Trick TPMS system

You have three options:

1) Ignore the warning light.

2) Put a piece of tape over the warning light.

3) Put the sensors in a pressure bottle at normal tire pressure.

Tom

 

No I don't, but then I haven't looked for one. Perhaps someone else might have more information.

Tom

 

Question: Can the TPM System be damaged by using tires/rims that are not equipped with a TPMS sensors? I would like to buy a set of steel rims and mount them with studded snow tires for quick (and cheaper) mounting onto my car in the winter. :rockon:

 

No damage. You will get the annoying light on the dash, but that's it.

Tom

 

Probably legal ramifications that would preclude this reality from developing, but it would be nice if the TPMS sensor light, was something that came on to alert you...but then YOU had the option to turn it off. At the very least, turn it off for X amount of days or miles....

This reality is exactly why I'm NOT a fan of TPMS. I'm too anal to ignore a glowing light, I don't want to put tape over it, and putting them in a pressure bottle and/or buying and installing another set...seems way too PIA to me.

 

Option 4: Just carry on, ignore light. There are other permanent lights on the dash: I think some passenger seat belt status light, and others?

 

What's the difference between your option #4 and qbee's option #1...? I' assuming carry on..in both cases...

 

I had snow tire on steel rims during the last winter (2010 Gen III). I just ignored the TPMS light during the winter months. When the OEM rims and tires replaced the winter tires, the TPMS light went out in just a few miles of driving. My advise is to just ignore the light.

 

Make that four options:

4) With the car parked and in ready mode and the TPMS warning light on, press and hold the "set" button below the steering wheel until the TPMS light flashes (this should be about 10 seconds), then press "set" again and the light should turn off. You should be set for annoyance free driving until you make a trip longer than 60 km!

Note: This is what worked on Blackbird (my Canadian 2007 Prius) after I put on the winter tyres, which have no TPMS in them.

The TPMS light has actually only come back on once since I did the aforementioned trick earlier in the winter, and it inexplicably went away on its own the next day. That was after my wife drove over 100 km to another city!

 

I was going to say a strip of black electrical tape but qbee beat me to the punch.

 

Another option is two strips of black electrical tape: one for each eye. While twice as expensive, it does work for multiple cars.

Tom

 

Suppose you are in New York where maintenance code faults are reported during state inspections? If you go in with tires missing the TPMS sensors, will the car pass inspection? Clearly if you disable the TPMS system, you will fail, but if the system is working and reports incorrect pressures do you also fail?

 

Mine didn't fail, cvstan.

 

Mine either! I asked my inspection place if they cared about the TPMS and they said it wasn't on their list of things to check. They passed the car.

 

Yeah, there "has" to be a way to disable the TPMS in our Gen 2's.

On the web, you'll find of course (at PC) the method to disable Gen 3 TPMS. You'll find another forum where they disable it in the Yaris. Then another where they disable it in Toyota trucks.

With all the Gen 2's here, somebody needs to poke around and do a pin out of the harnesses. I bet the method is the same, if not very similar to the Gen 3 or at least the same year range Yaris.

Anyways, 2 days after I bought my Gen 2 this past September, the TPMS light started flashing and staying illuminated. No pressing of the button made it go away. Monday I stopped at my local tire/wheel shop to look at aftermarket wheels. They said they could sync the sensors with the TPMS for $20 with their handy dandy TPMS handheld tool. Done! No more light.

BUT winter is coming real soon here in Michigan and I have a set of winter wheels that will be going on, sans TPMS sensors, thus the light will be back on.

 

My dealer wants $100 to re-program the TPMS to a new set of sensors. The Prius can only track one set of sensors (unlike some other Toyotas). So having snow tires and separate rims gets crazy expensive to swap back and forth. This is dumb.

 

Completely dumb!!!

Check out your local tire/wheel shop. They likely have the same tool to reset/sync/repair the TPMS and will charge ALOT less than the Toyota Dealer Like I reported, the wheel shop only charged me $25. When I called the dealer, they quoted me $120.

 

ty!