What's with this damn light?!

Batteries are dying in one of your tire pressure monitoring sensors... It's what shops will rip you off for hundreds to replace even just one, but you can buy one online for $20 and get some tire irons and swap it yourself and you're done.

 

It's not *that* easy. It's straightforward to debead the tire with the car's scissor jack, but getting the bead back on can be tricky with just household tools. Plus, you'll need to program the ECU to pick up the new sensor id (write the id down before you stick it in the tire!).

 

Just leave it alone till reasonable weather . No critical . Fill those tyres ho 40 psi

 

Getting the bead back on is not complex, just soap or lube the bead and pump the tire with a compressor.

Adding the new ID requires Techstream - or other ”capable” scan tools - that payed Toyota to be able to communicate with the TPMS ECU.

My tip; buy cloneable ID TPMs sensors, such as thinkcar S3.

 

When the light comes on solid right away, it is reporting low pressure in a tire (so, the TPMS doing its job).

When the light comes on blinking, then goes solid after a minute, it is reporting a problem with the TPMS itself (telling you some reason it can't do its job).

Failure of a battery in a transmitter is quite commonly the reason (when the transmitters are of a certain age). It isn't the only possible cause, though. You can query for the trouble codes like this:

Blink (a/k/a Flash) Codes – How to. | PriusChat

Then you can be quite confident that it's a transmitter problem, or that it's some other problem, depending on the code(s) you get.

 

If a person's tire change interval is long the TPMS units should be changed with the tires, as they are pretty much guaranteed to go out before the next change. People who drive a ton of miles on tires which don't last long will get through several sets of tires on one set of TPMS units.

Stupidest thing ever that the Feds not only required these, but didn't also require that the units' batteries be serviceable (replaceable or rechargeable) without removing the tire. We always check our tire pressures regularly, so the TPMS is basically dead weight (other than for a slow leaking flat), but we still have to pay for them. I mean, a tire that has no pressure left in it is pretty obvious when the car is in motion, even if you didn't spot it when the car was parked. No need for an idiot light too. (Conversely, the absence of a coolant temperature display is a problem, since by the time the "your car is melting" light comes on the damage may already be done.)

 

It's true we got along fine without TPMS for most of our driving lives. And while I similarly bristle at the cost and hassle of having to replace these things, I see them as a positive development akin to keyless ignition, cell phones, maps.google, and rear view cameras. It's hard to imagine how the general road-going public got along without these sometimes life-saving technologies.

 

Now, just imagine that an adapter stem was installed with the tire, and an entirely external TPMS sensor was attached to that. Suddenly swapping a TPMS sensor becomes something "anybody" could do, at least as far as the physical installation. Integrate over the entire country, how much money would people not be paying for this service?

 

Regina just got his light off and it can be reversed I'm sure gen2 can do same

 

There is a reason they are called "Idiot" lights,