Soo.... just got my wife's 09 Fit... and she loves it! But, around 30 miles from the dealership, the TPMS light came on. I'm going to drop it by and have it fixed, but is this a problem anyone else has seen?

 

Tires visibly low?

 

Nope... the tires are not low... nor high... they are just right. I read the other postings about TPMS and quite a few are not really TPMS... they are pressure warnings... this is the actual TPMS light. I guess it's just easier to take it to the dealer. No biggie. (sorry for reposting about a hot topic)

 

Hi I picked up my 08 Fit 0n 6/12/08 20 miles from dealer my tpms light came on and just like you my pressure was perfect.Brought it to dealer 30 min. later problem sloved the cumputer was not reconizing the tires.They reset the little bugger and not a problem since.
jimrb66

 

I had the same problem and addressed this on another post. My TPMS light was on from the first time I drove my Fit Sport from the dealership. I checked my tires: they had 40 psi. I adjusted them to 32 psi, to no avail. When I brought it to the service dept today, I was told that the computer was never set correctly from the start, so the tires were bled and then reinflated to 32 psi. Finally, this annoying TPMS light went off. What is noteworthy is that on the highway when the tires were at 40, I was getting about 5 miles more in terms of MPG than at 32. After a day or two, I'm going to inflate them to 35 and hope that the computer ignores this "overinflation."

 

Yes, the computer ignores pressures higher than what they set the system to recognize. The down side is that, if you aren't checking it weekly, the light will not come on until the pressure drops below 'normal'.

In other words: Starting with the recommended 32 psi, my Fit's TPMS light came on @ roughly 26 psi. I checked, and there was a screw in it. Now, I run the sidewall max 44 psi in all four tires for better fuel economy. The pressure will have to drop all the way down to 26psi before the light comes on.

Now I wish that I knew more about how the system works. I'd really like its base pressure to be 44 instead of 32. Something that isn't addressed in the owners' manual is how to get the computer to recognize the sensors. If I do decide to get a set of winter tires, I want to have TPMS sensors in those rims, too. Seems a bit much to have to take it to the stealership in order to have the computer recognize the new sensors.

 

I went through the TPMS folklore when I switch my steelies for alloys on my base fit. Both sets of tires had TPMS so I elected to pay the dealer to register the new sensors in the alloys rather than swapping out sensors from one set to the other.

As near as I can tell, the TPMS computer can only register four specific sensors at a time and it must be reset by the dealer to register new sensors. The diagnostic tool needed to reset and reregister TPMS isn't available to consumers yet. It takes about an hour to register four new sensors to the system.

There are several threads about attempts to hide or fool the system if you are interested - a quick search should find them easily enough. I wanted to have a working system so I spent the extra bucks to have the sensors on the alloys registered with the TPMS computer. The DC winters aren't harsh enough to warrant using winter tires IMHO.

The least expensive approach for those wanted to use winter tires is probably to just ignore the light while the winter tires are on the vehicle. The TPMS system should go back to normal when you put the regular tires back on the vehicle.

 

My TPMS has been flawless--only coming on because of a screw in my right rear tire--plugged it to no avail, so the dealer replaced my tire for free. I paid an extra $150 when I got the car for 5 years of tire replacement protection.

I got my stock 15" sport wheels powder coated black--they look sweeeeet. I'll have pictures this weekend after the 20% tint is done.

 

I appreciate the detailed response, but so what if you're getting better MPG if you have to replace 4 tires a year or two early because you're running on 44 psi? Is there a happy medium to this in terms of a psi # that gives one the best bang for the buck in terms of MPG and tread wear?