Intermittent TPS System Warning

Hey all! For about a month now I've been getting intermittent TPS system failure warnings - icon flashing for about two minutes then on constantly. I verified tire pressures so I know it's not that. It may happen when I start the vehicle or after driving for awhile. Once I get the warning it may stay on or clear itself (sometimes it will clear itself before the flashing is done). It may not happen for 2-3 days. It happens both when it's cold (40F) or warm (80F).

I've been waiting for this to become consistent but it shows no signs of doing that. Anybody had this problem before? If the warning's not displayed, can it even be diagnosed? It would be pot luck whether the warning would be on when I got it into the shop. Also, can a tire shop figure this out or do I have to take it to a dealer?

 

Could have a battery going out in one of the sensors, what year is your truck?
Factory sensors or aftermarket?

 

Try this. If you still have problems, buy the Techstream software and cable and diagnose it yourself, or take it to a shop. BTW, TPS is throttle position sensor. TPMS is tire pressure monitor sensor.



Understand that checking your tires and inflating them to the correct pressure when cold will not "fix" your tire pressure light. The following is the proper procedure as per section 1-7, page 204 in everyones owners manual;

* first verify no tires are low on pressure and if so adjust to proper psi when tires are cold if possible INCLUDING your spare

*once tires are properly inflated turn your car on, engine idling and find your tire pressure switch (should be near your knees if your sitting in the drivers seat)

*with the car running press and hold the tire pressure switch till the light goes off, you still have not re-initialized the system yet. Let go of the button once the light is off

* this is the most CRITICAL part of the whole re-initialization; with the car still running press and HOLD the tire pressure button till the light flashes 3 times and then let go of the button.


This is the proper way to re-intialize the tpms when a flat has been repaired, pressure adjusted, or tires rotated.

 

FWIW I have verified that my '09 DCSB SR5 TRD Sport does not have a TPMS sensor in the spare (which I know to be OEM), as I had suspected because TechStream lists only four programmed sensors--don't know about older/newer/other models...

 

When I bought my '06 ACLB TRD O/R, the TPMS light was on. At the car lot, we aired up all 4 tires and the light was still on. I used that as well as the temp/compass not working, and a few other things, to talk them down on the price a little bit more. Then I found out there is a sensor in the spare. I aired it up and the light went out. I read about the temp/compass fix and took care of that. A couple of nice little freebies.

Later, I did some tire switching around and I took the wheels with sensors off and put other temporary ones on. I dropped off the wheels with sensors at the tire place. Driving around with no sensors, of coarse the light was on. Later, I picked up the wheels with sensors and put them in the bed. The light went out. The sensors don't have to be on the truck, they just have to be IN the truck. Of coarse that is also obvious by the people that do the "pipe bomb" mod.

 

To satisfy my curiosity, does anyone else have any "timeline" information re: TPMS sensors in the spare. As I said above my '09 did/does not...

 

My 07 TRD Sport PreRunner has the TPMS sensor in the spare.

 

Thanks for the heads-up on TPS vs. TPMS (my bad!), and for pointing out the reset procedure. I'll give that a try but this started happening several months after getting new tires so I'm not sure it's related. It could be that the sensors weren't replace with the tires and one of the batteries is getting weak. Do you know if a "weak" sensor can be found? I was waiting for something to crap out and have the warning on consistently before I took it to the tire shop.

My truck's a '14 and as mentioned above it may still have the factory sensors. My spare doesn't have a sensor.