Missing Spare Tire / Wheel
 

So I am driving on an interstate and I see my TPMS warning light start to blink. After a minute or so the light stayed on solid. After I pulled over to check the vehicle I noticed the spare tire and wheel were missing. Either someone stole it (at the hotel we stayed at the night before) or it fell off. Either explanation seems extremely unlikely. Any ideas?

I'm not sure how anyone could steel it. I still need to check another vehicle for comparison but I MIGHT be missing chocks at the back two corners of the spare that hold it into place horizontally. But I'll also ad that the last time I lowered it and raised it (to top off the air) I cranked it up tightly against the underside of the vehicle.

Is the chain and attachment still there?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...a466b0f425.png

Did you find out what happened? Is the chain slack still there hanging? I can't imaging not hearing anything if it fell off while driving. Also if someone managed to open the gate, lowered the wheel and took it, I don't think they would have the courtesy to roll up the chains ;)

That was one of the things that always had me concerned about my old Explorer. It used a cheap & small cable to hold the spare tire on. At least the GX uses a chain. It sucks for OP about loss of tire but let's hope it was stolen and didn't fall off. The liability of losing a spare on the freeway in certain situations can't be good.

The chain and attachment piece were in tact. Additionally the attachment did not appear to be any lower than the position it would be in if the spare was fully cranked up and against the underside of the car.

Now I need to figure out how to get the car to ignore the TPM ID of the spare that no longer exists and look for the new spare / wheel that has a sensor with a different id (of course).

This needs to be programmed in with 3rd party TPMS or Techstream. 5 Wheels are stored in TPMS. I think in Techstream anyway you just leave all zeros or blank in the field if you don't want to use a code for a specific tire

Can you please be more specific about the exact product that can be used to change the TPM id's in the vehicles computer (2014 GX)

You can use Techstream, which is the "official" Toyota/Lexus dealer shop tool for register the TPMS IDs, or you can use third party tools like Autel TS601, like this: to register TPMS IDs via ODB II port.

I was looking under rear area this morning. I noticed a couple things. Not that my tire was gonna fall off but the bracket that holds tire up was tilted a bit. One side need to go into one of the wheel stud holes. I lowered and set it correct... to address some OC if nothing else :-)

Another thing I noticed...depending on how tire is pulled back up it is feasible if someone had a socket wrench with a special head they might be able to lower the tire from below. I rotated my wheel before tightening down to close off the area one could possibly do this. I am referring to an open spoke on wheel exposing the entrance tunnel to the wheel winch. When the spoke hole is over this area you can visually see the the run to the winch head.

The bracket that goes under the wheel was in the raised position when I noticed the tire / wheel was missing. So I doubt if anyone lowered it and then raised it back. I probably did not have the bracket with the piece that extends upward in a lug hole and I guess that was enough for the entire wheel to fall off. I previously did not know about the piece that should go upwards into a lug hole.

Still strange that I did not hear it fall from the vehicle.

I seriously think someone at the hotel stole your spare tire. If you valet it, the chances are even higher since most of the time those valet guys would just leave your car unlocked the whole time. It happened to me a few years back. Have you contacted the hotel and demand some answer to this yet?

I did contact the hotel unfortunately I was already out of town. I was told they had a clear view of the rear of my vehicle on one of their security cameras. After reviewing the footage they said they saw nothing suspicious. I think they went through (if they even did anything) about 15 hours of video in about 30 minutes. They could have missed it but as I said in a previous post:

1. The chain and bracket were in the raised position, meaning that if someone lowed the wheel they would have had to raise the bracket by itself afterwords. Remotely possible so that I would not see the chain dangling near the ground. Or they would have had to remove the wheel without lowering the bracket. This leads me to point #2
2. It's possible but unlikely that the post on the bracket was pointed upwards and through a lug hole since I did not know about that until after the incident.

So who knows, I've been unsuccessful installing Techstream with a knock off cable so I guess I'll have to go to the dealer. I call around a little but I doubt if any independent garage has in Toyota / Lexus specific equipment for resetting the TPMS.