TPMS and tire rotation

You won't have to have the TPMS info reprogrammed (which the dealer has to do) but you will have to adjust the tire pressures since the front/rear tires are different, and then you have to reset the pressure calibration (button under steering wheel), p 443 in the owner's manual.

 

+1 Exactly correct. The Gen 3 TPMS system does not track location of the tires, so if you keep them all at the same pressure, you won't need to do a thing. If you keep front and rear at different pressures, as most people do, you'll need to adjust the pressures and reset the calibration, as detailed above.

 

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I still think you'd have to check the pressure no matter. The car does not have a 50/50 weight distribution from what I understand (couldn't find the exact numbers on the Toyota website).

 

That's correct.

 

Well that is a new one on me, just why would these most people you mention keep different air pressure in the front than in the rear? Yes I know the weight distribution is not 50 / 50 and never has been on most vehicles, so why would anyone do this on a Prius ? I am very curious to know.

Oh yeah one other thing do the plastic covers need to come off to rotate tires or not?

Thanks.

 

Because the Toyota recommended PSI is different for front tires than rears--see the sticker on the driver's side b-pillar.

 

Higher pressure on the front also helps to ensure that you will have the correct amount of understeer.

 

Oh darn I was hoping for some new reason that was Prius specific like some cool fuel savings reason or some other Prius only reason.

Thanks, and by the way I reread what I wrote it sounds snotty did not mean it that way.

 

It's no big deal one way or the other, but you don't need to reset the button for a tire rotation. The standard set point won't give a low pressure alarm until tire pressure has dropped well below the set point so 2 psi doesn't make much difference to the TPMS.

IIRC, PC chat lore has it that the TPMS doesn't give a warning until tire pressure drops 20% below the set point.