My Dealer-less TPMS Tire Change Story

SamirD · Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:51 am

I have to agree that this sounds like a sensor issue. Once the car has learned the sensors it will not unlearn the sensors unless one of the sensors disappears, which can be caused by low battery. And from what I have read in other people's experiences aftermarket sensors generally have this problem more than genuine Suzuki.

Certain sensors can actually report the battery level, but I am Not sure if are Suzuki sensors do that. And even if they do you need an appropriate tool to read that battery reading. And I know my inexpensive vt30 does not do that. I believe the VT 55 can read the battery level if our sensors actually report that, but that tool is more expensive than replacing all 4 sensors.

I will see if I can try to think of a way to diagnose which sensor could be causing the problem the only idea I have thought of so far is to get an extra wheel and an extra sensor and an extra tire, and then swap this wheel on each location after reprogramming and see if the problem returns. Which ever tire you replace that causes the problem to go away that particular tire has a bad sensor.

SamirD · Sat Oct 18, 2014 2:12 am

I have been meaning to post an update for a few days now. So on my vt30 the button for reading the sensor seems like it has stopped working. I called support about it and they said that I should try reflashing the firmware, and that if that does not work it will need to be sent in for repair under warranty.

The good thing is even if I change to my winter set this upcoming Sunday I can still program the TPMS using the tire pressure method.

Itexmon · Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:17 pm

Thanks for the suggestion guys! What I did was do the process all over again.. but this time I watched the indicator light as it blinked.. I made sure it went solid for a few seconds after deflating the tires which apparently means it learned all of them. The first time I didn't actually check if it learned all of them. I've been driving it and the light has not come back yet.. but I've yet to put more than a hundred miles so I'm not sure yet..

As a side note.. my tire wear issue went away and so did the shaking at high speeds after the alignment! yay lol

I hope you find out what's going on with your vt30!

SamirD · Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:48 pm

Itexmon wrote:Thanks for the suggestion guys! What I did was do the process all over again.. but this time I watched the indicator light as it blinked.. I made sure it went solid for a few seconds after deflating the tires which apparently means it learned all of them. The first time I didn't actually check if it learned all of them. I've been driving it and the light has not come back yet.. but I've yet to put more than a hundred miles so I'm not sure yet..

As a side note.. my tire wear issue went away and so did the shaking at high speeds after the alignment! yay lol

I hope you find out what's going on with your vt30!

If you didn't see that solid light before, that was definitely it. The TPMS doesn't act up immediately after a problem--it took almost a week for mine to light up after changing to the winter set. But since the relearn is an easy process, even without a tool, it's not much of an issue for us owners anymore.

SamirD · Thu Oct 30, 2014 1:47 am

I'm so glad I posted such detailed notes on my process--I forgot how to put the vt30 into 'bootloader mode' as is required for a firmware load. Luckily, a quick search and I had the info right here in this thread.

SamirD · Thu Oct 30, 2014 10:13 pm

Well, loaded the newer firmware as instructed by support and just as I suspected--nothing. The 'read sensor' button still doesn't work. Sending it back for repair under warranty. I'm going to need it soon! Got to change to the winter set before I have to freeze to do it...

PittsburghJoe · Sun Nov 09, 2014 12:53 am

Itexmon wrote:Hey guys! I've been lurking the forum for a long time.. and for a while I didn't have a kizashi. I bought a used one recently (a few months ago) and the previous owner apparently was cheap with tires and their maintenance. I didn't notice this until after I bought it, but it had four different brands of tires, and one was a different size, and it was in the front! This may have been the cause of the couple of times my transmission went into limp mode.

Anyway, the guy also had one regular rubber valve instead of the sensor.. so obviously the system would always give me that horrid yellow light. I've been following the thread.. A couple of weeks ago one tire developed a slow leak.. turns out it had been patched before.. Anyway in the constant air-ups I actually cracked the tip of the valve stem.. So I ended up calling the dealer to ask for the part number on my sensors.. Got them on ebay (used, four) and had two of them installed. Two because one was broken and one was non-existing. The other two on the car seemed fine. I did that yesterday at a tire place that turned out to be really good.. the guy was really careful with the tightening. (Also had a successful 4 wheel alignment there for 70 bucks!).

Went home and spent a good while trying to put the car into learn mode.. once I finally got it (thanks to these Instructions ) I let the air out of the tires and on the second try the dash read "Low Tire Pressure" At that point I was ecstatic because I knew it worked!. Aired up and all was good. Until today.. this morning on my way to work the light came back on.. Service TPMS.

I did the method again and its gone.. but, is this going to keep happening? What's going on here? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Albert

What is meant by "scan" in step 7 of the instructions (the above link)? Is there a special tool to use to scan the sensors? I'm getting ready to put the snow tires back on. I had the Suzuki dealer "ping" them last winter and they re-pinged my all seasons this spring but said I'd have to come back to the dealer when I put the snows back on. I'd really like to avoid doing this twice a year and it seems that these instructions may be my ticket.

SamirD · Sun Nov 09, 2014 1:59 am

Scanning refers to a tpms tool activating (or pinging as you referred to it) each of the sensors.

There are two ways around using the dealership that have worked. One is free and the other costs some money.

The free method (that has been successfully executed by people in this thread) is to simply let out about 5psi from the tire to trigger the sensor in the tire.

The cost method involves getting an ateq vt30 ot vt55 tpms tool and using that to trigger the sensors when called for. I own a vt30. I bought it before the air pressure trigger theory had been tried in practice. Knowing what i know now, i should have tried it myself one day when i was filling air in the tires.

Try it out and let us know how it goes.

SamirD · Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:58 pm

Got the vt30 back from ATEQ a day or two ago. Tested it yesterday and my right side tires are at 30 and 31psi respectively.

TPMS shows low pressure and is working properly. It's time for the winter tires now anyways so I don't know if I'm going to be airing them up or not for storage.

SamirD · Mon Nov 17, 2014 4:02 am

Well, we got a dumping of snow this weekend, so I was working on the car today. Swapped over onto the winter sets, pumped them back up to required pressure (44psi since they only barely make the load rating for the Kizashi at that pressure), came back and did the relearn and no more low pressure warning.

TPMS without the dealership year 2.

I actually referred back to this thread to find the relearn procedure since I hadn't done it in so long. Got it on the first try and triggered all the sensors on the first shot too.

It was a good day, although tiring!