How to get TPMS to relearn with new sensors

First of all, NEVER "assume" anything.

That is your first mistake. Anytime you change wheels, you either have to move the sensors that are inside the wheels to the new wheels before mounting and balancing the tires on the new wheels.

OR

You can buy a new set of sensors, then have them installed and "registered" to the Prius. Once you do one of the two choices above, the TPMS light should go out.

Pushing the button will not change anything at this point. The light is on because the Prius is NOT sensing the sensors that are now missing since you removed the wheels that were on the car that contained the sensors that are "registered" to the Prius.

Any decent tire shop "should" be able to install the new sensors and register them to your Prius. Note: I said "should be able". That does not mean the shop you do business with can or cannot do it. If you have trouble, consult the local dealer for assistance but be prepared to pay a premium for that dealers assistance.

Best of luck to you,
Ron (dorunron)

 

I have a second set of wheels on my 2012 Prius. The local tire dealer said they could code the sensors after they mounted the wheels and tires. They had problems and couldn't. I have my Prius scheduled for maintenance this week. Any information what Toyota dealers charge to code the TMPS sensors?

 

You need to go to the dealership and have them connect the Toyota Techstream to have them register the new TPMS, or you can remove and install the old TPMS onto the FRS wheels.
I would go with the second option since it's cheaper to have a tire shop remove and install the old TPMS onto the new wheels.

it all depends on your local dealership, every dealership charge differently.

 

When I bought my "fancy" aftermarket wheels, Discount Tire moved the factory sensors to them. Then when I got my Arctic Alpens from DT, they put new sensors in the factory wheels I use for winter. The dealer cannot seen to reset either set of sensors when I swap the wheels seasonally, but Discount Tire can, and it's free.

 

I have this one :

It allows you to swap between two different sets of tires (winter/summer). Some people have had problems installing the software
on the PC, but I got the latest from their website and it works.
There is another solution out there. There are TPMS stems that can be programmed. So you can program a second sets of tires to have
the same RFID's as the first set. So when you swap tires, the car doesn't know the difference.

 

Can you provide some links where one could purchase these TPMS Stems that can be programmed?

 

Then there's option 3: drop-kick the sensors off the driveway

 

Mendel,
There is one more : Black tape over dash light

Dorunron,
Our local repair shop has this tool and I don't know where he got it. If I remember correctly, you need the programmable stems and
the programming tool. It isn't really designed to be a consumer tool. Let me see if I can find it online or if worse comes to worse, I
can stop by the repair shop next week.

 

Well here is the stem :

and here is the programming tool:

Hopefully there is a cheaper programmer out there :-(

 

Each TPMS sensor has a serial number encoded into it. The TPMS computer in the car has a list of serial numbers that it recognizes.

Different manufacturers use different procedures. Toyota requires entry of the serial numbers via the diagnostic port. It would be nice if an ELM tool worked, but it doesn't support the Toyota protocol for TPMS. TPMS is on the KMB bus, while most other functions such as the backup beeper are controlled via the CAN bus.

If you've installed the TPMS sensors without recording the serial numbers, the Toyota way to retrieve them is to demount each tire and read the numbers off the sensors. Tire dealers with the proper equipment can read the sensor numbers electronically, and then enter them via the diagnostic port.

 

^

yup... and I've done this once when I was working at Toyota, they'll charge you for the service fee.

 

Wow, and we're in the year 2014... We can find who lost pets belong to if they have a embedded chip. No need to surgically remove. I doubt I have the serial numbers for the new TPMS sensors installed. If that's the case, I'll leave them uncoded. My experience is that TPMS sensors are more trouble than they're worth because I normally change out my factory wheels. I don't mind buying a second set of sensors, but what a hassle.

 

What Rob wrote is spot on. Toyota uses the same software that they use when they are doing the diagnostics on the Prius. You would think that something like this could be made more simple, but then the dealers would be losing money when folks run into the situations such as the OP is discussing. I myself appreciate the TPMS system, but think it needs to be more simplified.

 

No actual need to surgically remove the sensors from a Prius either, that is just the choice of the individual shop. Now that my household has multiple TPMS cars needing seasonal tire swaps, I finally sprang for a tool to read the sensors via radio through the sidewall. It reads the Prius sensors just fine. (Note that this particular tool isn't really affordable yet, for owners with a single car or not doing twice-a-year swaps. But a big shop has no excuse for not having something similar.)

BTW, those microchips don't find lost pets. They merely identify found pets.

 

Wasn't somebody talking about being able to clone the sensors, ie: purchase new ones (say for snow tires) and configure them so they're identical as far as the car's concerned. So you can swap them with no intervention.

 

Thanks for the information. Can't imagine that a dealer wouldn't carry the TPMS reader you mention? If my solution with the Toyota dealer is to have the tires demounted, I'll pass. I previously had a independent tire dealer that stated they could code the new sensors, failed in their attempt.

The chips provide owner information.

 

Sorry, my muddled mind misread the first time through. Plenty of people actually believe that pet microchips, and GPS trackers on conditionally released offenders and suspects, can actually be used to find them.

 

Chevy had a procedure that allows their cars to re-sense the new sensors with out any tools. In another thread, a developer of an app called
Carista was going to look into allowing his app to set the tpms id in the Prius. Not sure if he was successful at this or not.