TPMS Sensors

[azdamay]

My TPMS sensor light has come on twice now for what appears to be no reason. The first time the dealer told me some BS story and I think all they did was reset the sensors (I checked the tire pressures and they were fine). This time I have yet to take it in. Sort of annoying, because if it continues to go on periodically for no real reason, it defeats the purpose of the light. The boy who cried wolf, and all that.

[Nyvideo]

Ok, so you are trying to figure out the TPMS.

I oredered my new tires and wheels as a package from TireRack.com. They came with new TPMS sensors installed.

I have tried to reset the system by following the proceedure in the manual. NOT! I still have the light coming on.

Do you suppose TireRack could have installed the wrong sensors?

I am not too savvy on this TPMS sysytem, so if anyone could help me out I would appreciate it.

T

Which tires and wheels did you get from them? Did tehy improve the ride a lot, or was it more for aesthetics?

[Ceej]

I have found that the tire store people, and the Ford garage, don't know how to reset the system. Every time I've had Ford rotate the tires, and when I had the "Preferred Tire Vendor" for the lease company reset the system, it only took about 20 miles for the system to trip. Twice at Ford, once for new tires. I Should have known the tire outfit didn't do it correctly. The horn never sounded. Every time, I've asked the service manager "Did you reset the TPMS system?" They always swear they did.

The two other rotations were done by my local repair shop. They asked how to do it. I showed them, and no issues.

I think the kids in the shop are airing the tires up and hitting the button on the reset tool. Not understanding that the sensor in the tire doesn't care. The brain in the van is what needs to be reset/trained.They are not following the procedure. This is evidenced by my returning home with the light on, and resetting the system myself. It's just not that hard.

1. Turn the key to the run position without starting the van

2. Turn the hazard lights on and off three times within 10 seconds.

3. The horn sounds once. You now have 2 minutes to complete steps 4 thru 7.

4. Let air out of left front tire till horn sounds

5. Right front, beep

6. Right rear, beep

7. Left rear, beep

8. Turn off key. If horn beeps twice, you took too long.

9. Air tires back to specified pressure.

10. Start van, light goes out until the next time service is done by the "Experts."

I'd still be using the Ford dealer if they hadn't ticked me off over this issue. It's the little things, you know?

2¢

CJ

[Willie]

Yes, the regular manual method has worked perfectly for me twice now. That being the case, I haven't bothered to fool with the magnet routine.

I can maybe understand the tire jockeys at the tire retailer not knowing the correct procedure. They service lots of different cars and aren't "master mechanics" to begin with.

But I agree that it is absolutely inexcusable for the the Ford dealership mechanics not to know how to reset this system. The problem may be that even the dealership does not use their actual mechanics for things like tire changes or oil changes. These easy chores they delegate to the lesser trainee types. KInda' scary and a good reason to use a reliable independent mechanic or else do these things for yourself.

[brueg]

Just used the ownwrs manual method to reset all my tires to 36. Since all 3 of bikes and all my gear doesn't weight 100 lbs, Ride is a little better.

Pressure alarm came back. Sucks running so much pressure in the rear tires.

Edited September 12, 2012 by brueg

[Redlandrebel]

Hello everyone, I wanted to chime in on my TPMS story. I have finally got the system to work. After calling Ford, spending numerous hours at my local Ford dealership, I think we have the system down. A little backround. I had my tires rotated and asked the dealership to show me how to reset the TPMS per the user manual. They just said to use the handheld device and they will do it, don't worry about. Fast forward 30K miles and bald tires. Continental was the only brand that I could find that met the rating and Walmart had the best deal. Since it is a company vehicle and I have employees driving it, I did not want them to get in an accident and have a lawyer say the tires were not spec. Anyways, after Walmart completely randomized my rims, the TPMS sensor light was on. I get it, unplug the light, who cares. Since I have employees driving, they will ruin $500 worth of tires not knowing if they need to check for proper tire pressure. Not that they would anyways. At this point I went to the dealership and said, show me how to reset the TPMS. After hours and no luck following the manual, they said to take the vehicle. They reset the TPMS with the handheld and sent me on my way. The agreement was they would experiment on one they had in the lot. Here is the final results:

Very important!!!!! The TPMS system will not reset if the TPMS sensor light is on. At least on my 2010

When rotating your tires, do not adjust the tire pressure until after you rotate and follow instructions on pages 144 to 146. Once the TPMS knows what rims is where, you can then adjust the tire pressures to the correct pressure for the front and back.

I hope this saves someone from going through the crap I did. Good luck!

Jeff

Edited September 4, 2012 by Redlandrebel

[Willie]

The TPMS system will not reset if the TPMS sensor light is on. At least on my 2010

So are you saying to adjust the pressure in order to get the light to go out, before attempting the reset procedure? If so, that makes sense, and I can see how that could be problem. if one didn't know about it. Generally the method in the book, without the magnet tool has worked consistently for me.

Some tires you might want to look at next time are the Nokian Entyres. They do meet all the factory specs and are in the same price range as the Continentals. There are several more expensive options, but the Nokians were the only tires I found that were about the same price. Only a few thousand miles on mine so far so I can't say if they last longer. I hope so.

[cosmicray]

My TPMS light came on yesterday. The vehicle is ~5 weeks on the road, and just turned 600 miles. When I got home, I did a walk around and checked all the tire pressures. Front-left was at 35, and all the others were at 38. Brought them all up to 40, but the light didn't go out. No big deal, I will see what happens after I drive it a few miles.

This morning I read this thread, and it jumps out at me that the rear tires are supposed to be 49, not 40 (the 49 on the VIN plate looks like a 40). There is no way I lost 11-lbs in the rear tires since I took it off the lot 5 weeks ago. It has been riding OK, but now I'm concerned. Presumably the dealership did not prep it correctly. How important is having them up at that (to me absurdly) high pressure ?

Edited October 17, 2013 by cosmicray

[Willie]

Ray:

I wouldn't doubt for a minute that the dealership inflated all your tires wrong. Too much effort to actually look at the label!

As you've probably gathered here, the rear sensors seem to trigger at about 40 PSI. The high pressures specified are because of the high payload capability. If you are not carrying a lot of weight you might be okay to reduce the rear pressure to 43 or 44 PSI. The warning light will not trigger at those pressures.

I'd keep the front at the recommended 36 PSI though.

Edited October 17, 2013 by Willie

[cosmicray]

I'd keep the front at the recommended 36 PSI though.

The VIN label says 40 in the front, 49 in the rear. Today I bumped the rear up to 45. Lets see if that causes the TPMS to clear overnight.

The day I was closing on the TC, I recall the salesman making some remark about the computer would be 'learning' my driving habits for the first 600 miles (I think that was the number). I wonder if hitting 600 yesterday reached a point where the computer decided it was OK to start reporting stuff like this.

As far as cargo weight, doubt I've been over 100-150 thus far.

[cosmicray]

Three hours after I bumped the rear tires up to 45 lbs, the TPMS indicator has cleared.

[Willie]

I'm glad you've got it figured out.

On my 2010 the recommended front pressure is absolutely 36 PSI. Maybe they increased it since then.

[cosmicray]

One (slightly off topic) take away from all this ...

My 1998 Ford Taurus has exactly the same tire size as my 2013 Ford TC. The '98 Taurus VIN label says 32 PSI front/rear. The last time I bought tires for it, the tire guy (very knowledgeable) told me to run them at 35 PSI. So cranking up to 40/45 on the same tire size surprises me. Different application, but still surprises me.

[Willie]

Same size but tire specs are considerably different. Your Taurus is not rated to carry 1600 pounds.

[tworock]

I drive my TC occasionally between Santa Fe and Willowbrook, IL. Each of those cities have a Ford dealership. One of them, after a regular rotation paid for by me, sent me cross country with 49 lbs. in the fronts and 36 in the rear. No lights the entire trip.

[Hal]

I drive my TC occasionally between Santa Fe and Willowbrook, IL. Each of those cities have a Ford dealership. One of them, after a regular rotation paid for by me, sent me cross country with 49 lbs. in the fronts and 36 in the rear. No lights the entire trip.

Obviously all they did was just move the wheels from one location to another.

And NO you would not get a light in that situation. Each of the sensors has a unique ID code built in. When you reset them using either the manual method or the reset tool you reset the sensors in a specific order. That tells the computer which sensor is located at which wheel. If you don't reset them the computer has no way of knowing that the wheel/tire that was on the right rear is now on the left front. As long as the pressure is correct for where the computer "thinks" the wheel is there will be no error code.

[Willie]

I drive my TC occasionally between Santa Fe and Willowbrook, IL. Each of those cities have a Ford dealership. One of them, after a regular rotation paid for by me, sent me cross country with 49 lbs. in the fronts and 36 in the rear. No lights the entire trip.

Inexcusable! Even a "wash boy" at a dealership ought to know enough to check the label. If Ford keeps doing irresponsible things like that, they will end up like Toyota! What was that fine, over a BILLION dollars!!!? (Wonder how Consumer Reports feels about THAT!)

[robertlane]

I despise the TPMS sensors. More complications.

[2013TransitConnect]

When I took delivery of my TC up on Friday the lights was on. I checked the tire pressure and it was 40 pounds all around. I pumped the rears up to 49 the next morning after the tires had cooled and the light went out.

[cosmicray]

Three hours after I bumped the rear tires up to 45 lbs, the TPMS indicator has cleared.

Here we are, 10-11 months later, and the TPMS came on again last night. When I got home I checked the tires. Both rear tires were 35-36, which is way lower than specified. The front tires were 37 and 36, a bit low, but not like the rear.

At 4600 miles, the dealership did an oil change including a tire rotation. Since then I have driven slightly more than 2k miles. So either the tires are leaking, something got into both rear tires, or they never checked the pressure after the rotation.

After I got home last night, I inflated both rear tires to 45, and left the front pair as-is. The federal law says the pressure should be at least 75% of specified for that axle. So the rears should not have triggered until 36-37, I am not surprised that the TPMS came on.

This morning I drove the TC into town. The TPMS light is still lit. So I stopped at the dealership and asked them what the secret is to get it off again. The service advisor got the little box with the button and green light, put the TC into learn mode, then started around. The front pair tripped correctly (these are the ones that were on the rear when I bought the TC). Both rear tires would not respond to the learn mode. So next week they are going to pull both wheels and replace the TPMS sensors. Some researching around the web suggests that some sensors have little batteries. Do the TC sensors have those ?

[2013TransitConnect]

I believe all TPMS valves have batteries.

[103west43rd]

You are correct 2013TransitConnect, the TPMS sensors do have batteries. Just a a bit of information, the sensors transmit information once every minute when the vehicle speed exceeds 20 MPH, or once every 6 hours when stationary.

[2013TransitConnect]

Thanks 103west. I didn't know that.

[cosmicray]

You are correct 2013TransitConnect, the TPMS sensors do have batteries. Just a a bit of information, the sensors transmit information once every minute when the vehicle speed exceeds 20 MPH, or once every 6 hours when stationary.

When the service tech/advisor was walking around training the TPMS, was he doing something that manually forces a sensor to identify ? Somewhere I got the impression that a magnet might nudge it to send data.

When they change them out, I'm going to ask if they have to send the old ones back, or can I have it to tinker with.

[Johnyguy]

When the service tech/advisor was walking around training the TPMS, was he doing something that manually forces a sensor to identify ? Somewhere I got the impression that a magnet might nudge it to send data.

When they change them out, I'm going to ask if they have to send the old ones back, or can I have it to tinker with.

Its seems like this TPMS is a pain in the ass than anything else.