TPMS Light

No.

 

I just started having the same problem on our '07. I plugged in the Mini VCI and brought up Techstream. 3 of the 4 sensors are giving me a reading the 4th one is not. Dead battery? I need to buy 2 new tires soon, so I will order a new sensor and have it ready to go when I take the car in to have the new tires put on.

 

Reset procedure you are doing is correct. I don't think you need to leave IG-ON for 3 minutes; 1 minute would suffice.

Battery in TPMS sensor(s) is/are dead.

Listed life expectancy of battery in TPMS is all over the place. Various sites have it as:

• 5-10 years
• 7 years
• 5-12 years

You got 10 years. Celebrate.

 

If the sensors are 10 years old or have 100K or if you expect to cross either of these thresholds with your new tires you should just go ahead and replace them when you replace the tires because the old sensors are likely to fail sometime in the life of the new tires You'll save the labor cost of replacing the sensors later and also avoid the hassle of the TPMS sensors failing one at a time. Techstream can tell you if the TPMS batteries are low or OK.

I had one low TPMS battery after 10 years and 56K miles and elected to replace all four when I replaced the tires.

 

No sensor in the spare, and as mentioned above: likely one or more of your sensors batteries are failing. In your shoes, I would ignore it, just monitor your tire pressures with a pressure gauge as always.

 

If I were getting new tires I would fix it at that time. I like knowing before I leave my driveway if I have a low tire so I can worry all day if I don't check the tire pressure with a gauge.

 

Thanks for the info. I didn't know Techstream could check the battery strength. Hopefully, the rest are OK. With 267k miles, I'm not sure any TPMS for this car are worthwhile investments, but I don't want my wife to start ignoring any lights that appear on the dash.

 

Black electrical tape is the best solution for that problem!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Hard to diagnose which tire has the bad monitor. I have the same issue, the code is for #4 but there’s no way in knowing which tire contains #4. I’m just ignoring it until the tires get changed.

 

I'm waiting to do mine until we get the car down to Florida where I have a compressor. Then I will run Techstream and let air out of each tire in turn until I reach one where the TPMS values shown in Techstream are not changing. That should work, shouldn't it?

 

Toyota TPMS

Denso 550-0103

Amazon.com

 

That's OEM? Thanks, Ed.

 

Oem on g2

 

Have four different PSI at each tire, note the PSI at each location, then compare this with Techstream. The dead sensor should be easy to spot.

LF = 30PSI RF = 40
LR = 35PSI RR = 50​

 

There's another way that doesn't require messing with tire pressure. Park the car with one side exposed to the sun. After a few hours, that side will show higher temperature with Techstream. Then turn the car a quarter turn and wait another few hours. End toward the sun will show the higher temperature.

Worked for me during summer. YMMV this time of year...

 

An updated Scangauge-II can also do this. But instead of temperature, I used tire pressure in sun vs shade, and the front-rear pressure difference, to identify the problem corner without having to move the car.

Though sensor tolerance might interfere with this pressure approach, temperature should give a stronger indication. SG can do that too.

Now I just need to do something about my intermittent sensor ...

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Just take to any local tire shop, they can scan TPMS sensors with a handheld scanner without taking tires off and tell you which one is bad. They may charge you a few backs, but if just scanning, they may do it free. Or buy one of TPMS scan tool like Autel TS401 or TS408 for about $130 and DIY. Or if you need to do any tire swapping with different set of TPMS DIY, you may want to invest in Autel TS501 or TS508 ~$240 which will have OBDII connector to register different TPMS onto car's ECU.

That said, the cheapest solution would be to do nothing. Just check tire pressure manually more frequently. Next cheapest solution would be to buy external TPMS like in the photo for about $50 to monitor tire pressure. It works better than internal TPMS that come with PRIUS, for it will display individual tire pressure, however, most of those aftermarket external TPMS are cheaply made and their durability is questionable.

 

I am a fan of TPMS (in the major minority for sure). Why? Cursed w/ regular/frequent tire punctures due to: nails, screws, and a bolt. The early warning of tire pressure loss, can prevent a saveable tire from being destroyed due to prolonged driving on a low/no PSI; driver obviously needs to pullover quickly and check the tires. Location and size of the penetration will ultimately determine if the tire can be repaired.

The upside w/ being cursed, I am super efficient in swapping tires. Fastest change so far is 15min; this includes emptying the trunk of work stuff to get to the spare and jack, using supplied scissor jack, swapping tires, and reloading trunk contents.

 

Our son works at a National tire retailer, he has learned that most (if not all) TPM sensors have replaceable batteries and that replacement of the battery will resolve most issues (they do this with tire purchase) On the other hand, with low-profile tires, the sensors are OFTEN damaged during tire removal, due to the very stiff sidewalls these tires have. Such a situation obviously requires a new sensor.