I have a 07 rx350. Suddenly the other day; the tpms low warning light came on and at first it started flashing at me then went solid. Today i stopped at a discount tire location and had them check the sensors and none of them were bad. but when they tried to "force reset" the system to get the light off; the tire guy was saying something about it not "writing" to the system. Does this sound like a issue still with one or more sensors or a electrical/computer issue or what am i looking at and how much would it be to fix?

 

When the TPMS light flashes, that usually means that the car cannot make a connection with one (or more) of the sensors in the wheel. The light will flash when you first start the car but then stop flashing and be on solid after a minute. At this point in time, this is a common thing as the battery in the sensors are dying, 10 years is what they claim.

The fact that the guy at Discount Tire couldn't detect a bad sensor has me wondering. I don't know what is meant by "force reset the system." I would take the car to another place and have them check it.

I had one of my sensors replaced my Discount tire and they charged me $61 out the door. Other org members have said they paid a few dollars more at their local Discount. Goodyear tire charged me $87 for another sensor. Another member on the org said that he paid $50 at Costo.

 

By force reset I mean the last time this happened discount tire had to reset the system by plugging one of their hand computers into the diag port and running it through some kinda cycle to force the system to reset itself in turn getting the light to turn off. They tried to do that again today but during the reset process some sort of error came up preventing the system from resetting. Seeing as how it wouldn’t reset does this sound like a computer issue either with the ecu or other separate computer that controls just the communication between the sensors and the computer?

 

If a wheel sensor is replaced, the new sensor has to be "registered" with the car's computer. This would require them to plug into the OBD diag port to do this. Do you know if they are checking the spare tire? I does have a sensor in it just like the other 4 tires.

I really don't know enough to understand this "force the system" thing. The TPMS system shouldn't have to be forced, so I don't know what is going on. I would have a 2nd place look at the car before looking at worst case scenarios like the ecu or the TPMS receiver module.

 

Matt, sorry to hear you are having problems with your TPMS sensors. As mentioned it could be one of them is bad or the battery is dying. Typically TOMS sensors last between 7 to 10 years. here is some additional information on sensors:

TPMS Sensors | Discount Tire

I would recommend going back and speaking to the store Manager about the problem so they can get to the bottom of the problem.

 

Discount; it is not the sensors as I’ve had 2 different stores check the sensors and all 5 including the spare tire one checked out as being ok. And for some reason both stores tried to reset the system but could not get the light to go off.

 

Also I just talked to a Japanese auto specialist and they were mentioning that it could be the bcm computer that is on the fritz and needs to be replaced. Dare i even ask how much something like that runs?’

 

If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Bill Gates wouldn't ask, he would just buy a new car

 

Really though any idea how much to replace that computer?

 

Problem solved! Light is gone! Went to a Lexus dealer and they simply did a hard reset on the system and that turned the light off.

 

That's good to hear, great to hear the restart fixed the problem.

 

I have to wonder why the non-dealer shops can't resolve the light problem? Every car manufacture is supposed to share the "tech" data to enable non-dealers to work on their cars. I took my 2008 IS350 to TWO different professional tire sales/repair shops only to have the manager reject the vehicle as unable to be programmed. My story ends when the dealer WAS able to do it - for a cool $152 plus another $10 for NJ (tax) - 162.07 (and I already paid for the parts so that was "labor" ! Really - I am not hammering this Dealer about the price - I am more complaining that local shops forced me into a Dealer as they were incompetent or unequipped and untrained about the specific intricacies of our cars ( which are 13 years old already and should have been able to be figured out! )

 

well i think unfortunately; some of these independent tires shops/dealers have the idea that they think they can get away with just telling u one thing or another when its something else. I think wherever u went they should have tried a bit harder to solve this issue as they should have the resources on hand to take care of the issue w out making u spend that much.

 

those things suck, Discount Tire said I needed new rims, 2008 rx, wrong, had two tires resealed at another shop, now ok, 30 dollars, aluminum rims leak after age, hot, cold etc.buy a good small air compressor, check them , go from there, steel rims are better, have them on my es for winter, and tires, hold air much better, no stupid sensors.

 

Almost any rim can be repared (alum or steel)