I have the 'new' TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) on my car and I'm hoping someone else can shed some light on this problem, but here's what's happening:

Start the car in the morning, everything is fine. Drive about .5 miles, and the TPMS light comes on. It stays on all the way to work (~25 miles).

Get in the car after work (8 hours later), start the car, and the light is still on. Drive about .5 miles and the TPMS light turns off. Stays off all the way home.

Get in the car in the morning, everything is fine. Drive about .5 miles, and the TPMS light comes on. It stays on all the way to work (~25 miles).

This has happened for the past four days. I took it to the dealer last Friday and of course the light turned off before I got there. They said they checked everything out and all sensors were working properly. They said no one else is having this problem yet. I must be the first. They ordered me the black rubber strips that are supposed to be on the bottom of the doors so when they come in I am going to drop the car off over night and see if they can recreate the same problem and try to fix it.

Anyone else having this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PS...I have been checking the air in the tires every morning and they are all at 38 lbs.

 

Sounds like a bad wheel sensor, or sensor battery. Does the "New & Improved" TPMS at least tell you which tire is low?

 

That's what I keep saying but they told me on Friday that all the sensors are fine. I'm wondering how they know this. I'm also wondering if disconnecting the battery would possibly reset everything. Something's telling the onboard computer that the tires are low on air.

 

This is probably a dumb question and I may have already asked, but you've tried resetting the tire monitoring function through the tach (or NAV if you have it) as the manual suggests? That would reset the computer to accept the current wheel RPM. At that point if it is still tripping the sensor it seems most probable that either one or more of the transmitters is not functioning or the receiver isn't picking up the signal. I wonder what RF frequency they transmit at and if anything else could possibly be interfering with it?

Regardless, you're driving a new car that is still under warranty and the dealer needs to support you! I would hope they'll take the car, give you a loaner, and invest the time it takes to replicate and troubleshoot the problem.

 

FugitiveAI...thanks.

Yes, in answer to your question, I have reset the dumb thing about ten times now. Each time it does go out until the next time I drive it. Drive about .5 miles and BAM, light come back on again. I thought of the RF frequency thing too. Today I drove a different way to work. Same thing happened. Go figure.

 

I have one more ridiculous idea . If you have a cell phone on you turn it completely off. This shouldn't be the problem as TPMS operates at a much lower frequency, but I've seen weirder things. It's probably service time. Sorry you got a lemon TPMS system

 

Time to use the new TPS report

http://www.bastetmusic.com/tps%20report.html

 

I'd like to know this too.

 

^^Nope. Just a light on the speedo. It's the first 'idiot light' of the seven. I'll keep everyone posted as to how it gets resolved. Actually I reset it tonight before I left work. It went out, but we'll see what happens in the morning.

 

Aren't British cars wonderful? So much character!

 

Well that stinks. They force this fancy TPMS on us (I don't want it), and then dumb it down. Do you have Nav? I'm just wondering if it would display more info.

 

How about overfilling the tires, let the TPMS acknowledge it, and then lower the pressure to the correct psi?

This is how they had to correct an issue with my company car (Impala).

 

No NAV. All I have is the 'idiot light'

I was thinking about do this. Might be next on the list. My other option was to disconnect the battery. Maybe that would just reset everything. Something is telling the computer that the tires aren't right. I'll try anything at this point.

 

Do you live in an area where there are wide swings in temperature between day and night? Could the tire pressures be changing enough (ie going down at night with lower temperature, and up during the day at higher temperature) to fool the new TPMS? I second the overfilling idea. Put more pressure in there during the daylight hours, ideally at the warmest point, and check what the pressures are the following morning. Could be that....

 

Now you guys got me thinking . When I checked the tire pressure in the morning they are at 37.5 - 38 lbs. The car does sit in the garage all night. By the time I get to work, they are up around 41 - 41.5 lbs because of the drive in. I know because I've been carrying around my digital tire gauge. Should I reset the TPMS at the higher temp or lower temp? I'm thinking I need to reset it somewhere in the middle. That way swings of only a couple of lbs up or down won't trip the sensors.

 

I have no experience with the new TPMS, but the old one, to my knowledge, only trips if the rotation of one wheel with respect to the others changes (the pressure change should change its diameter slightly) - and its using the same sensors as the ABS system to do this. I don't know if the new system is monitoring absolute pressure or pressures (rotations?) of each wheel relative to each other. Perhaps someone with more experience can weigh in. I seem to remember reading that its looking at absolute pressures.

On my 2005, the factory recommended pressure is 37 psi I think, not sure what the 2007 pressure numbers are, but they can't be too far from that. I'd say your pressures are on the money and that your TPMS is either too sensitive or not functioning properly. I could be very wrong though.

 

The recommended tire pressure on the door sticker says between 38 and 41 lbs.

I'm with you on the 'not functioning correctly' part. I read that it should only trip the light if there's a 25% (or 30% can't remember) change in tire pressure. So, there would have to be something like a 8-9 lb swing to trip the light. I assume. That, I know, is not happening. One or the sensors has to be malfunctioning.

The dealer told me, that if one of the sensors is bad, the computer will register an error code. They supposedly checked this and said there were no error codes.

So, this issue continues. I'm probably going to wait until the light comes on and drive right to the dealer, while it's on, and let them check it then.

 

try filling your tires with nitrogen at your local costco or somethin

 

All I'm trying to do is get this issue fixed so I can new wheels .

But yeah, I might go the nitrogen route when I get my new wheels.

 

as tires heat up from driving the pressure increases about 3-4 lbs. The manual says to do the reset while the car is cold.

 

Yeah, that's what I've been doing. I just wanted to make sure. So I guess what I'll try is to air up the tires to 40 lbs in the morning, reset the TPMS, then lower them back down to 38 lbs and see what happens. This is all becoming a big PITA!

 

Just wanted to give everyone an update...

Well the car's been at the dealership since Friday (4 days now). They finally had to call MINIUSA. Right now the car is getting a total computer software upgrade/reinstall. MINI told them to reinstall the software. From all the data the dealership gathered from the car and sent to MINI, this is what they were told to do. Apparently the sensors are not bad, as originally thought. The service advisor said it was going to take a while for everything to reinstall. Let's hope they are right. I'm hoping to pick up the car on Tuesday. They are going to call me. The dealership has been incredible. They have kept me in the loop this whole time.

I've got an '07 MCS as a loaner, so I don't mind as long as they can fix the problem. I'll keep everyone updated as to what happens.

 

It does if you have nav.




See this post for more info:

FTM Vs. TPM (2008 Model Year Change)

 

I wonder why the reluctance to contact them first.

Can someone explain why it takes so long for the dealerships to upgrade firmware? Sounds like a 5 minute job at most.

Anyhow, good luck, and thanks for keeping us posted.

 

I thought they used only the finest 1200 baud modems that money could buy to down load the software