About two months ago, while driving my 09 Fit Base I got a screw in the passenger front tire (Hospital Parking Lot of all places).

The low pressure light came on quickly and then the TPMS light came on when I removed the tire and used the spare until the next morning when I was going to get the screw removed and the tire patched.

Anyway, soon as I mounted the repaired tire to the car, the light went away.

All worked just as it should have.

Today, however, I was driving my 2010 Fit Sport. When I went to pick up some lunch for me and some co workers, I noticed my driver side rear tire TOTALLY flat.

A hunk of metal about a 1/2" long stuck right in the middle of the tire.

I don't know where it happened but I am assuming the it occurred at the parking lot where I was working since the warehouse next door is totally fixing up their place.

Anyway, again I put the spare on and go to pick up lunch. The difference is that this time the TPMS light never came on. In fact, no light came on at anytime even while driving home (about 9 miles away).

I figured it could have been because I put the tire/ wheel on the rear seat (covered with a moving blanket) and the TPMS got confused. However, when I arrived home, I removed the damaged tire/ wheel completely and drove another around my neighborhood to see if any light would turn on but no luck.

CRAZY I tell ya.

BTW, when I turn on the car both the TPMS and the low pressure (!) light flash momentarily letting me know that the system is checking out ok.

Never even thought that the TPMS would work so well on my 09 while the 2010 is a total failure with no warning signs that something is wrong.

 

No disrespect meant, but I had to snicker at this, faulty TPMS report. So much for nanny monitors!

FWIW - I had a screw in a tire, never had TPMS come on (because the tire was still fully inflated), I caught the screw in the tire, got the tire fixed... so much for TPMS, who needs it anyways.

But I guess you can test all your tires/TPMS individually once you get that one fixed, and figure out if the system is faulty.

 

I think if you read some of my past thread/ post you will know that I am pretty hands on with my cars.

It's not about "nanny monitors". I, like most people, don't circle my car each and every time I drive it. If the flat happened to be on the rear passanger side instead of the driver's side, I may not have noticed it until starting to drive the car and perhaps perminently damaging the tire.

If the "nanny monitor worked" it would have saved my tire "if I didn't notice it first" like I did this time.

 

Understood - but now you see why I'm against a device that makes people assume things are ok until lights blink at you. No system is foolproof, and far too few people (not saying you) don't bother to check for things. I'm sure with a fully flat tire you'd roll out of the spot and realize something was wrong immediately, if you know your car, can't miss something like that. If you're gonna drive off with a flat tire just cause the light wasn't on, then I don't know what else to tell you.

In my case - TPMS didn't tell me that I had a screw - what if the tire blew out at speed if the screw got dislodged or pushed into the tire? Can't say I check every single tire each time I drive, but at least being aware and not blind to such things, I caught it pretty easily.

 

Update,

Still no lights this morning so I manually lowered the air on one of my front tires to about 25psi to see if the low pressure light (!) would come on.

Within a few feet the light did come on as it should. I added air and headed to my local mechanic to patch the damaged tire.

Perhaps the TPMS isn't as sensitive as the low pressure light and takes over 5 miles before it will trigger that light.

Maybe if I completely removed the damaged tire from the car and drove with the only spare for 5 or more miles I would be able to confirm my theory but I don't have time for that right now.

Will keep ya'll updated as I figure this system out.

 

The first time I switched to my snow tires, I didn't reprogram the TPMS. The TPMS light didn't actually come on until I drove almost 15 miles (and the last 5 or 6 of those miles at greater than 40 mph) ... I have an 09 Sport by the way.

 

shora- sorry to hear about you tire troubles. ive had my share of flats over the years on both my dd and hobby cars with expensive tires (expensive as in $300+ each).

have the TPMS sensors reset at the dealer. they have special diagnostic tools to show serial number of the 4 sensors. if one of them do not show up chances are the transmitter in the module (tire side) is faulty. then have the TPMS replaced under warranty. this should all be covered under warranty.

 

TPMS wants to see the car going over 28MPH and monitors pressures every 60seconds. Pressure under 27PSI on the stock 16" wheels trigger it - 25PSI on 15". If the flat was in the car it should have sensed it - it was at zero PSI I'm guessing. Move the flat 20ft away and see what happens... strange.

 

This basically confirms my theory.

Low pressure is very sensative.

TPMS takes some serious driving to trigger.

They dealer may smack me across the head if I'm wrong. we're close and I don't want to go unless I'm sure there is a problem.


Maybe the tire needs to be spinning for it to notice.

I drove with my 100% flat tire on the back seat and no light came on.

I manually lowered the air in my front tire this AM and the light came on within seconds. Refilled the air and light went away within seconds.

I think, like I said above in my theory and clicq confirmed when changing wheels is that the TPMS takes a while to trigger.

I am looking for any info available.

 

I though the tpms sensors didn't activate and send a signal to the car until they were spinning as a battery saving measure. If that's the case, then the light won't come on till some distance is driven. Though I would think it would happen relatively fast but maybe not.

 

I have a full size spare tire that's not programmed in my '09 Fits TPMS system (it may not even have a sensor in it as far as know). Just this weekend I decided to put the non-TPMS spare on my car and put the TPMS tire/wheel it replaced in my car, and the TPMS light won't go out. I've driven around 50 miles so far. The tire in the car is at full pressure, around 34 PSI. So it looks pretty conclusive that the wheels have to be spinning for TPMS to function correctly.

 

You hit it malraux, I believe there is a spring loaded switch that closes under tire rotation, hence the 28MPH threshold. Shora had a non-spinning flat in the back seat. So, no light. That makes sense.

 

We figured this out in under 10 posts.

Gotta love FF.Net

 

Another happy thread ending ;-)