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Tire Pressure Sensor

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by mattprius1111, Oct 16, 2017.

  1. mattprius1111

    mattprius1111 New Member

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    Hi guys,

    One or more of my tire pressure sensors have gone bad. The light in the dash is flashing. To get it fixed the auto body shop wants $150 per sensor. I want to just turn the sensor light off. I know there is a reset button under the steering wheel but Ive tried it multiple times with no luck. Any idea of how to get this warning light to go away?

    I can maintain the pressure without a sensor.

    Thanks.
     
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Not a warranty item?
     
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  3. priuscatprimeguy

    priuscatprimeguy Senior Member

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    2010 Prius?
     
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  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Ah sorry, didn't realize you have 2010, was viewing on phone, which only displayed that it's Prime forum (2017+). Maybe report your thread, ask to get it moved to third gen Prius?

    Regarding your sensor: are you in an area where you'll fail some inspection with a tpms light? If that's NOT the case, my 2 cents: just ignore it. I do that for about 4 months every winter with our snow tires, it's very easy (and legal in Canada). The button under the dash will only reset the threshold; as far as I know will not switch it off.
     
  5. mattprius1111

    mattprius1111 New Member

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    I accidentally posted in the wrong forum. Im a newb here. I need the light to go away bc its part of a rental fleet and I feel that it is unprofessional to have that warning light on. I need a way to clear the dash.
     
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  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Then you need to fix/replace the sensor, likely the latter. The tire shop's price is a little steep though; maybe other responders can help. @wjtracy is one of the TPMS gurus.
     
  7. Prodigyplace

    Prodigyplace Senior Member

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    When viewing on my iPhone, at least you can see the profile information if you turn your phone to landscape mode.
     
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  8. ct89

    ct89 Active Member

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    For a seven year old car, I would bet on the TPMS sensor in the tire.

    If you purchase the sensor directly, you should be able to get your average tire shop to swap them out of the failing tire.
    Here's the sensors I purchase for the snow tires on my 2010 Prius.
    2010 TOYOTA PRIUS 1.8L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) Sensor | RockAuto

    Once swapped, you'll need to reprogram the car for the new sensor. The tire shop will be able to do that or since you have a fleet, maybe investing in a TPMS tool would make sense for you. On the advice of another poster here, I purchased the ATEQ TPMS QUICKSET RESET TOOL from Tire Rack so I can reprogram my car when I do summer/winter tire swaps.

    The sensor is about $30, a tire shop in my experience would charge about $20 to dismount/mount the tire with the new sensor, then there might be an extra charge to program your car to recognize the replaced sensor...I agree, $150 seems high.
     
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  9. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    u can disable it by using a paper clip and backprobing.do a search
     
  10. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Matt there is no easy way to turn off the warning light, as it is a legal requirement.
    There are several complex options such as pulling the wires, but I am not the expert.

    Here many of us use Techstream and a PC to see the codes and pressures of the TPMS. This way you can at least figure out which tire(s) is bad. It is a little unusual for a 2010 to need new TPMS. My car is 2006 and only one is bad. I got my warning light off though, I have a spare TPMS in the glove compartment, and I found a way to give it a fake reading so my car thinks it has 4 good TPMS. Also with Techstream you can temporarily turn off the light by assigning a bogus code like 0000000. It takes the car about 20-30 minutes long drive to realize the tire is not reading.

    There are other devices of course.
     
    #10 wjtracy, Oct 17, 2017
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2017
  11. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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    i found it in the rav4 forum easy to do
     
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  12. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Give us a LINK or a hint
     
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  13. tankyuong

    tankyuong Senior Member

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  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    upload_2017-10-21_9-0-9.png

    Or just ignore it.
     
  15. GT4Prius

    GT4Prius Active Member

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    If you are renting the car out, I think it's important you fix the TPMS so it works.

    1. Tyre pressures are safety critical obviously, so you want renters to be alerted if the pressure is low.

    2. If someone rents it who thinks it has a working TPMS, because they see the sensors or know that the Prius has them, they might rely on it and not check the pressures themselves. That might mean they could drive with pressures that are too low and unsafe.

    If you want to look professional, great, do it by fixing the problem rather than hiding it.

    That's my view.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.