Hi,

So last winter I bought new Winter Tires with TPMS sensor from my Lexus dealer. The TPMS sensors were working fine and registering the pressure last year.
This year, rather than go to the dealer just to install my Winter Tires, I decided to do it myself. However, now the TPMS sensor light is on and i am not getting any readings.

I looked in the manual and followed the TPMS procedure by turning the car to "Ignition" and pressing the "TMPS" button under the steering wheel until the indicator flashed 3 times. However, this does not appear to be working and after driving to work (40KM) the TPMS sensor is on solid. I have tried this procedure several times now.

Am I missing something or do I need to take it to the dealer and have them re-initialize the sensors every single time I change my tires out? I would have though it would store the sensors id in the computer and I could just pop them on with no issue.

Thanks,

 

Yes, you are missing something. The vehicle ECM holds only one set of TPMS ID's. Each time the winter/summer changeover is done, the ID's for the set being mounted must be uploaded to the vehicle ECM. I bought a handheld tool to do it which paid for itself the first day.

Any tire shop can do it if you don't want to take it to the dealer. The tool I bought (ATEQ Quickset) cost about what a car dealer charges to do it one time.

 

+1 for the ATEQ Quickset.

 

ATEQ Quickset has served us well for several years now.

 

thx, I'll be ordering one...I though programmers cost more guess they have come down in price.

 

I think you need to have to know all the TPMS IDs for the Quickset to work. If you don't have those already you will need to have the winter sensors scanned, the summer set are currently stored in the ECU.
I went with a bit overkill and ordered the Autel TS501 to scan and program, it was on sale at Amazon.ca for $250 and I couldn't help myself.

 

Just be aware that the ATEQ Quickset is a basic tool that can only download and upload TPMS ID's from and to a vehicle ECM. It's an excellent tool for what it does but it cannot do more advanced tasks such as directly querying sensors to retrieve their ID's and determine battery strength.

The Quickset will be able to retrieve only the TPMS ID's that are currently stored in your vehicle ECM. If you have a second set of wheels, you will still need a tire shop to either upload the ID's for those wheels at the next changeover so you can download them yourself from the ECM with the Quickset ... or you could have a tire shop pull the ID's from your other set of wheels so you can manually enter the ID's into the Quickset PC software. In other words, you may need a tire shop one to help you one more time. Then you can do it yourself twice per year as long as you have your vehicle.

Last time I looked the ATEQ Quickset was about US$105 on Amazon. You might even find a perfectly good used one. A "friend" on another forum who lives in upstate New York mentioned recently that he plans to sell his Quickset on Craigslist, etc. due to moving up to an Autel TS508 that has professional grade features.

Edit: BuckMcCoy beat me to it by providing the same information. Thanks!

 

I have the Autel TS401, which is $100 (US) cheaper than the TS501, to read the TPMS IDs. I see on the Autel website, that there is a downloadable update for the TS401, which will allow it to also program Autel sensors, just like the TS501.

 

Yea, I looked into it a bit and noticed that, I'll do some homework...thx for the info.

 

The TS401 can read the sensors IDs, but I don't think it can update the ecm with IDs, it can clone programmable TPMS sensors, like the Autel sensors. I have OEM sensors, unfortunately, which are not programmable so I had to go with a tool that can update the ecm via the OBD2 port. I think the TS501 was the cheapest way for me do this.

 

You are absolutely correct. I just checked the TS501 specs, and somehow had missed that important distinction!
I already had the Quickset, so I guess I skipped the TS501 and went with the TS401 as I didn’t need the duplicate functionality.

 

I seem to be having a hard time finding a place to purchase the ATEQ quickest in Canada. I found my receipt when I bought my winter tires and it appears the dealer printed out the ID number for all my TPMS sensors (Winters and summers) so I would be able to get buy with the Quckset tool if I could find one.

So my question is... if you need to use this tool all the time what is the point of the button under the steering column?

 

Do any sellers on Amazon.com ship to Canada? As of a couple of days ago it was about US$105 on Amazon.

It isn't necessary to use a tool like a Quickset "all the time" - only when you change to a different set of wheels. The "button under the steering column" is for turning off the low pressure warning light in the instrument cluster. For example, if the warning light comes on and you add air to the low tires, you need to press the button to turn off the warning light.

 

You could ship it to a friend that lives in the US if you do not want to deal with any insane price spikes (just because you are Canadian), shipping costs and customs duties.