This morning while driving to work, the Tire Pressure indicator light came on... I was no where near a gas station so iI pulled over and just did a visual inspection because i had no tire gauge.. all of the tires looked full so I drove to work.. a few minutes later the light turned off.. is it normal for tire pressure to fluctuate enough while driving to cause the light to come on and off? or do I have a faulty tire pressure sensor?
thanks!

 

Check your tire pressures cold. They are probably a few psi low. When the tire heats up the pressure goes up and causes the light to go out. Adjust them cold and this will go away.

 

mine did this for a month or so, turned out one tire was 31 psi in stead of 32 psi the thing is a little to sensitive.

 

If your tire had 31 PSI when it was cold, it would NOT have caused the TPMS light to illuminate. Always check tire pressures when the tires are stone cold.

 

the TPS sensors do temperature correct to an extent to compensate for lower pressures in severly cold weather... which then build up after your driving a little bit


Historically, everytime I've gotten a TPS light that repeatedly went on during a cold morning and went off after a few miles I attribute it to a less then ideal setup - then a few weaks later I find a nail in my tire....

 

If this happens again, drive to a convenient gas station, and fill it just a psi or two more than what your normally keep them at. When the tires cool off, they should be at the level you want. Works for me...

 

and you got this where????????

beers

 

Sorry to thread-jack, but why don't the Canadian versions come with TPMS? The cold? The need to swap out to snow tires?

 

...

 

Yes, thank you - I did search, but no satisfactory answers with regards to either the cold or the need to swap tires. Care to enlighten me?

 

if you had a faulty tire pressure sensor, the light would be flashing.

I had a faulty sensor twice where the light would come on exactly 10 minutes after the car was started, everytime. when you have a flat or air pressure changes due to temperature, the light comes on solid (and beeps i think). what you are describing merely sounds like the change in temperature, whereas the cold temp made the pressure less and threw off the sensor, but after driving and heating up the air, it fixed itself.

 

only USDM cars have TPMS because DOT regulations state that any car without runflats or a standard factory spare tire must have TPMS.

 

Little bit off topic but this guage works pretty well:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

 

does the TPMS look for a difference in pressure bettween the 4 sensors, or is it looking for a target range, say 28-34 psi....

I was under the impression it is just looking for a difference in pressure from sensor to sensor.....say +/- 4 psi, so even if all the tires are at only 20psi it wouldnt shoot off a warning cause they are all within the allowable difference.

You get what Im saying, that way if you had all your tires set to be at 30psi, and one was low on air, or over pressure it would sound the warning...to let you know to check them.

am I right or wrong.

 

well on the way home from work the light came on again, and then after a few minutes turned back off.. I pulled into the nearest gas station to check the pressure, and they were all right around 30PSI.. but I did notice that my passenger side front tire had a nail in it, which I got plugged, and now the light hasnt come back on.

 

I had a nail in my tire for 2 weeks, durring that time I had the car parked in the garage and drove maby a total of 5 miles one day to get the car out and run it for a bit, my TPMS hasnt done anything in the few times ive moved the car or driven it, and the tire is holding its pressure perfectly. I have never had it go off, so maby mine is busted...lol anyway im taking that wheel off and gonna drive it in the truck over to the tire place to have it fixed.

 

Page 5-24 of the owners manual: "If tire pressure is too low or too high in one or more tires, the system will inform the driver via a warning light in the instrument panel and the warning beep." That indicates that each tire pressure is measured individually. I think I recall reading somewhere that the range of acceptable pressures is something like 26-40 PSI.

 

If you had been driving for awhile, the pressure was probably less than the ~26 PSI cold when you first left work which I believe is the lower level of the TPMS alarm threshold.

 

umm the fact that its in the repair manual like that or that i can read tire temps with a canscan?

 

then maybe you can point out where in the repair manual it talks about this or mentions it. would love to use this feature.

also my scanalizer has no provision for tire temp or pressure.

beers

 

you need the enhanced data package to read the tire temps and tire pressures... harrison has it out for the canscan, i think hymee is (or was) working on it

it was 60 degrees out yesterday and 26 degrees this morning... no tps light

 

cool,
thx

beers

 

you said it never lost any pressure but then wonder why the tpms light hasnt lit? its because you havent lost any pressure

 

this is why TPMS is being Mandated