Can't reset tire sensor

I had a sensor on my 2009 Gen II that kept triggering a TPMS light; the dealer suggested it was going into a sleep mode. They said rapidly deflating that tire by 10 psi and then bringing it back to pressure should reset it (and usually did).

It also is possible that a TPMS sensor battery has gone dead. A good tire place can check if they all are transmitting (you also can check via the OBDII port if you have a miniVCI cable and software); in that case replacement is the solution.

 

It's just a matter of plugging in with Techstream and reading what the TPMS computer is trying to tell you. It will show the battery status, signal received, temperature and pressure from each sensor. No guesswork involved.

-Chap

 

IF he's got techstream.

 

My light will stay on if I have a nail/screw in my tire, me trying to ignore it and just fill up the tire pressure. The light stays on till the nail/screw is removed and the tire remounted on car. That has happened to me twice.

 

Surely you can find someone with Techstream. A Toyota dealer, for example.

If you keep checking the pressures and they keep being good, you're just repeatedly answering the question "are pressures the problem? no."

So the problem is something else, a low transmitter battery or other TPMS system problem. Techstream will tell you directly.

-Chap

 

Given tire pressures are fine, I'd go with Chap's suggestion of low battery or TPMS sensor problem.

 

Bottom line too: the ONLY problem with the car is the TPMS system, lol. We operate fine like that 4~5 months out of the year, with our snow tires.

 

best way to find out is using techstream to see which sensor is not working properly.

 

I have the MVCI cable with techstream and I can tell you the software will not read the TPMS sensors. For some reason it says the system is not available or something. I can do a health check and it will read the overall psi for front and rear tires but no individual readings for each wheel. I also have a TPMS light that came on which is why I got the MVCI cable. But when I ran the health check the no TPMS sensor was shown. Unless someone else can prove me wrong. I will post up the error later today.

 

Techstream connected to my 2010 Prius shows me a very complete data list for the TPMS, including the sensor IDs (room for five, though car only has four), battery status of each one, current pressure and temperature from each one, and the pressure limits for each one to trigger the warning.

All MVCIs these days are clones of the original (the cloners drove the original maker, XHorse, out of the business), and some of them seem to be better clones than others. The one I ended up with is able to talk to the TPMS, anyway.

-Chap

 

Thanks ChapmanF. Sucks that I got the not so good one. Who was your vendor you got it from?

 

Um, 3ProngPaul found it for me. But before you get too excited ... mine flakes out when getting the engine data list. And likes to drop the connection mid-brake-bleed, 5 times out of 6.

Trying out another J2534 dongle, even if it's a bit more money, is still on my to-do list, but I haven't bought any yet. Somebody suggested I try VxDiag.

-Chap

 

If you're in area that doesn't ground your car for wonky tpms, I wouldn't rush into anything: cargo cult at its finest.

 

This forum has bigger issues than that! Sometimes it skips posts!

With Techstream, you can see each TPMS sensor report its tire's pressure. If you drop the pressure a bit on each tire in turn can determine which tire has which sensor, and the one that isn't reporting becomes clear.

You also will need Techstream to enter the ID code from your replacement TPMS sensor (take a photo of it before it is installed) so the car can "see" it. You also will have to reenter the ID codes from your installed (good) transmitters as part of the process, but they will be listed in Techstream when you start (make a screenshot). This reprogramming is needed so your car will read the sensors properly; some tire places can handle that but others can't (and will send you to a dealer).