Quick question is it just me who gets random flat tyre warnings with no flat tyre to follow?

They come on sometimes 5-10 mins after engine work that required removal of a wheel or sometimes like today for no apparent reason. Could it be a dirty sensor or something to do with 18 inch rims and 15mm spacers?

Cheers for any advice

 

If you have a 1st gen (R50/52/53) then you won't have sensors, the tire light is based upon the wheel speed on each corner through the ABS system. Reset the light and see if the problem persists once all tires are back on the car at the proper pressure and see how it goes.

 

Thanks for that, yeah its an 02 R53 and I didn't know that's how it determines a flat. Yep I've reset the warning light each time and it goes away afterwards. Could it also be triggered by rough roads? I'm in a part of Australia with some seriously dodgy roads (even by our standards)... not a huge issue but nice to know what is causing it

 

Gravel roads have (for some by some reports) set a warning....assuming the washboard/caudaroy texture must wrech havoic with varrions in rpm wheel to wheel (skimming the top vs bouncing up and down with full travel). The abs/indirect tpms was only really good enough for use with runflats....with regular tires, you may/may not already be pulling off to the side with a flat when /if it activates.....
A bad sensor will usually set 3 lights, aka as a "tri- fecta" on the gen1 cars...

 

If the road is that bad I cant believe you can tolerate the roughness on 18" wheels. Very few people run 18s in the US on a hardtop.

 

My '03 has set off the warning when I accelerate on wet leaves and a wheel spins faster than others. A reset always solves the issue.

 

I have experienced that my self as well, it goes away though, but how to reset? I have a push on switch (flat tire switch) by the passenger seat belt, but it seems that it does not do anything.

 

Almost certainly a damaged rim. A spray bottle filled with a small quantity of washing up liquid & water will show up any leaking air.

 

Look up the exact procedure in the book/owners manual (also available as a PDF for download). The basic procedure (from memory) is push the button down for a few seconds while stopped....then begin driving...the light will stay on a bit...as the car "learns" the new rpms per rim, the light will go out in a few hundred feet. One caution...you can make the system ignore a flat if you reset it with a flat runflats.... The system is only comparing the number of rpms per given distance realative to the others...a sudden change will cause a light...but the car must give enough time to ensure you are simply not turning, etc...and does not effectively calculate when a tire is s bit low on air...mostly just good enough to let you know a runflat tire is flat... So you can get it fixed..not like a modern psi based tpms that will complain if you psi is off by 2 or 3 psi....thank GOD!! (Imo).

 

The roads are bad but not as per the corrugated description. Plus I've got brand new Koni FSD's (stock spings) all round so the ride qualitiy is heaps better on 18's that the previous run flat/s lite combo.

Looks like someone else might have figured it out as I failed to mention it was raining on the day of the last phantom warning.