TPMS warning light **New Info**
 

I ordered my wheels from Tire Rack with the TPMS installed. Supposedly, once you do so you need to take it to the dealer to get the TPMS initialized to the new sensors. Otherwise, you get the TPMS light.

For the first 50 or so miles, no TPMS warning light came on.
Then, the light came on for the next few days and few hundred miles. I was getting ready to take it to the dealer....
Now, it's off again!

I don't know what's going on. Will the computer eventually learn the new sensors on its own? Will it cycle back and forth? Does it eventually give up reporting that warning?

Try driving 30-40 miles continuously again with the new wheels and uninitialized TPMS sensors, I'd bet the TPMS light comes on again. On another of my cars this is how the TPMS system behaves. If I haven't driven the car for a day or three and just drive it to work and back (13 miles each way) on my summer tires with no sensors, the light stays off. As soon as I take more than about 20 miles in one drive, the TPMS light comes on.

I talked with my shop foreman today about this. He thinks that they are using Toyota Sensors. They are an "ordered" part and not interchangeable with our other models.

He also went on to say that you need each serial number off of each sensor to program them.

I've got my sensors on order and will go over more details when they are installed.

It makes sense because the techs were unable to reprogram the Impreza TPMS Sensors that I have on my car now. Even though they are brand new Suby TPMS Sensors.

I have comfirmed that if sensor are removed from wheels, tire pressure light will blink for about a minute and then stay on solid.

I have also confirmed that the FR-S will not recognize current lexus tire pressure sensors (eg 2010 RX350).

FR-S tire pressure sensors look different than current toyota TPS.

For the people who say that their tire pressure light goes off everyonce in a while, maybe your tires with the sensors are close enough to be picked up by the car. I tested the range is quite large. if they are in your garage they will be picked up by the car.

each sensor has a unique ID, 7 digits for the FR-S. that need to be registered with the TPMS ecu.

Mine is off every single morning until approx 25 minutes into my drive to work or approx 20 miles. It's like clockwork on my car.

Tires can be in the back room, in my garage or in the trunk like the past few days and the behavior doesnt change any yet for me. They are supposed to be motion activated not pressure like Toyota tpms sensors.

On my case us quite different. 2013 FR-S. my tires are stored at a different location. so there is no way for my ecu to detect them. it will blink for a minute as soon as I start the car. and it will be on solid after that. unless you can actually connect a scanner to confirm that your vehicle is not reading the sensors i will have to disagree.
PS the first time the tire pressure sensors are removed the light might act differently. but once the ecu looses all signals it will act as what i described. basically every trip after all signals are lost.

I have yet to confirm but I think rather than being motion activated, they just increase the time they sent out signals when not in movement. not completely off, just a way to conserve power.
also if the sensors detect a change of 6 psi whithin 30 seconds they will force a signal.

I guess it's possible it's reading them from 50 feet away but why not read them when they are in the trunk?

Because the TPMS module not picking up all four signals and think there is a fault in the system.

Huh? Was that to me? My question was why does it pick them up from ~50' away but not when all four are INSIDE the car (on the way home from work, everyday it's fine in the morning).

We should figure out how he sensors are activated. If they are motion like subarus then it makes less sense, pressure like toyotas would make sense if driver is correct and it would be easy to trick the system.

I'm curious as to what is going on and how to trick the system to stay off. I guess I should check pressure in the OEM tires maybe one of them is simply low now causing the strange results I'm seeing?

Ive had after market wheels on my car the past 3500miles. The TPMS light always flashes a few times when I start the car. This is whether I'm at home 25ft away from the OEM wheels or at work 34miles away. For the first 20 miles of driving, the light will stay off, but then it will begin flashing for about .5mile, then come on solid.

I've read on multiple occasions that they are motion activated too.

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I had my other Subaru wheels on for a while, and the light was pretty erratic. It would come on occasionally right at the start, on other days it won't show up until 30-40minutes of driving. It even came on after I put stock wheels back on, but went off after a minute.

P.S. If you know your sensor IDs - Ateq Quickset can read/set TPMS ids on my BRZ via Toyota CAN profile. I think tirerack includes sensor IDs on their invoice.

Which year/model did you use with your quickset? I couldn't get mine to work.

There's a generic 'toyota CAN' profile under Z_ATEQ in a manufacturer drop-down menu. I don't have another set of sensors to truly test this, but flashing comes back w/o error, and if I flash a wrong ID the light comes up.

MOst sensor will goes into sleep mode when wheel not moving. As soon as you drive it the motion will wake up the sensors. That's how they save the battery inside.