My Dealer-less TPMS Tire Change Story

[SamirD]

I forgot to put in my notes about my call to Bartec. So the Tech 100 was an OEM level tpms tool made just for the OEMs. It might have had certain frequency ranges in order to work only with a certain manufacturer, but the guy I spoke with said he doubted that. The next generation of that tool is the Tech 200 (almost $500). The Tech 300 was the upgrade to the Tech 100 before the 200 was available. It included a display. The Tech 300 has now been replaced by a fancier one that can be upgraded with an obd2 connection to work just like the vt55 at around the same cost ($1000).

[SamirD]

I just thought about this, and it may be a tool-less way to relearn the tpms on our cars. However, I don't have an air pump so I can try this test, so I'm hoping someone else will and report back. The experiment will require nothing more than an air pump or a way to put air back in your tire, and there's no way to mess up your current tpms setting (if the service manual is correct).

1. Put you car into TPMS learn mode using the driver's side door plunger method.
2. Once in learn mode, let out air from a tire and see if the TPMS light registers like it would for a sensor. You may need a second set of eyes or a mirror to help you watch the light.

If it does, test complete! Let the car sit until it goes out of relearn mode. Your old TPMS settings remain in the ecu. You have just proven that a trigger tool is unecessary, and all we have to do is let a few pounds out of each tire to activate each sensor. Put air back in the tire.

If it does not, try a different tire and see if it does. If not, test complete! Let the car sit until it goes out of relearn mode. Your old TPMS settings remain in the ecu. You have just proven that a trigger tool is necessary to relearn the TPMS. Put air back in the tire(s).

[SamirD]

I attempted to update the vt30 with the firmware they sent me. The usb driver installs fine, their webvt software sees the unit, but their upgrade program does not. Hopefully tech support can sort this out.

[SamirD]

So there was a trick to get the vt30 into 'boot loader mode' by pressing and holding power and enter. Once in that mode, it connected quickly and easily with the usb and updated firmware.

So the new firmware definitely helps. I finally read the tire temps off the car for the first time. It also works with my mockup of a sx4 alloy with a sensor.

But it still fails at the real test--my sx4 steelie mockup with a sensor. I still have to put it almost 1" close to get a reading. I'm going to see if they can revise it again. It's still not good enough for the steelies.

When I pick up my wife later today, I'll see if the car accepts the trigger that the vt30 does. I plan to put the car into learn mode and have her watch the tpms light while I trigger a wheel. If the light responds how it should, it's accepting the sensor ID and all is well. Then all I have to do is get the vt30 to work on the steelies and it's time to get the Generals mounted.

[SamirD]

I just thought about this, and it may be a tool-less way to relearn the tpms on our cars. However, I don't have an air pump so I can try this test, so I'm hoping someone else will and report back. The experiment will require nothing more than an air pump or a way to put air back in your tire, and there's no way to mess up your current tpms setting (if the service manual is correct).

1. Put you car into TPMS learn mode using the driver's side door plunger method.
2. Once in learn mode, let out air from a tire and see if the TPMS light registers like it would for a sensor. You may need a second set of eyes or a mirror to help you watch the light.

If it does, test complete! Let the car sit until it goes out of relearn mode. Your old TPMS settings remain in the ecu. You have just proven that a trigger tool is unecessary, and all we have to do is let a few pounds out of each tire to activate each sensor. Put air back in the tire.

If it does not, try a different tire and see if it does. If not, test complete! Let the car sit until it goes out of relearn mode. Your old TPMS settings remain in the ecu. You have just proven that a trigger tool is necessary to relearn the TPMS. Put air back in the tire(s).

No one?

[Ronzuki]

I just thought about this, and it may be a tool-less way to relearn the tpms on our cars. However, I don't have an air pump so I can try this test, so I'm hoping someone else will and report back. The experiment will require nothing more than an air pump or a way to put air back in your tire, and there's no way to mess up your current tpms setting (if the service manual is correct).

1. Put you car into TPMS learn mode using the driver's side door plunger method.
2. Once in learn mode, let out air from a tire and see if the TPMS light registers like it would for a sensor. You may need a second set of eyes or a mirror to help you watch the light.

If it does, test complete! Let the car sit until it goes out of relearn mode. Your old TPMS settings remain in the ecu. You have just proven that a trigger tool is unecessary, and all we have to do is let a few pounds out of each tire to activate each sensor. Put air back in the tire.

If it does not, try a different tire and see if it does. If not, test complete! Let the car sit until it goes out of relearn mode. Your old TPMS settings remain in the ecu. You have just proven that a trigger tool is necessary to relearn the TPMS. Put air back in the tire(s).

No one?

Samir, I'm not sure exactly what this test is trying to accomplish for starters since I believe most people want to add sensors or replace defective ones and that requires an activation tool of some sort. Second, I doubt anyone, myself included, would be willing to risk screwing up their TPMS w/o having the tools or a sure fire iron-clad way to correct things should the test go bad. Therefore, I didn't reply, sorry.
Even the expects and their tools are proving to be a challenge as you are experiencing.

[SamirD]

Samir, I'm not sure exactly what this test is trying to accomplish for starters since I believe most people want to add sensors or replace defective ones and that requires an activation tool of some sort. Second, I doubt anyone, myself included, would be willing to risk screwing up their TPMS w/o having the tools or a sure fire iron-clad way to correct things should the test go bad. Therefore, I didn't reply, sorry.
Even the expects and their tools are proving to be a challenge as you are experiencing.

According to the factory service manual, it only updates the tpms records in the ecu if it registers 4 sensors. Otherwise, it keeps the existing sensors. So there shouldn't really be a way to mess up an existing tpms setup, unless the service manual is wrong.

I noticed a lot of factory tpms procedures involved letting air out of the tire to trigger the sensor. So it dawned on me, why not just trigger our sensors by doing the same? Hence the experiement. If I had an easy way to put air back in my tire, I would have already tried this by now.

Depending on the car, a activation tool may not be necessary. There's three different types of relearn procedures--automatic, driving, and stationary. Less than 40% of cars are automatic, leaving most to be either driving or stationary. The driving usually requires an obd connection while driving, while the stationary methods usually have some sort of tool-less method to get the sensors in the ecu. But there's sometimes a tool that's needed to make activating the sensors easier, which is what I suspect is the case with our cars. I don't think an activation tool is needed at all. You just have to do something that makes a sensor report. I bet if there was a way to spin the tire around fast enough manually, that would even do it.

I completely understand wanting to not mess anything up. That's why I've already tried the first part of the experiment before--setting the car into re-learn mode. I did this, let it sit and automatically abort, and then went for a drive and everything was normal. I actually did this about two weeks ago.

Tonight, since I've got the trigger tool to work semi-reliably, I'm going to set the car to relearn and trigger a sensor to see if the ecu picks it up. If so, then I'm basically home free. I just have to get the tool to work reliably, which ATEQ seems to be quite cooperative on making happen.

[SamirD]

I did some calling around to see about availability and cost for the Generals. Then I asked how much extra it would be for tpms service. It seems like a lot of tire shops around here don't even know what that is. I got an answer like, "you just screw the bolt on there, so there's not much extra for us to do."

Something tells me this happens more often than we realize. I wonder how many accidents are caused by blowouts due to incorrect sensor torqueing? I know this is one thing that can destroy a sensor by breaking the mount. This whole tpms mess has created more problems than it set out to solve.

Now I have to make sure whoever mounts the tires knows what to do with these very expensive tpms sensors. I'll be pissed if they destroy one.

[SamirD]

Well, I don't know what changed from earlier in the day until now, but now the vt30 doesn't like reading the sensors on the car anymore. It read only one. And it doesn't read my mockup alloy either.

I'll see if I can reach ATEQ tomorrow. Hopefully I can. I want to finish this by the end of the week.

[SamirD]

Well, so much for that. ATEQ seems like they're closed today. I think finishing this week is out of the question.