Seriously? I have to go have someone with a tool (other than a normal OBD-II tool) tell my car which sensors to listen to?
So the whole point of buying sensors and wheels for my winter tires so I can just swap in my driveway is moot?
That's really frustrating.
EDIT: Aigh!! I've fallen victim to the title typo! I hates it!
Speak to your federal government. They are the ones protecting the stupid.
In reply to Streetwiseguy:
However dumb that may be, they don't require that the car be unable to learn a new set of sensors without a scan tool. I'm not even 100% certain that TPMS isn't a bad idea for the average idiot, given the number of people I see driving around with 7psi in one or more tires. I do wish it were easier to shut up for those of us who are capable of and willing to keep track of such things ourselves.
Apparently most of the domestic and Euro imports can be told to relearn their sensors without so much as an OBD-II tool, while most of the Asian imports have to have the TPS sensor IDs explicitly entered with a special tool.
When I put new wheels and tires on my Transit Connect I did not put any sensors in them even though it has a procedure for relearning that does not require any special tool.
For a couple months I could make the light go out for ~50 miles by parking the TC in the garage ovenight where the old wheels were stored. But eventually the battery in the old sensors ran down from non-use.
The TPMS light was on all the time for ~1 month and then it misteriously went out and has not come back for 2 months now.
Don't know why it hasn't come back. I don't think the light(which I think is a surface mount LED) would have burnt out. Maybe after that amount of time without a signal the computer decided not to worry about it. 
ransom wrote: EDIT: Aigh!! I've fallen victim to the title typo! I hates it!
Hurray! You've been rescued from title typo-dom. We loves you.
In reply to Tom Heath:
Thanks, Tom!
Hal wrote: When I put new wheels and tires on my Transit Connect I did not put any sensors in them even though it has a procedure for relearning that does not require any special tool. For a couple months I could make the light go out for ~50 miles by parking the TC in the garage ovenight where the old wheels were stored. But eventually the battery in the old sensors ran down from non-use. The TPMS light was on all the time for ~1 month and then it misteriously went out and has not come back for 2 months now. Don't know why it hasn't come back. I don't think the light(which I think is a surface mount LED) would have burnt out. Maybe after that amount of time without a signal the computer decided not to worry about it.
it seems that some systems will just turn the light off after so much time not hearing from the sensors. there were a couple people in the mazda3 forums that said they didn't have tpms sensors and the light "just went off" after a while.
btw, the sensors in your other tires probably haven't gone dead, just gone inactive since they haven't moved in months
Strizzo wrote: it seems that some systems will just turn the light off after so much time not hearing from the sensors. there were a couple people in the mazda3 forums that said they didn't have tpms sensors and the light "just went off" after a while.
Thanks, that is good to hear. I was a little concerned that I might have other problems.
The snows on my 2011 Fiesta have no TPMS sensors. The light dosen't come on until miles or time pass. Then it blinks fo about a hundred times then comes on steady. There is a seperate fuse for the TPMS, I just haven't got around to see if it turns out the light. The light is not really distracting , so I may just forget it.
ransom wrote: I'm not even 100% certain that TPMS isn't a bad idea for the average idiot, given the number of people I see driving around with 7psi in one or more tires.
One of the workers at the local grocery store has an older sentra on low profile wheels. After seeing it with almost no air in the passengerside front tyre twice in one week, I left a note under the windshield wiper.
Tyre has since been pumped up
I have my TPMS on my stock wheels with winter tires, so it only works for 3 months of the year. In the summer, no TPMS, little tape works fine. You can't even see the tape against the black background unless you're looking for it.
btw, Subaru TPMS will NOT turn off after x miles. It will stay on steady, forever, until you put the wheels with the TPMS senders back on the car.
There is no fuse to turn it off. You could take out the bulb for the light, but that's alot more trouble than jsut putting a little piece of electrical tape over it.
Man, I wish I'd known this was going to be such a pain. I shelled out for sensors for the Winter wheels/tires in part because I've never owned a new car, and I wanted everything "correct".
I probably couldn't bring myself to pop the dash apart.
When I go to sell this thing I want every detail to scream at the buyer that no aspect of use or maintenance has been half-assed.
Not that skipping the TPMS is half-assed, just a matter of perception. It's not checking your damn tires that's half-assed.
Don't some cars actually go into a semi-limp-home mode when the TPMS is complaining?
Oh, the punchline from having the car reset this afternoon:
Now, probably, it was just that whoever swapped the tires didn't know the Subie needed to be told about it and just didn't do it.
BUT...
It's possible that having the summer tires in the back confused it, and that from this point forward, the proscribed protocol is:
Load new season's tires into car
Drive to tire shop
Get tires swapped
Drive home and deposit last season's tires
Drive back to tire shop
Tell car about current tires' sensors.
Of course, I'd just swap them at home and go to the tire shop for the sensor update. Bummer that just reduces my trips to the shop from two to one instead of one to zero...
ransom wrote: Man, I wish I'd known this was going to be such a pain. I shelled out for sensors for the Winter wheels/tires in part because I've never owned a new car, and I wanted everything "correct". I probably couldn't bring myself to pop the dash apart. When I go to sell this thing I want every detail to scream at the buyer that no aspect of use or maintenance has been half-assed. Not that skipping the TPMS is half-assed, just a matter of perception. It's not checking your damn tires that's half-assed. Don't some cars actually go into a semi-limp-home mode when the TPMS is complaining?
You don't have to pop the dash apart. All you have to do is give a good pull on the "hood" (it will pop right out), and then there are a few little clips that hold the clear cover on the gauge cluster. I literally can do it in about 10 seconds, and it leaves no trace that you've done it, as long as you don't leave fingerprints.
When you go to sell it, it will be worth $5k and it will be a 17-year-old buying it who doesn't care about your TPMS, he cares about how much boost you're running.
The car doesn't go into limp mode, and the lack of TPMS doesn't have any effect on TCS, ABS, or VDC (or anything else). It just turns on a light. That's it. Of the 59k miles on my car, about 40k of them have been on my summer wheels with no TMPS.
--
Alternately, depending on which TPMS you bought.....Tire rack sells TPMS as well as a "reprogrammer" thing so you can reprogram them at home. It's a couple hundred bucks though. But if that's what keeping a little light off is worth for you, go for it.
I'll send you a precisely-cut piece of black trim tape for $5 shipped 
btw, doubt the tires in the car have anything to do with anything. The sensors don't transmit unless they're on. And they're turned on by the wheel rotating, from what I've heard. I've hauled my winter wheels around a couple times in the summer and that didn't cause the light to turn of.
The tire shop isn't so far away I want to spend $150 to avoid driving down there, at least as long they can squeak in a sensor-update quickly instead of sitting around for an hour.
I did at least look into the at-home tool, but Tire Rack stopped selling 'em, and it sounds like they're a little dodgy, and are usually a couple model years behind in support. It's aggravating that a general purpose OBD2 tool doesn't seem to be able to help...
I suspect you're right about the sensors, though I wonder how long it takes for them to turn off after they were last driven on, and whether the summer tires' sensors were still on. In any case, it does seem odd that if you have to explicitly tell the car which sensor IDs to use that it would get confused by having others around.
We'll probably sell the car for something more "practical" in ~3 years, so I'm hoping I'll get more than $5k out of it
Anyhow, thanks for the info. I think you're probably taking the best approach. If I'd known then what I know now, I probably would've skipped the sensors on the snow tires. Now that I have 'em, it would drive me up a tree not to use 'em, though I cannot defend this stance...
fair enough. I went back and forth on getting a second set as well, then decided I really only cared in the winter, since it's hard to feel a flat in the snow :)
Weird story..I recently bought a home. I got laid off, and raided my 401k to buy a foreclosure through HUD (no rent ever again, yada yada yada). Closing was at a lawyers' office down in Atlanta proper, the real estate agent actually asked me to drive her Honda Odyssey down there (she'd had a bad accident on the I-state, almost gets panic attacks on it these days--and I can respect that from a non-enthusiast in the Ay Tee Elle..). TMPS light was on..but she said she could tell by "the way it drove" that it was something to be ignored. I'm hoping that means that with the pressure so low, there's not enough grip to cause a rollover regardless of how aggressive her control inputs are.
Of course, I could tell by the rough sides of the tread (and the bulging sidewall), and the perfect tread in the middle that the pressure was low. I filled them up before we got on the road, and the light still wouldn't go off. To me, this is the problem. When some engineer thinks they've made something "idiot proof", nature simply provides a better idiot. It actually makes me kind of angry..IMHO, it doesn't matter how many lights fire up on the dash, if folks "get used" to them being on all the time.
Once or twice a year my wife tells me the TPMS light is on in her 08 4Runner. I always go out, check the tires, and air them up if needed (and I usually run them about 2lbs higher than suggested).
Then the light doesn't go off, and I'm about to get all upset that the sensors are broken.....
..and then I remember that the full-size spare has a TMPS sensor as well. And I check the spare, and it's always down at like 20lbs. LOL.
This happens every year, and I never remember
A note for SUVs and other cars with full-size spares: the TPMS is usually in them as well, but for some reason it transmits even when the wheel is static in the spare well. TPMS are not on mini-donuts.
also, the light on the 4Runner dash in no way resembles a tire warning light unless you realize what the picture is (a tread profile of a flat tire). If they want people to notice it, it should say "YOUR TIRE IS FLAT, FILL IT UP" ...haha.
ransom wrote: I suspect you're right about the sensors, though I wonder how long it takes for them to turn off after they were last driven on, and whether the summer tires' sensors were still on. In any case, it does seem odd that if you have to explicitly tell the car which sensor IDs to use that it would get confused by having others around.
Having the old tires and sensors in the car will screw up programing a new set. In fact, the owners manual for my Transit Connect specfically warns against having another Ford vehicle with TPMS within ~30 feet when reprograming.
It took my old TPMS sensors ~2 months to lose their charge. If you get a new set programmed the car will look for the new ones and ignore the old ones. Which means that when you go to change back to summer wheels you will have to get it reprogrammed. That is why I decided not to bother with them in my new wheels.
new cars are fun
In reply to Hal:
I have the impression that there are several different types of TPMS systems. I'm not sure, but I thought the domestics (so we're already generalizing) were capable of being put into a relearn mode where they would find the local sensors. I can see where that would get confused if you had the extra tires in the back.
My Subaru has to be programmed explicitly with the IDs of the sensors I want it to use; it can't "figure it out"...
novaderrik wrote: new cars are fun
Yeah, that's pretty much been my thought in the last couple of days.
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