2007 Prius - Stubborn TPMS Sensor after loads

Hi all,

My 2007 Prius has a stubborn TPMS light. This started about a week and a half ago after I made a few trips from my house which sold to my new apartment. I had the car loaded up with stuff in each of the four trips and maybe had a lot of weight.

I checked the tire pressure after the 3rd trip and it looked fine on all of them. I set them to 35 psi and made one more trip with heavy-ish stuff. I did not check the tire pressure after that last trip but I tried resetting the TPMS light.

I press my foot on the brake pedal and hit the power button twice and then I held the Set button until I saw the TPMS pattern change to three blinks and then it stops. It then continues blinking for the 1 minute duration and stays solid. I tried this a couple of times and waited 3 minutes or so after doing it to see if it made any difference.

Am I likely not trying to reset correctly? I also have techstream on a cd and the tool and a laptop but am not sure if I should set that up and then try to debug using that tool?

Could a heavy load damage a TPMS sensor? Maybe I need to check pressure again after that last load but I don't think it would have changed much based on the 3 prior loads after which I had checked the pressure.

The only other thing I can think of is the tires were rotated by a tire shop, however the light didn't come on until I started doing the trips with stuff to my new residence.

Thanks.

 

Thanks would that have been caused by the heavier loads I was transporting? This happened right when I was moving stuff to my new place.

 

Which pressure gauge?

I will check the current pressure and then go to a gas station and try 42/40 as you had suggested and then do the light reset steps with the set key button.

 

Thanks, I agree with everything everyone is saying. I just find it weird it happened right in the middle of driving with one of the loads I was taking to my new residence. This makes me think it had something to do with the weight I had.

I will try 42/40 psi when I have time and then report back.

 

Ok so I finally filled the fronts to 40psi and the rears to 38psi. I tried resetting using the Set key and even let the car sit for 20 minutes with the ignition on. The light still blinks for 60 seconds and then goes solid.

The tires look fine. The first time I saw the light come on was while I was driving with a reasonable load of stuff in the back. This is why I kept thinking it must have perhaps made the tires low. It seems like such a coincidence if it were a battery or the sensors went bad. A week and a half before that I had the tires rotated but the light did not come on until I was driving with that load in the back.

Hmmm.....