Not exactly restoration but still may be of interest.


New tyres for the family car have been on the horizon for a while and at last inspection they did really look deflectable, getting replacements is no issue but we have a TPMS setup to monitor tyre pressure on the go. If you are not familiar with these - each wheel has a sensor fitted that transmits tyre pressure to the car's ECU, which identifies each sensor via a unique ID number transmitted by the TPMS - press the right button on the steering wheel and each tyre pressure is shown on the dash display, if one tyre deflates by more than 7 psi a waring pops up on the dash display to show which tyre is deflating - car can still be driven as normal, once tyre is reinflated the waring message is turned off. The TPMS sensors are fitted with a lithium battery, they are more or less dormant on standby until you dive the car when the sensor detects wheel rotation and after a short period for the tyre to warm up they transmit pressure info to the ECU, TPMS specs say battery life is 5-7yrs - our car is now just 7yrs old - do I replace the sensors along with the new tyres or wait until the sensors give up and then have them replaced, which means a trip back to the tyre dealer - last thing I want is to drive around with warning signs on the dash so they will need to be replaced eventually


I rang around a few tyre dealers and when I mention TPMS sensors they all say go back to the dealer - I contact the dealer - they won't give me the info over the phone (scared of verbal backlash maybe ?) but email it instead - new set of tyres $1340 and new set of TPMS sensors fitted at the time an extra $1280. I'd never really given the tyre dash pressure display much thought until now, so I delve into it further. Aftermarket sensors are available, but the ads say nothing about the unique ID number, clearly if the ID number is different from my current sensors the ECU will need reprogramming - I come across some TPMS sensors that can be reprogrammed with any ID number, this leads me to a handheld device that can not only program sensors but can also program the correct ID number into the ECU - I'm still not fully clued up on this but I take a chance and $500 later my TPMS kit arrives in the post, not particularly happy about the $500 but still cheaper than the dealer option if it all works out.


Kit consists of the hand held programming device, charger, quick start instructions, OBD cable and 8 blank programmable TPMS sensors (probably made for countries where it is common to run summer and winter tyres). The device first needs to registered and then once connected to WIFI it downloads the latest data for all manufacturers that is needed to be able to access the ECU - the actual TPMS programming turns out to be quite simple - hold the device next to the tyre valve and press the go button, the device activates the TPMS sensor (wakes it from the dormant state) and reads the unique ID number of the OEM sensor - place one of the blank TPMS sensors in the device select the right option, press the go button and the unique ID number is programmed into the blank sensor - mark the sensor with masking tape so you know which wheel it is for - repeat for each wheel - hand the TPMS sensors over to the tyre dealer at the time of fitting and it's all good - or so I thought. There are other options if your TPMS sensors are totally dead but I won't go into that here.


On the way home from the tyre dealer it all looked ok, no fault messages on the dash until the tyres warmed up and then a TPMS fault message popped up on the dash - did I do something wrong or did the dealer damage a sensor while fitting - it was me - I must have had a seniors moment and programmed the same unique ID number into the 2 front wheel sensors, I still have the original TPMS sensors so try to program the correct number into the replacement sensor on the wheel - a message pops on the hand held device - I need to alter one of the device settings or deflate the tyre to less than 10psi before it will reprogram the TPMS sensor - still not real confident with the system I opt for deflating the tyre - this is easily done at the petrol station and on the way home the warning message disappears and once the tyres warm up I can display all of the tyre pressures. If you are a person that has tyres rotated then the position of the wheels should be reset into the ECU to give the correct dash display, this device can also do that.


My personal thoughts are why do I even need such a thing fitted to the car, what's wrong with a tyre pressure gauge like I've always used, but you buy a car with a certain level of options fitted and you have no choice but to take the all of the options while there is a basic level of settings that can be changed for various car functions turning off the TPMS system is not one of them.
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