Two weeks ago I decided to go for the Michelin Cross-Climate 2 tires from Costco. Thinking about putting new tires on rims with 8 year old original Toyota sensors gave me pause, and a quick check last week when it dropped into the single digits showed that 3 of the 4 now had low battery levels.
I called Costco, and of course they gave me a hard time about mounting my sensors. After some negotiation, we settled on that they would remove the old, mount up the new, but would take zero responsibility for the outcome. They wouldn't REGISTER them to the vehicles. No problem, as I could make clones of the original 4 by PROGRAMMING blank Autel sensors so that they would sync right up without any further effort. No registration required. We had a plan....
So the day before I made clones, and drove over. No issues on the drive over. But the drive home was filled with an intermittent solid-on (not flashing) TPMS dash light!
I hooked up Techstream and watched as solid 36 psi values for the 4 registered sensors intermittently dropped down to zero and the dash light came on! Then they'd pop back up to 36 at random and the light would go off. WTH? Did I have bad sensors? But there were no TPMS DTC's, so I really had nothing to work with.
After collecting a half hour's worth of data, I decided to sleep on it. In the morning I had my answer! My mind has always worked that way. For years I kept a pad and pen by the bedside for recording the solutions to my job's most vexing engineering problems. Where were the original Toyota sensors? In the van! So I had 4 new sensors in the tire broadcasting 36 psi, and 4 old sensors bouncing around occasionally broadcasting a ZERO.
I took the old sensors out to the backyard shed. The dash light is out.
I called Costco, and of course they gave me a hard time about mounting my sensors. After some negotiation, we settled on that they would remove the old, mount up the new, but would take zero responsibility for the outcome. They wouldn't REGISTER them to the vehicles. No problem, as I could make clones of the original 4 by PROGRAMMING blank Autel sensors so that they would sync right up without any further effort. No registration required. We had a plan....
So the day before I made clones, and drove over. No issues on the drive over. But the drive home was filled with an intermittent solid-on (not flashing) TPMS dash light!
I hooked up Techstream and watched as solid 36 psi values for the 4 registered sensors intermittently dropped down to zero and the dash light came on! Then they'd pop back up to 36 at random and the light would go off. WTH? Did I have bad sensors? But there were no TPMS DTC's, so I really had nothing to work with.
After collecting a half hour's worth of data, I decided to sleep on it. In the morning I had my answer! My mind has always worked that way. For years I kept a pad and pen by the bedside for recording the solutions to my job's most vexing engineering problems. Where were the original Toyota sensors? In the van! So I had 4 new sensors in the tire broadcasting 36 psi, and 4 old sensors bouncing around occasionally broadcasting a ZERO.
I took the old sensors out to the backyard shed. The dash light is out.
