TPMS woes

So, this evening my tire pressure monitoring system went down and the tire pressure warning light turned on, but the tires seem fine. I tried resetting but no luck. I have just had a bad sensor replaced. And I have a pretty gruesome history with Toyota TPMS: I have had two Camrys where the TPMS had constant problems (in one case they basically replaced the entire system and it then failed again a couple of months later).

Has anyone else had these issues or have any idea what to do or what could be going on? I can't keep replacing sensors (I'm not going through the nonesense I did with my Camrys). When I got fed up with the dealer on one of my Camrys I took it to a mechanic I have worked with a lot and like and trust and the first thing he said to me was "Honestly, Toyota, and they aren't the only one for this, their TPMS is shit".

Kind of a rant (sorry), but there is a question in there: Has anyone else had these issues or have any idea what to do or what could be going on?

 

I have owned around 10 Toyotas with TPMS with no issues.

 

Thanks.

 

have you actually checked the pressure?

 

Yes. Its fine. And in any case it didn't show the pressure falling. i just lost all readings suddenly (but pressure was fine to that point) and the warning light went on.

 

Decided to check again manually one and a half hours after I got home. Pressure hasn't budged. Basically, the issue is the monitoring system.

 

Do you has a close Discount Tire location?

 

I don't have that. I guess in the a.m. I will take it in again. They will probably tell me a sensor is broken. The trouble is that this is becoming a cycle.

With my one Camry the dealership did all the servicing of that car and they could never figure out why the TPMS kept failing. They just kept replacing sensors until I said enough.

This has never happened with my Subarus like our current Outback (not trashing Toyota; I actually have very mixed feelings about the Outback but the TPMS has definitely not been an issue) or my Jeeps.

 

Yeah, I am actually going to take it in to a similar local place.

 

Ouch, bad luck mate. What about just not using them. I have two sets of wheels so for half the year I have no TPMS. I got used to it

 

Honestly, this is exactly my leaning. I will give it one more go this time. But if it breaks again my past history suggests to me that this is just a bottomless pit.

 

Tire shop broke mine and put an aftermarket one in. It didn't work so they had to put get an OEM.

 

You know, I am actually wondering if the recent new sensor is the one that broke. I bet it wasn't OEM.

 

I always try to buy oem as much as possible when replacing parts. You have the peace of mind knowing 9 times out of ten it will not fail

 

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DiscountTire or a competent auto shop can use Techstream to read the values that are stored. The goal would be to confirm all four stored values are in the correct range. If the values are wrong, it won’t matter what sensor is there.

Good luck!

 

The creator of a PnP system bypass (that kills the system and dash light) for a reasonable price will sell more units than OVTune

And if it would fit a wide range of Toyota products, even better.

 

So, I took it in to our local shop. Its calls itself a tire shop but also does general mechanics/repair. 7 or 8 bay place. Pretty good volume of business. We've been dealing with them for years.

The guy who looked at my truck immediately ruled out the obvious (tire pressure is fine and sensors are working). When he tried to manually reset the TPMS (i.e. owners manual method) it did not respond. He then used some device and reset it.

He told me that he sees more TPMS problems with some makes and models and unfortunately the Tacoma is one of them (especially 3rd gens he said). He said the TPMS is overly sensitive, can throw up an error due to some slight, transitory issue and then can kind of get itself seized up in terms of resetting. He said if I had done nothing the probability is high that eventually the TPMS would have worked itself out and the light would have gone off. He thinks another factor is the heat. We are having a really hot summer and the last few days have been very hot and he said that he sees these problems more during the dog days of summer and the coldest days of winter.

He cannot guarantee it won't happen again. "That's the thing about some Toyotas" he said.

 

I mean if thats all the problems youre having I would say its pretty minor, although annoying inconvenience.
I havent had any tpms issues and havent seen many on the forums besides people swapping out their tires and sensors getting broken and what not.

 

My problem is that across my other Toyotas it has been a saga. If it was just this time or the last sensor failure on the Taco I would be chill. But I don't want to go through all the crap I have with the TPMS on, say, my 2007 Camry.