Hello all,

I have a 2008 GS-350 AWD; I bought it in April. The weather is starting to get a little cooler. Over the last week, I've had two tire pressure warnings. I hear a bing, and the yellow tire pressure symbol lights up, as does the red warning triangle. It goes away after a few minutes (before I had a chance to pull over and check my tire pressures). When I did check the pressures, they were all normal (well, what one would expect from warm tires). I checked the pressures again when the tires had cooled down and they were normal. I assume this is a normal problem. I am thinking about getting a set of winter/snow tires and wheels anyways, so I can get new parts.

Any wisdom from the collective?

 

Your reference pressure or pressure threshold may be set a little higher so that it might be triggering when its like 5 psi below optimal. I'd probably just inflate it with a few psi more.

 

The batteries in the individual tire sensors also have limited life. Some go bad within 8-10 years. It might be where one of the sensors is acting up or not sending the signal to the main reader, but when you start rolling it wakes up and sends the signal. If you are planning on keeping the car for a longer period of time, you might want to look into replacing the sensors at your next tire change.

 

I plan on getting winter tires and a second set of wheels in the next month or so. I will have all the TPMS sensors checked. I need to check the pressure on the spare tire too.

 

Well, the spare tire was only at 40 lbs/sqin. It is supposed to be 60. Unless I am mistaken, it has a TPMS sensor too. Let's see if that makes a difference.

 

Spare is a good tip. The spare has caught my wife a few times. She checks the 4 on the ground, but not the one on the back.

 

The alarm keeps going on and off. I keep checking tire pressures on all five and they are all okay. Frakking sensor is bad or a battery has died.

 

car battery may also be going, with the cold weather a weak battery will wreak havoc on all the various ECUs in the car. low tire would be just the TPMS on, if it is blinking or if other warnings are intermittently coming on (ie the triangle exclamation and some message, or traction icon) I have had all sorts of wonky codes come up one once it got cold one year. When i scanned it via techstream it gave transmission ECU DCT as well as TPMS system down, reset and nothing came back car drove fine for a month or so, a few weeks later in the freezing hell we know as Quebec when we were skiing wouldnt even start. Changed car battery and haven't had that problem 5 years later. When it was time to change the battery again, other wierd stuff started happening, If i can't explain it, i'd check the battery first on these cars.