Registering TPMS IDs

Yup. Just tried it. At my house it searches for the tires for a minute and apparently finds the winter tyres from the garage 3-4 meters (and 2 walls) away. And the light turns off.
Nothing in the glove box though.

So the way I see it:
a summer tires are not programmed in
b summer tires are under inflated (the limit is 2,5 bar?)
c something is broken
d Prius only holds data for 4 or 5 tires
e I'm an idiot

aaargh... I hate these. This is my third prius and the whole point of having one is to go the dealership only once a year for an oil change.

 

@Elektroingenieur can check Toyota documentation. As far as I know Toroya TechStream dealer software is needed to register TPMS.
Everybody has guesses Let's try to get the facts.

 

Yes. Thank You.
This used to be a Toyota dealership showroom car (it's 20 months old with 18 k kilometers, I bought it used) so the tyres should/could be in the system already since this is the third summer for these tyres.

 

Not sure for 4th Gen, but with 3rd it's option "d" (only 4~5 sensors recognized).

My approach was to leave the setup as it was at the outset: OEM sensors recognized, and no sensors in my snow tires (on separate rims).

 

Thank You.
If it only recognizes 4-5 tires on this gen4 then I guess I'll do the same.
Pay once to have them program in the summer tires and I'll watch the stupid warning light in wintertime.
At least it turns off for short trips then?
It took a while for the warning light to turn on after I left my house. The system "talks" with the tyres in my garage.

 

Yeah I store our OEM tires in a stack, directly adjacent to the car in the garage, so I think some "communication" would be happening. The TPMS warning light is basically on all the time with the snow tires installed, about 5 months per year.

There's no regulations, you're not forced to have functional TPMS here, but in the States it's a different situation, in some States the car will fail inspection if they see a warning light, even just TPMS. Tire shops too, are legally bound to send you on your way with functional TPMS. These factors, together with the pig-headed system Toyota has implemented, are putting owners in a bind.

I don't put tape over the sensor btw. It's a small light, there are others more prominent, the passenger seat airbag status for example. I don't see the need to cover it, and maybe forget when I've got the OEM wheels back on (with functional TPMS), and/or leave adhesive residue.

 

Yes. It took a minute or so for the light to turn off.
Can't see myself waiting for that every morning so it will probably be mostly on.
Makes sense that Canada would have similar problems/laws concerning these.

Here you have to have real winter tyres by law from 1st of december to the end of february or you get fined (3 months).
(But the reality is that pretty much everybody has winter tyres on for 5-6 months, 90% use studded here).

The EU law about TPMS was in effect for one year until it was locally cancelled here.
I think new cars have to have one set of TPMS still, but in inspection it doesn't matter if they work or not.

I think people are a bit more "aware" of the condition of their tires in the north. You change and carry them around at least twice a year. And usually you check tire pressures at the same time too.
If you use a tire shop they will check everything too of course twice a year.

 

Yes it takes a minute or so for the system to read pressures for all 4 tires.
If you have a LOW pressure then it responds quite fast with the warning light.

However, if you have a missing TPMS reading (dead or absent TPMS) then it takes a long ~30 minute drive for the system to realize you have an unresponsive TPMS. Some people who have only short drives can go for months with the light off even though the TPMS is giving no reading.

Gen2/Gen3 behavior anyways...

 

Thank You.
Is the warning light on and not blinking if you have low pressure?

 

Low pressure is on steady. Blinking for a minute and then steady indicates a problem with the TPMS system.

 

Our, albeit third gen, does both blinking and steady at different times, all winter long with the snow tires. Could be due in part to the OEM wheels with the sensors being adjacent to the car in the garage. Come spring, when I put the OEM wheels back on, the light goes off, and stays off.

 

It definitely requires an external tool. See my previous posting about TPMS registration vs. initialization.

If you switch often between two sets of wheels, @padroo made a good suggestion in a previous thread to get aftermarket, programmable TPMS sensors, so the second set of TPMS sensors could be programmed with the same transmitter ID numbers as the originals. This would avoid the need for registration (but not for initialization) when the wheels are exchanged.

 

Thank You. So there are only 5 memory slots for tires then?
-sigh-
They have 8 on some much cheaper Toyota models here.

Well I'm changing my winter tires for studded ones anyway so that would be a good time to install aftermarket sensors on those, if I can find them here (and the Toyota service agrees to do that ). But it's not mandatory anymore, so I have to think about it.

Shame since I have 8 OEM Toyota sensors already.

Toyota really should make it possible to turn that light off, at least at the dealership. And add 4 memory slots, can't be that big of a deal to do that.

Many thanks.

 

I don't know if they cannot turn the light off, but in the US that would be illegal.
Even though there are 5 data slots, most Prii are programmed for 4.
One of our members @RobH once figured out how to reprogram from 4 tires to 5 on a Gen2.
I don't know if you could go the other way, and take it down to zero tires monitored.

 

I just installed my new wheels and tires that have the programmable Autel MX sensors in them and so far the car recognizes the new cloned sensors to be the originals.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075SBSV5Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

What does that mean? It's still not possible to swap tires and have the car continue to monitor four sensors? What's "initializing", involves techstream?

It's funny that it would come to this: the original intent of the system is lost in the noise of application, and legal ramifications.

 

There are Toyota vehicles that register two sets of tires. There is a switch inside the glove compartment that selects the active set. So I would say that the TPMS hardware has slots for 10 tires, but most vehicles are only enabled for 4. If I lived in snow country, I probably would have pursued it further when I figured out how to put TPMS on my spare. But I don't, so someone else will have to chase that rabbit...

 

The way I understood it, is that you clone 4 sensor ID:s so you have 2 tires per ID (1 summer 1 winter). And everything should work after that.

Hopefully the system doesn't mind getting info from 8 tyres and 4 ID's, otherwise I'd have to move my other set somewhere else.
Should be fine if data is transmitted just to one direction (from sensor to TPMS).
The sensor probably transmits it's code and if it matches the one on the system it accepts it.
So when you start you might get conflicting tyre pressure but it should always find everything.

Would be nice to know for sure it works. Otherwise I might end up with 12 TPMS sensors and the warning light still on.

 

I am on a trip with my new wheels with cloned Autel MX sensors and 60 miles from home I got a TPMS waring light. None of the tires are low and will deal with it when I get home. I have the tool to read the sensors, it will be interesting to see how this goes.