Davestoaster

Boy, I sure wish we could continue on with this thread. There is lots of information that is missing.

Here's my problem with this whole thing:

This is a FEDERALLY mandated program for ALL cars, and it's not going away soon. And a whole lot of people live in the snow belts and they either change their front two tires, or all four tires twice a year. Many of these people have nice alloy wheels for the summer, and a spare set of steel wheels with snows on them for the winter.

With this new mandated program, it makes it almost impossible to own a spare set of steel wheels for winter use unless you PAY someone each year to swap the transmitter from wheel to wheel. It almost sounds illegal, and it reminds me of the 70's when the Fed's mandated a seatbelt interlock system to force you to fasten your belt before the car started. (My age showing here) .

Together we should figure out a way to disarm the system for winter tire use, or complain loudly to the government to change the way the system works, like they did back in the 70's with the seatbelt interlock joke.

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

what do you mea lots of information missing its about the tire pressure system..not sayin that its mandatory.. but slowly yes it will be.. and they should just make all cars like the lexus.. with a 2nd set button.. but then again those dumb ___ customers always somehow hit that hidden button and cause the tire pressure light to flash..

WAlterEgo

iTrader: (1)

i don't know if u touched more on this. this thread became wordy and i dont feel like readin it all. i've got steelies from an xd w/ the original sensors. i was told that i couldn't have more than one set of sensors programmed into the car... the steelies are for winter only so i can bear the lil light, but i'd rather have it off. any way i can go about doing that?

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

lazy.... No either swap the sensors or deal with a blinkin light.. or read.. there are other ways.. im not typing it all it in this thread

bkuhl

iTrader: (1)

You are correct Walter. Our cars only allow one set to be programed in at a time. The low pressure warning is a temporary code. If you go a certain amount of time without driving it will clear itself. I believe it's either 48 or 72 hours. Aside from removing the LED from the dash panel, the only other way would be to have the sensors in place.

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

^^ correction will not clear itself..all the time after an amount of time of not seein the sensors.. it will trip 4 codes on the TPMS that you cannot erase unless you have a techstream (special toyota,scion,lexus computer)

bkuhl

iTrader: (1)

uhhh, it clears itself on my car all the time. after driving about 150 miles it'll come back on again. Doesn't bother me too much though

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

sciontcmm wrote:
Interested but have a few questions.

What is the procedure if I have 2 sets of wheels/tires (1 for winter/1 for spring/summer/fall. I hear mixed things about this. What do I need to do? Do these have to be programmed into the computer each time they are mounted on the car (every time i switch for seasons)? Will the computer get confused if I have 2 pairs of sensors with 2 different settings? Will these sensors work with different size wheels and tires than stock?

I am taking the sensors I have out of my stock wheels and tires now and putting them on new winter tires and wheels (either 15 or 16s). Then come spring I am buying new wheels and tires (either 18 or 19s) and then would put these sensors u are selling into those. What is your advice? Potential problems, etc?

Thanks, appreciate it
Mike


ok to start off.. sadly we have a lower end car..the higher end cars like the lexus' that i work on have 2 sets.. one would be "main" and the other would be "2nd" these 2 selections allow the vechicle to have a total of 8 sometimes 10 TPS programmed to the car..and when u swap wheels its as easy and pressing a button.. anywho we dont have that luxury

heres what u will have to do.. each TPS has a 7 alphanumerical digits on the sensor this is the code that is needed to program the sensor to the car.. when get ur sensors transfered over to ur "winter wheels" ask for all the codes on the sensors... tell the dealership u want them for ur own records... then as spring comes and ur shopping for ur "spring wheels".. u will need 4 more additional sensors.. or u can keep transfering them..but u will have to pay for new valve stem seal kits every time... it easier with 2 sets.. then after u get ur wheels and tires.. take everything to the dealership ask them to install and program in the new sensors (mine).. and for your records write down all the 7 digit codes.. for the "spring wheels" now that you have all 8 codes.. and 2 sets of wheels with TPS in all of them.. when ever u switch wheels.. just go in and ask them to take a couple of mins to program in the sensors.. it will save money in the long run.. instead of having the wheels broken down each time to get the sensor over to the new wheels..the TPS ecu.. should be fine no confusion..just adding new TPS's it automaticly overrides the old codes that is stored in the cars TPS ecu.. and yes these sensors will work on just about any wheel.. they do not have to be stock wheels to mount them..just ask when u buy them if there TPS compatiable wheels.. just about every wheel out there is.. since this sensor is just like a normal valve stem just a bit bigger.. and alot more expensive

i hope this explains it all to you.. as best as i can over a forum.. if u have any other questions just ask ill do my best to help you out

bkuhl

iTrader: (1)

if you do the method listed above your dealer also may or may not charge you for their minimum per hour labour rate. It really depends on your dealer though. Mine told me that I could have mine done seasonally if I wanted to at no cost. They even annotated it in my maintenance records that are accessable at all toyota maintenance locations. Do I take advantage of it? not really since I'm not to concerned about the tpms light. Food for thought. Good luck with whatever you decide to do though.

tmrepp

Yeah yeah, raising the dead...sorry!

Is it possible to buy a Lexus box with the 2nd set button and plug it into our system? If not, I'm going to buy a 2nd box and a second set of sensors and just switch boxes with summer/winter tires. Bingo, pretty simple solution, although not the cheapest. Cheapest solution, would be to rig up a PVC pipe with a pressure fitting and the 4 sensors inside it to inflate it to the PSI the system is set to...and throw it somewhere inconspicuous like the glove box, or Velcro it right next to the box. Who cares where you put it!


Anyone know if the sensors will fit ROTA G-Force 17x7.5" wheels?

Edit: got this thread on a search, didn't realize it's for the tC. The Lexus TPMS box would be installed in a xD. thanks

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

well i dont know how that lexus system is all tied together im sure if you got the ecu and 2nd switch button, then possibly but im not sure, and yes its all the same systems in the scions as long as its the Direct TPMS and not the one through the ABS sensor

700x23

Each spring when you swap your wheels, take some black elec. tape and place it over the dash light. Done. The roll will last the life of the car... and your next car.

roll of tape: $2.50
not having to hassle with stealership: priceless.

Darken

alright here is a question. Can you get an aftermarket sensor for the stock valves that would have a digital readout? so you can tell which tires have what pressure? That would be awesome in the stupid cubby hole. Get in and see that one tire is five lbs light, fix, neat!

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

Sure if you like half assed things i say go for it, im not putting anyone down, But most of us care about a cars quite a bit. Im just glad i have an 06'


ehh, im sure there some way, but you would have to mess with the TPS ECU, way too much work for such a dumb thing if you ask me, If you can't visually look at your tires and or feel that something is wrong (ie a pull going down the road) then you dont need to worry about any digital read outs

Either way Toyota sensors only other car companies have compatiable sensors, in our cars you HAVE to use Toyota ones.

mdMiketC

I know this thread hasn't had a post in it for about 2 years now but it is the most relevant one to my question and rather than start a new post, i figured I would put the question here.

Back in August of 2008, I bought a set of 18" 5Zigen rims with tires from EdgeRacing.com (which, as I found out today, is no longer in business) and with those bought 4 aftermarket TPMS's to go in the new rims, being assured that all I had to do was take the car to a dealer ship and they could recalibrate my cars computer to see the new sensors.

Sure enough, when I took my stock wheels off and installed the new ones, the TPMS warning light came on but I knew this was to be expected. I took the car to the dealer ship and told them what I had been told by the sales rep from EdgeRacing.com. She wasn't sure if it could be done and went to check in the back with the tech. She came back as said it could be done for $200. I said ok and when I got my car back, the warning light was gone and has never come on since.

Now about this time last year, I took my tire pressure as part of normal upkeep on the car and all four wheels were at 35psi. Again, haven't seen a light since the dealership so I think nothing of it. Before you ask, no I stupidly did not check the tire pressure of the wheels when I installed them so I am not sure what it was at.

As I have been driving around lately, I have noticed a weird feeling from my wheels when backing out of my garage, going over certain parts of the road (manhole covers and crap like that) and so yesterday, I decided to check my tire pressure. All four wheels are currently at about 30psi.

So in a years time roughly, my wheels have lost approx. 5psi, with no warning light on the dash. From what I have read in this post, what the dealer said could be done for $200 really can't be done.

So my question is, what the hell did the dealer do to make the light go off and stay off?

DJ08tC

5psi is not enough, it is like 10 or more. Easy way to figure out if they are low is to let air out of them and see if the light comes on. Thats if you have a pump readily available to refill them.

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

I too am sad to see that edgeracing.com is gone too. But the light will come on at a lower pressure, They might have been initialized at at lower pressure even if you have them set high it will not matter unless you drop like 10-15 psi below what they were initialized at.

IE. if they were initialized at 28 PSI the light may not come on until you are below 20 PSI or so

If they were initialized at 35 PSI the light will more then likely come on from 28 PSI or lower

mdMiketC

Well I ran as test on my front, drivers side wheel and deflated it down to 25psi (a total off 10psi difference from checking the wheels back in 2009) and no light.

A couple of new questions have come up before I go _____ out the dealership for charging my $200 for turning off the light/disabling the system:

1) What is the PSI +/- threshold for a TPMS before it will register as a warning light on the dash?

2) Sgtfluffy, if what you said is correct through this entire thread, shouldn't my warning light be on all the time since the aftermarket sensors from EdgeRacing.com shouldn't have been programmable to my ECU?

3) If a difference of 10psi isn't enough to turn the light on then how come, with my stock wheels with the stock sensors in them, the light would come on during the winter in the morning when the wheels were cold but turn off after having driven to work after the tires had warmed up? I know the there is a cold PSI and and warm PSI level for wheels, but is that difference in PSI so great (+/-10psi or more) just due to a temperature difference?

Sgtfluffy16

iTrader: (1)

Again the tire PSI might have been initialized at a very low psi.. or the sensors are bad, I do not know all the info on your car or what sensors were put in. To my knowledge when I work for Lexus in 2007 no other wheel sensor would work with the toyota/lexus vehicles. If your vehicle is newer then an 06' which it should be if you have the sensors in the wheels. You do not have to drive to make the light come on, just lowering the air pressure will be enough to set the light off

mdMiketC

I'll be taking it to the dealer tomorrow and asking whats up cause i need to make sure that the either 1) the sensors and system are working properly and i didn't get screwed out of $200 or 2) the tech did something to disable the system and charged me $200 for something that wasn't done.