TPMS blinking.

Got a flat a few months ago. Since then TPMS had been blinking. I waited until getting new tires to deal with it. Tire installer, Costco, says they can’t find a signal on any tire and says they all have gone bad. I find that hard to believe. Can Auto zone/napa, ect have a meter that could tell which one is bad?
it’s not the spare.

thx

 

My light was on 2 years ago when I purchased the truck. I had Goodyear check the sensors, said they were all bad also. They quoted me some ridiculous price to change them out which I declined. I may consider changing them out once my tires need replacing…

 

The tpms modules have a finite battery life. I believe blinking means that it lost connection due to battery dying. Likely needs to be replaced and reprogrammed. Due to the age of the vehicle, it’s likely that more than one are bad.

 

Flashing light is failed comm. with the right tools, you can figure out which is failed.

even if they’re wrong, if one battery has died, then others aren’t far behind. I can post more details about how to hook into TPMS ECU if it helps.

 

18 year old batterys. My tire light was on for 5 yrs final got it fixed with Denso sensors, you will need 5 ( one for the spare)

buy from rockauto not Amazon

Denso 550-0103 TPMS

 

Damn. Wish I knew all this before I had my tires mounted. Not sure it’s worth the cost now….

 

Take out the 4 10mm bolts for the panel under the steering wheel. Remove panel. Remove the 2 Phillips head screws for the instrument cluster trim. Remove trim. Remove the 4 Phillips head screws for the cluster itself. Pull cluster out. Remove the TPMS bulb. Reassemble. TPMS light off at no cost to you

 

Discount Tire (or similar) will check the sensors for free for you. But yeah without a psi readout from the sensors I find them to not be valuable and would just disable via light and other methods. They are usually 60$ a piece plus installation (50$ if not replacing tires).

 

After replacing a couple sensors that were supposed to be the problem, I just put a piece of electrical tape over the blinking light. Just wasn't worth chasing in my experience.

 

Try again. $30-38 is normal range for first gens. Proof below from a few months ago when I slapped on new shoes.

Sure, the bill in that image is still not ideal, but knowing how much I spent on my tires, knowing these 5 sensors and install cost less 20% less than replacement of a single tires, it's worth having the peace of mind that (A) I'll be alerted to low-air conditions that could destroy my new tire, (B) I'm using the OEM vendor (Denso) for the sensors so I shouldn't need to do this again for another 15-20 years, and (C) I didn't need to do some hack-ass bullshit to dodge a nag light that actually serves a purpose, which is almost as stupid as never replacing your O2 sensor because they're "unnecessary for normal operation" (or w/e), or removing your check engine bulb because your O2 sensor is bad and you're sick of seeing the light.

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I feel like that attitude is nonsense. It took me under 5 minutes with an OBDlink MX+ dongle, with their free smartphone app, to both FIND and CLEAR TPMS codes for my dead/failed sensor to stop the light from flashing and I didn't even need to replace the sensor. Full info here:

https://www.tundras.com/threads/obd-thread-pids-apps-dashboards.60459/page-10#post-3132384

This isn't rocket science. It took you 1 minute to tape the light over. It took me 3-4 minutes to stop my light from flashing, and I was still getting alerts for low-pressure on the other tires afterward.

EDIT: There are handheld TPMS tools that can detect whether a sensor is sending a signal, you just slide the tool over the valve stem to check the sensor. Again - not rocket science. Any tire shop with an employee that has two brain cells, a basic TPMS handheld tool, and a basic understanding of TPMS can quickly figure out which sensor is bad.

 

Fair points. I always appreciate an education from Shifty. Unfortunately for me the last sensor I changed out, the guy at Costco promised me that he identified the problem sensor. So I went ahead and had it changed. Apparently he did not have the required two brain cells, as the light started blinking within a few miles down the road. I'll reconsider my position, and look at Shifty's info, but I'm not overly concerned with the blinking light. Even if Shifty says I need an attitude adjustment.

 

So, basically, exactly the distance the TPMS system needed to realize it wasn't getting communication. I would've marched back to Costco and had them fix the issue they supposedly repaired, at their cost.

The technician probably did one or more of the following:

• failed to clone the OEM sensor ID onto the new sensor
• failed to program the new sensor ID into the TPMS ECU to replace the old one
• replaced the ID of the wrong sensor with the new sensor ID
• used one of the generic aftermarket sensors that doesn't seem to play nice with the TPMS system in our trucksd
• damaged something during sensor install, on the new sensor if none of the above is true

It's shocking how many people have been forked over by shops with techs who don't know wtf they're doing. Usually what happens in the chain shops is, if the 1st person doesn't get it right, they'll put someone on it that knows more about TPMS, if they're on-shift. It's bullshit. If you work for a tire shop there should be training for everyone to understand this crap, and if you're not trained, you don't touch it. shocking how many people think you simply put in a new sensor and the system magically knows how to connect with the new sensor. If the TPMS ECU doesn't know the wireless broadcast ID of the new sensor, it can't monitor shit. It's not like it's intelligent enough to realize, "oh shit, I have this TPMS broadcast following me around, but I don't recognize it! It must be mine, I will adopt it!" (Would be nice, though...)

 

I went to a shop with my Nissan Titan when I had it. Had the dreaded blinking TPMS light. They identified the bad sensor and replaced it. Drove off the lot and the light was still blinking. They told me it takes awhile to calibrate and the light will stop blinking after you drive it for awhile. It didn't stop after two days of commuting so I drove it back in. Tech literally said, "Oh we just scanned the drivers side. The rear sensor was bad so we replaced it. Didn't think to scan the passenger side too. Thought we fixed the problem." I was a bit miffed that they didn't take it for a drive or at least test it. One of the passenger side sensors was bad as well. Needless to say I never went back to that shop.

 

Agree 100% with Shifty's assessment of my Costco experience. It is sad that the Costco folks do tires for a living and all appear to be certified at whatever tire school which should cover TPMS issues - and then Shifty runs circles around them. And don't get me started on how they mangle center caps.

 

My post was for discount tire which is usually 60$ per unit.