TPMS nightmare

Ask technical questions or post on problems/issues related to the Kizashi under this topic. Symptoms and pictures of your problem are a good idea.
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Woodie
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I've got 58,000 miles on my 2010 Kizashi. The second set of tires was getting low on tread and I got a slow leak on the right front. Had it plugged twice and it came right back. I was hoping to make it until September before I got new tires, but was tired of screwing with it. Got new tires from Discount Tire Direct and as the car is ten years old, I got VDO-Continental Redi-Sensors off Amazon. Figured if I didn't, the batteries in the factory sensors would start going dead shortly after putting the new tires on. The sensor for a Kizashi is SE10001HP, paid $135 for a four pack.

Went to the closest NTB and had the tires and sensors mounted. They claimed they had left their trigger tool in a customer's car and couldn't sync my new sensors, so I got the car back blinking "Service TPMS System". Did the trick of putting the car into learn mode then letting air of the sensors. All of the alerts went out, though I had it covered, but as soon as I drove a quarter of a mile or so, "Low Tire Pressure" came on. Called the VDO technical help line and the guy said he didn't think letting the air out would work, because the Redi-Sensor has multiple communication protocols in it, needs to be triggered with a tool to sync the communications properly. So I went to MR Tire and paid them $15 to do it, same result, halfway home the low pressure light came on. Called NTB and they still didn't have a trigger tool (how can that be, that's your business) so I went to another NTB, showed them my receipt, and badgered them into doing it. Again, no joy. All the indications are right, seems as if it worked correctly, light comes on after a quarter mile. :facepalm:

Drove it around for a month or so thinking about it and trying to decide what to do next. :drive: I'm thinking what if one of those sensors is bad, and how would I even know? So I decided to buy a tool so that I could know what I'm talking about. Bought an ATEQ VT-31 and proceeded to check the sensors. All four showed an ID code, ambient temperature, battery level OK, 315 MHz, and correct pressure ranging from 37.5 to 38.5 psi. Called the technical support number again and told the guy my whole tale of woe. He had me try all sorts of stupid tricks, door open, door closed, are the windows rolled up all the way, start the car when you finish instead of turning it off, start the car after finishing then go trigger them all a second time "just to lock it in". Then he suggests updating the firmware in the tool, so I hang up and call ATEQ. They determine that the firmware has been updated twice since mine was made. Needs a USB B mini cable which looks familiar from about six cell phones ago, naturally I've thrown all of those away, so I drove to Best Buy and bought one. Updated the firmware and noticed a small change in the Kizashi menu, it originally had choices of 2010-11, 2012, or 2013. Seemed strange as I don't know of any changes between those years. The new program just said 2010-13, only one choice. So with great hope, I go back out to let the neighbors laugh at me for doing Chinese fire drills by myself in the driveway. No joy, so I called the tech support guy back. He calls a next level guy and conference calls us together. This guy suggests all kinds of voodoo tricks, most of which I had already done. The more we talked the more he was convinced that the sensors were properly synced to to car but for some reason one of them was reporting low which is what I had been trying to suggest for about three hours. All of a sudden he has an A-HA moment. :shock: :idea:

The SE1001HP sensor has a high pressure mode (that's what the HP is for), once the pressure goes above 55 psi it switches into a mode for Ford trucks that alerts if the pressure goes below 50. All I had to do is let all of the air out and then pump them back up to 38 psi. Luckily I knew it was one of the ones on the passenger side so I didn't have to do all four. RESULT !

So two months later, having spent about $100 on a tool I didn't need (but is nice to have) about five hours of my time and four hours of various technical support time, it seems as if letting the air out of the tires did learn the ID codes into the car but the one sensor was in high pressure mode and reporting a fault.
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KuroNekko
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Location: California, USA

Thanks for documenting this. Your path to resolution will help many of us figure out the TPMS issues as they become more prevalent as the vehicles age and the batteries inside the sensors die out.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
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Ronzuki
Posts: 2382
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 5:33 pm
Location: Lancaster County, PA

KuroNekko wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 6:17 pm Thanks for documenting this. Your path to resolution will help many of us figure out the TPMS issues as they become more prevalent as the vehicles age and the batteries inside the sensors die out.
Irony....it's not funny, but, I was sitting here reading this laughing my ass off, because just today, I spent 3 hours screwing around configuring a panel (fighting F/W, S/W, H/W, mixin'-n-matchin', hopin' -and -a--pokin') that, on any other day, would take 20 minutes. But because it was just finished built today, it had to get powered, configured, tested, crated, and shoved on a truck. Same, exact, type, of, crap. Only it's your damn car.

News flash auto world...we really don't need TPMS sensors and all of the associated BS that comes along with it, really. Can't wait for someone to post the "I traded in my car today (or drove it off a cliff) because the TPMS was driving me completely insane!" story.
Ron

2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded :D :D )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( :| sold)
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KuroNekko
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Location: California, USA

Does anyone really need it? Yeah, some: the kind who have really no understanding or care about things related to vehicles other than to get somewhere. They would not know a tire is flat unless someone or something told them so. This represents over 90% of drivers and you know it. Hence, and after some rollover scandals, TPMS was born and mandated.
I do wish the Kizashi's TPMS alert was less aggressive. All we need is a small orange indicator, not a flashing orange screen.
While the sensor battery issues and second tire set issues are definitely annoying to deal with, sharing knowledge here on how to resolve them is certainly beneficial so we don't have to "reinvent the wheel" each and every time.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
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Ronzuki
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Location: Lancaster County, PA

KuroNekko wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:46 pm This represents over 90% of drivers and you know it.
Sorry, I don't know that. Certainly not 90% of the people I know. Even my wife knows when her tires need air. What I do know is: If that is truly the case, and you truly believe this, then we have more serious problems as a species than TPMS . Was thinking maybe Tiger wouldn't have ended up endo'-ing in epic "I was doing everything else in the car except driving it'" fashion if his Hyundai was an over-priced, 1/2-baked, seriously under-tested in the real world, over-automated model of some sort or other then aye?
The lack of proper development and implementation of something as simple as a TPMS is your peek in to the future for many of these other nifty 'must have' systems. It's not the lighting of the TPMS ight that wasn't implemented properly, it's the 'what happens when the tech fails' implementation part. The difficult and expensive part. Re-read the first post in the thread to experience the 'what happens'. Immerse yourself in it. The automotive world is in its infancy stage in this regard, trust me. Yes, unfortunately, a battery dying constitutes a failure. Moreover, a predictable one. Being proactive yielded a different failure. And yet the resolution to the failure becomes an expensive nightmare. All for something that is not required, at all, to make the machine roll down the road and cart your butt from point A to point B.
Ron

2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded :D :D )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( :| sold)
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Woodie
Posts: 1167
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 10:09 am
Location: Laurel, MD

KuroNekko wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:46 pm Does anyone really need it? Yeah, some: the kind who have really no understanding or care about things related to vehicles other than to get somewhere. They would not know a tire is flat unless someone or something told them so. This represents over 90% of drivers and you know it. Hence, and after some rollover scandals, TPMS was born and mandated.
Somehow we managed to survive as a species for the first 100 years of automotive history. As far as I'm concerned those single car rollover accidents are part of Darwin's excellent plan, the world is a better place without morons like that. You bought a car that rolls over and kills you if a tire blows out. Then you stuffed your entire family and luggage into it and set out across the country without even checking you tire pressure. Really sorry but I have 0 compassion for someone that stupid, and wouldn't put forth the effort of rolling my window down to tell them they're in danger.
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Ronzuki
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Refreshing reply Woodie.

I notice your subtle reference to the Firestone tires debacle on the very early Ford Explorers debacle which began this useless, must-have, annoying and expensive TPMS fad our exalted and knowledgeable leadership mandated. I purchased anew an Explorer (a '91) factory equipped with those exact tires that Bridgestone/Firestone was railroaded over. Wore them out and put a brand new set of the exact same tire on, after the false allegations were made against them, which I purchased for a song, because, they were "defective and dangerous", and nobody wanted them because of the over-blown, flat-out false, media brain-washing hype. Towed with it, hauled family loaded up for camping vacations with it, hauled firewood in it, etc. etc., w/ never, a, single, problem with either set. Inflated to rated pressure on side wall of tire of, course. It didn't ride like a car, because it wasn't a car, and the light truck tires that were on it were inflated properly. It was a truck with 4 doors. Go figure, The only ones to blame for the carnage was Ford for stating the recommended air pressure which was far too low for that tire. 28psi on the door jamb if I recall correctly. What a joke. Mine never saw that ridiculous pressure after the first time I checked them. I believe 35 or 38 psi was how the tire's sidewall read. TPMS would NOT have solved that problem. However a bunch of wannabe future expert policy makers (aka lawyers) had a field day with it. ANd Bridgestone/Firestone was the fall-guy. What a travesty that whole thing was.

And TPMS was born.
Ron

2010 Kizashi GTS, CVT, iAWD (3/10 build date)
2011 SX4 Premium Hatch, CVT, iAWD (12/10 build date)
2018 Mazda CX-5 iAWD Touring
2014 Wrangler JKUW (GONE, traded :D :D )
1991 Samurai, 5-Speed, EFI, Soft-Top ( :| sold)
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KuroNekko
Posts: 5170
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:08 pm
Location: California, USA

OK, so what happens when a driver with ignorantly low pressure has a blowout and veers directly into the opposing lane that you and your family are traveling in?
You see, traffic safety is hardly about that one subject with the problematic vehicle. It can and largely does, affect others on the road. The last thing I want is to be a victim of someone else's ignorance. I'm sure you feel the same.

As for surviving the first 100 years of automotive history, eh, it's arguable. Cars are so much safer now than ever and more people are surviving accidents that were sure fatalities decades before due to advanced automotive technology and regulation. The relationship between advancing automotive technology and regulation is incontrovertibly the reason for greater safety as it's evident drivers are less involved in driving than ever. The very technology we love to hate is keeping us all safer whether we want to admit it or not. This is not opinion but fact supported by just about any research on the topic. It's actually common sense: cars are improving but drivers are not. There is literally no system or implementation that has significantly improved drivers themselves in America. The auto industry and lawmakers know this. Hence, it's technology and litigation that has kept people safer on the road.

The last point is the one I keep asking without any satisfying or realistic answers: what is the alternative to technology and regulation such as TPMS? You really want to trust the millions of people you don't know to do the right thing all the time to keep themselves and, more importantly, you safe on the road? Really? How can one even realistically account for and ensure that? We can't even get many people to drive sober so asking people to make sure their cars are in proper and safe order as well as they themselves driving properly and safely is as realistic as having a pet unicorn that shits gold. Furthermore, people are more distracted than ever with cellphones and screens and then consider that there are more of them than ever due to population growth.

So yeah, TPMS is annoying but I think getting in a wreck with someone whose car didn't warn them of dangerously low pressure they were oblivious to is a lot more annoying.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
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Woodie
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Location: Laurel, MD

200 million drivers are burdened with this TPMS crap because 100 died from their own stupidity. Maybe one or two out of that 100 took some innocent bystander along with them. We're getting into the realm of ridiculous now. Maybe Congress should mandate that every car have an armored roof just in case an asteroid comes along. I'm sure an extra 200 lbs at the highest part of the car won't effect handling or gas mileage very much, and you won't mind paying $500 more for you car due to the cost of the roof.

I'd rather live life than be coddled, thank you very much.
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SAEED_KIZZY
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there is a module called TPMS simulator to get rid of stupid TPMS light also have a module for Suzuki Kizashi.
https://spooftpms.com/
my car do not have TPMS at all so I can't confirm it but maybe somebody can :)
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