My Dealer-less TPMS Tire Change Story

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SamirD
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So after a lot of research, I'm puling the trigger on putting together a set of snow tires for our Kizashi with TPMS, and without involving the dealership. A lot of what I'm writing here is for myself so I can look back on it when I forgot how I did all this. :lol: But if it helps others too, that's a bonus. 8-)

First I had to understand how tpms worked, and on our cars. There's 2 parts to a tpms system--the car and the sensors. This is where the trouble starts. Every car has to 'learn' the sensor IDs stored in the sensors for there to be communication. This is already taken care of at the factory for the wheels mounted on the car, but what about a second set of wheels? That's trouble because our cars can only store a single set of wheels' sensor IDs at a time.

There's two solutions to this. One, is that you have to know how to make the car 'relearn' sensors. Most documentation (including tirerack) say that you can't do this yourself, but I have strong reasons to believe they're wrong. I've attached a pdf of the best written relearn instructions I've found. It's also in the factory service manual. If you can make your car relearn sensors, you can use aftermarket or factory sensors in a second set of wheels, and then just program the car yourself. But there's one catch--you need a tpms triggering tool. All tpms sensors can be triggered at a certain frequency at close range. You do this so the sensor will 'trigger' during the relearn on the car so the car will get the sensor ID stored into the car.

The second solution is to use sensors that can clone existing sensor IDs. This way, the car doesn't even know the tires have been changed. The Dorman 974-515 is a complete kit for this including the sensors and a tool for under $300 on amazonsupply.com, but it doesn't include a triggering tool that can read the existing sensor IDs. If you already have the existing sensor IDs, this solution is the easiest.

Sensors receive at 125mhz and transmit at either 315Mhz or 433Mhz (ours are 315). The 125Mhz is used to trigger and wake up the sensors, while the other two frequencies are used to transmit data back to the car. Apparently, there's a lot of proprietary protocols involved with all of this, hence why each manufacturer had their own sensor until late. Each manufacturer kept their own protocol 'secret' so no one else would know what it is. Good idea until the company who manufactures your sensors to starts making their own sensors that work with your car. Then these sensor manufacturers got smart and started putting multiple protocols into a single sensor, hence the VDO Redi-Sensor. The problem with all this proprietary protocol mess is that all it did was make things more cumbersome and expensive for the consumer. And it still is a royal mess. The amount of misinformation on the tpms systems and process for our cars is unbelivable.
Attachments
RL-A1002.pdf
Suzuki Kizashi TPMS tool-less relearn procedure
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SamirD
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A lot of misinformation out there on the ATEQ VT15/30. Tirerack as well as some other companies swear it won't work with oem suzuki sensors, while ATEQ support swear they will.

We'll find out soon enough--I have a VT30 arriving on Wednesday. ;)
SamirD
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I discovered a second solution that can be used if you already know the sensor IDs. You can buy the ATEQ Quickset tool that uses a PC to load in whatever sensor IDs you want to the car. But it is limited to just 4 cars, and two sets of sensor IDs per car. Enough for personal use.
SamirD
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After spending oodles of time trying to find the perfect OEM replacement wheels (which I found on clubsx4, but couldn't post), I ran into the perfect set of steelies off an sx4 and just bought those instead. We've got 5-8in of snow coming down tonight and the car drives like it's on ice when there's 1/4 inch on the ground because the factory tires are just about out of tread. I want to finish this snow set before the next dumping.
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Ronzuki
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watching this thread...good explanation. Can't wait to read your how-to/how-it-worked out (or didn't).
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)
SamirD
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Ronzuki wrote:watching this thread...good explanation. Can't wait to read your how-to/how-it-worked out (or didn't).
Thank you Ronzuki!

From what I've learned, I think this will apply to other makes/models as well as long as they have a learn mode that can be activated without an obd tool. And even if they don't, the Quickset tool is just another $150 or so.
SamirD
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Well, the VT30 didn't ship out on Friday. :( Looks like it will be after Wednesday. :(
SamirD
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SamirD wrote:Well, the VT30 didn't ship out on Friday. :( Looks like it will be after Wednesday. :(
Called them today and while it will ship out today, it will come overnight. :D Tomorrow should let me know if I can trigger the tpms sensors already on the car.

Also coming tomorrow should be the tpms sensors I plan to use for the new wheels.

Wednesday, I should see the new wheels.

I'm hoping that by this weekend I might be able to be driving in the snow instead of hiding from it. 8-)
SamirD
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Wheels being delivered early! I should have them today too! If everything comes together today, I can get tires mounted tomorrow. 8-)
SamirD
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Everything came in the afternoon, so I didn't have time to unpack everything. I did get a chance to unpack the VT30 and try it, but I don't think I did it right as it wouldn't read anything. I'll call ATEQ in the morning and find out what I'm doing wrong. Their application guide clearly says that this will work with all Kizashi OEM sensors.
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