martini3

Dear Fellow SC430's,


Every so often, after I start the engine, the tire sensor lights up.
Then, I take it to the gas station and check all 4 tires.
the right rear tire seems to be the "problem child" with about 8-10 PSI's lower than the other 3.

my car sits covered during the weekdays and I start it up on the weekends.

Every couple of weeks, the tire light sensor lights up. It's a good thing that the SC430 has this feature.

But now I'm wondering if I really have a problem w/ an either bent TRD chrome rim or some kind of hole in the factor Dunlop DSST 5000 tires that's causing loss of air about once a month and the tire sensor lights comes up after starting the engine.

what could it be? Please Advise. Thank you.

teeman3
'03 Millenium Silver

Gojirra99

My guess is that there's likely a leak in the problem tire due to damage by nail or other objects. Happened to me once & my Lexus dealer patched my tire under warranty. Bring it in to have them check it.

1NICESC430

FWIW Dept ....

I replaced my runflats with Goodyear Eagles which I had drop-shipped to my Lexus dealer who installed them. My SC rests during the winter. When I attempted to bring it out in the spring, one tire was completely flat. I inflated it with an air compressor (I don't bother depending on gas stations any longer) and during this summer it continued to lose just a little bit of air occasionally.

I took it to the local Goodyear garage and the guy who worked on the tire could not find a single problem with it except that the tab of one of the weights was longer, and therefore went deeper, than usual. He replaced it with a weight with a shorter tab.

Whether or not this was the cause of the problem remains to be seen, but so far, so good. It could be that my wheel was a tad damaged when the dealer tried to get those damnable runflats off. Not an easy job even with the special equipment required.

Food for thought (two courses).

martini3

Thanks for the quick responses.

I'll be bringing her in for the 10K service checkup pretty soon.

It will be interesting to see what is causing this to happen.

thanks again. teeman3

bt430

I've got the TRD wheels as well and just had new tires (not runflats) put on. 2 days later the tire light sensor went on. It stayed lit for a while and on my way to the dealer to have it checked out the lght went off. I had the dealer look at it out anyway and they said 2 of the tires werea bit low. It's been 2 days since the air adjustment and the light is still off.

BT

JCtx

Hey Teeman, are you having this problem since you put the tires on the wheels?

If you put them on a Friday at 4:55pm, it could very well be a bad installation job. The tire has to be carefully coated with that gooey crap all around on both sides, or the tire might not seal properly.
If I were you, I'd inflate it to the max pressure allowed (44 psi, I think) overnight, and see if that takes care of the problem. If not, remove the overinflated wheel/tire combo and take it to your installation place, and submerge it in the water reservoir they shoud have, and if air is coming out of the bead area, a bad installation is your problem. The good news is (I'm not sure on runflats) the tire might not have to come off the wheel, but the bead still has to be broken (chances of wheel damage are much less than tire removal).
Good luck.

anduare

I had the same problem. Though it took a few times going back and forth to the dealer, the problem was the valve stems! They probably transfered the valve stems from the original stock wheels when they installed my TRD's before I took delivery of the new car. This might save a few bucks, but the valve stems will always fail when removed and replaced in another set of rims. In addition, make sure you always get a fresh set of valve stems whenever you replace the tires.

Gojirra99

Yes, sometimes leaking will happen if the valve stem is pushed in too much.