can't replace the battery.

The batteries in the sensors have a design life of 10 years, so none of the C6 sensors should be wearing out their batteries yet, but there are always going to be some that will wear out well before they're supposed to.

However.....there are a couple of guys in the C5 section that do replace the batteries in the C5 sensors. They have figured out how to open up the sensor, remove the old battery, solder in a new battery, and seal up the sensor again.

As batteries in the early C6 sensors start to wear out , the C5 battery guys may get into the business of working with the C6 sensors as well.

Bob