My Dealer-less TPMS Tire Change Story

[redmed]

I would do the relearn process again but this time inflate to 45+ lbs then deflate to 40 lbs. Try not to get below 38 lbs. When I first got my Kizashi I tried to run it at the lowest psi I could get away with. If I remember correctly any lower than 34-35 lbs would cause it to trigger the warning. Sometimes it would trigger after a few miles when the tires where cold, then after about 9 miles after the tires warmed up and the psi would rise enough to cause the large orange center light to go off but other lights would still be on. Possibly the "!" it has been awhile. I do remember that the warning sequence was inconstant and some times all the lights would go completely away then after letting the car sit and trying it again some warning lights came on and remained for the entire drive. I finally gave up and now fill my tires to 39-40 lbs and hardly ever see the light.

[SamirD]

Thank you for sharing! I've also found that when pressure go above 50psi, the system will act like it's not reading that sensor. I'm guessing 50psi is out of the range of pressures programmed in the ecu.

[redmed]

I would like to reprogram the ecu to allow pressures down to 28 psi. 28 psi would still be a safe pressure and this whole TPMS system would be more palate able. But I guess Mr Gore and friends would not be able to sleep at night worrying about the environment.

[moojin]

Since you've manually verified the tire pressures are correct, continue driving and see if it goes off. Sometimes it just takes a while for the system to fully learn everything. If it hasn't gone away after a week that includes some 20mi+ drives, then we'll have to revisit it in more depth.

During the relearn, does the TPMS system record the stable psi as the correct psi? For example, since I deflated to between 30 to 33 psi, does the TPMS system now think my correct psi as 30 to 33psi instead of 38psi (sticker)?

Thankfully, no. The car has set psi levels at which it triggers warnings.

Since my post, I drove the car on a single trip of 150 miles. The (!) light in the speedometer did not disappear.

I will say that when I had my tire valve and tpms sensor replaced, drove away, then the 3 warning lights appeared again, drove back to the auto repair shop, they tried to do some unusual steps to get the warning light to disappear, including using some type of handheld "computer" to "talk" to my car. Is it possible to reset the 38psi on the TPMS within the car's computer to a different value, such as 20 psi or even 45 psi?

I will attempt to inflate to 45psi, set to relearn mode and drain to 40psi tomorrow evening.

[SamirD]

Since my post, I drove the car on a single trip of 150 miles. The (!) light in the speedometer did not disappear.

I will say that when I had my tire valve and tpms sensor replaced, drove away, then the 3 warning lights appeared again, drove back to the auto repair shop, they tried to do some unusual steps to get the warning light to disappear, including using some type of handheld "computer" to "talk" to my car. Is it possible to reset the 38psi on the TPMS within the car's computer to a different value, such as 20 psi or even 45 psi?

I will attempt to inflate to 45psi, set to relearn mode and drain to 40psi tomorrow evening.

Well that sucks.

I recently tried the inflate/deflate method and after about 15 miles the lights came back on again. Looks like I'll have to do it again.

I must say it's quicker than the tool method though as the tool takes longer to trigger the sensors than letting air out.

[SamirD]

I would like to reprogram the ecu to allow pressures down to 28 psi. 28 psi would still be a safe pressure and this whole TPMS system would be more palate able. But I guess Mr Gore and friends would not be able to sleep at night worrying about the environment.

That's not going to be possible without some ecu hacking--which won't be cheap. But I'm sure the guys at Road Race Engineering could do it.

[RedGeminiPA]

I've never heard of any way to change the preset values for the TPMS system. They have to be within the car manufacturers' specs for each given vehicle based on the same factors as the recommended tire PSI.

[redmed]

I would settle at disabling the TPMS system.

[redmed]

On my 85 Ford Ranger was the first time I encountered a check engine light. I reached behind the dash and took out the light bulb and blissfully drove that truck for another 130K plus miles. Sadly the Kizashi dash is a little more complex, but there have been times I wanted to grab a handful of LEDs.

[SamirD]

I would settle at disabling the TPMS system.

If you really, really want to do it--swap your ECU for one from Canada--Canadian cars didn't have tpms.

Update on my own tpms issues. Looks like the pressure release method took the second time around. It's really weird, but I seem to have to re-program the sensors more than once with every tire swap, even if I use the vt30. Speaking of the vt30, I emailled ateq with no reply and tried to call them but no one was available. I'm not going to have time to chase them so looks like this unit will sit unfixed for a while.