Context 2010 Prius with 90K miles. TPM dashboard indicator is lit. As I understand it the TPM in the wheel has a battery. It is unknown the last time they were replaced. I have never had a car with TPM. I would like to know how to determine if the battery is the problem and how often they must be replaced. I am not sure what other helpful diagnostic questions should be asked and would appreciate any suggestions.
If the TPMS light on the dash comes on and blinks for 60 seconds and then stays on constantly after you start the car, then the battery in one or more of the sensors in the tire has a bad battery. You can also use a scanner to check for the trouble codes or to use live data to look at the tire pressure readings. The OEM sensors normally last 10 to 14 years. Cheaper aftermarket sensors normally last 5 to 7 years.
My tpms light has stayed lit for years. My commie tax happy state won’t fail my car for not resolving the issue...yet.
The batteries are dead, and/or dying... It's a royal pain to replace the batteries. And when you get 4 sensors for about $30, not worth the effort. Likely any autostore or tire store has a reader that can read each sensor to tell you what the battery level is.
My TPMS light came on last year. I bought a TPMS sensor for replacement and plugged in my mini vci cable to see which sensor isn't registering. Unfortunately, my mini vci cable failed to work, so I ended up doing nothing. Fast forward to this year, I simply reinstalled my summer tires but rotated them. My TPMS light disappeared after the tire rotation. I would suggest rotating your tires and see if you get a different result. Maybe my TPMS batteries are low, or maybe a tire rotation brings the weak battery closer to the receiver. Your TPMS light can also come ON if one of you tires is outside the set tire pressure. I would also consider the TPMS reset button under the steering wheel. My original plan was to view the TPMS webpage with techstream and roll away tires one by one until I found the bad sensor. I need to fix my mini vci cable. I have an old windows xp laptop. Is there instructions on mini vci install on PriusChat? Mine is version v13.
similar here: our '10 had tpms light come on, for about a week, then go off. About a year (or two?) back. No reoccurence. ^ If and when, that's my plan, have bigger fish to fry, at least 'til the next tire replacement. Perhaps longer. That's been the norm with our tpms-less snow tires, five months out of the year, for 15 years.
