TPMS is being a jerk

[Buford T Justice]

I have a USA 2013 base Genesis and the TPMS module is being a real ass hole.

I recently got 4 winter tires/wheels/TPMS sensors from Tirerack, so the TPMS sensors and tires came mounted and balanced on the wheel. All I had to do is take off the regular tires and slap the new ones on.

The issue with my TPMS...
(not sure if it's the sensors, a recognition issue, or the module in my car)


Basically, the "TPMS" warning light randomly appears when I drive around. I drive about 50 miles to work and 50 miles back home from work and at some point during that journey the TPMS light will come on. It does it randomly, it could come on 10 minutes into my drive or 40 or 36.2 or it might not come on at all! It started to do this before I changed over to my winter set up so I know all the wheel mounted sensors are working fine, if one of them wasn't working the TPMS light would come on every time I started the car...but it doesn't. Not only that but I can turn my car off then back on and it will clear the TPMS light.

I've looked around on this site to see if anything has to be done to get the car to "recognize" the new TPMS sensors but everybody seems to think the car automatically recognizes the sensors. Which would make sense, if it wasn't recognizing the sensors the TPMS light would come on every time I started the car, but it's not.
It's like it's recognizing the sensors but then at some point it thinks the wheels have fallen off and there are no longer sensors.

Just tonight I made one of my tires 15 PSI when the TPMS light was off but this never triggered the computer to tell me which wheel was low on air, it didn't even make the TPMS light show up on the dash! I did this in my garage with just the cars electronics on but not the engine. not sure if that matters or not.

Regardless, these little buggers are really pissing me off. The whole reason I got them was so I didn't have to look at the TPMS light all the time but here I am...looking at the God damn TPMS light almost every time I drive this car.

All the TPMS info on this car seems to be hearsay, I have no idea how these damn things actually work, and the dealer is only helpful if the TPMS light is on and it NEVER turns on when I can go to the dealership.

I drove around for almost 75 miles on Saturday to see if the TPMS light would come on so I could take it to the dealer with the TPMS light on and the stupid thing never turned on!!
This morning I started driving to work and the light came on in about 17 miles...

Has anybody had any experience with these ****ing things on this car?
If you have a separate set of sensors did you have to take it to the dealer to get the sensors to talk appropriately with the car or did they just work magically?

 

[homeofstone]

I had a similar issue on my Denali. Sensors had to be programed by tire dealer and then they found a new sensor that was bad out of the box. Not sure if this helps you out though.

 

[craigt]

I ordered winter tires/rims from Tirerack about a month ago. I put them on the car this past weekend and no TPMS light (yet). Though my commute is only 17 miles round trip...

 

[BStarr119]

I went to my Hyundai dealer yesterday to get my tpms light issue sorted out. Turns out there are two variants of the same part number TPMS sensor for our cars. A Hi-line and a Lo-line version, and our cars only accept the hi-line version. So if you get any TPMS sensor that is of the Lo-line kind the whole system is unable to register the sensors. I order a set of hi line TPMS and will report back with results.

 

[craigt]

If the system is unable to register the wrong "line" of sensors, wouldn't that result in the TPMS light being on all the time? If so, that isn't what the OP is seeing....

 

[GenesisCaptain]

It started to do this before I changed over to my winter set up so I know all the wheel mounted sensors are working fine, if one of them wasn't working the TPMS light would come on every time I started the car...but it doesn't. Not only that but I can turn my car off then back on and it will clear the TPMS light.

Thanks for all of the detail. The great news is that you pretty much eliminated the wheel sensors from the equation. The behavior did not change with new wheels and new sensors. So, you can be pretty confident that the problem is in the car. I suspect one of three possibilities.

1. Antenna or Receiver in a wheel well
2. Wiring from the wheel well to the TPMS module
3. Faulty TPMS module

The problem with the list above is that only a dealer could effectively diagnose it for you. I have only had a flat once, so I cannot remember if the system told me which wheel was low. If the system tells you which wheel is suspect, then you can build on that. If not, then you have to rely on a dealer.

Have you asked a dealer if they can read the history of the TPMS to see what tires and recently thrown an error? If so, then you could just swap the receiver at the faulty wheel to another wheel and drive. If the error moves, then you know it is the sensor. If the error sticks with the bad wheel, then you know it is the wiring or the module.

If the error shows at multiple wheels, then the problem is probably the TMPS module.

 

[Buford T Justice]

UPDATE:
I was driving to work this morning and sure as shit, my TPMS light came on! So after I was done shouting at my dashboard and trying to rip the steering wheel off with rage I drove myself to the dealership.

I explained my situation to the dealership and they were just as confused as I was. They hooked the car up to their code reading device and found that the TPMS light was coming on because something was amiss with the Right Rear sensor and Left Front sensor. Next, they said they would do whatever it is they do to make the sensors "talk" with my particular Genesis. After doing this they let me go and said that should fix it but their not positive it would solve the issue. I drove the car about 6 miles to work with no light.
YAY!!

Or so I thought...
about 2 miles from work on my way home Mr. TPMS showed up again. So I took it to the same dealer again. I explained my situation and what the technician did that morning to remedy the problem. What we came up with is: I'll have to bring the car in with all eight tires (snow set up and summer set up) and basically let the dealership play around with the stuff until they can figure out what the problem actually is and narrow it down to a faulty component.

TPMS sensors are super finicky and difficult to diagnose because they don't always transmit their information to the car's computer. They do it on their own accord or when the vehicle requests the information but they are not always transmitting.

The weird part is, every TPMS style there is transmits their info to the car's computer right away upon vehicle start up.
So when I turn my car on, all is well with the TPMS and they are all transmitting so there is no warning light. Then at some point during driving something happens that angers the TPMS.

I'll have to set up an appointment for my car and let you guys know how it goes down.
I hate this particular technology.

 

[Gunkk]

Just a WAG:
If you are keeping your summer tires in the same garage with the car, it could be the car is seeing 8 tires when it starts up, choosing the first 4 (some of which not attached to the car), then getting confused later when some of them disappear. Try moving your summer tires far away from the car for a few days and see if that fixes it.

Of course that wouldn't address the issue where the dealer fixed it on the way to work and then it went goofy on the way back home (and the other tires are miles away).

So it could just be bad senders in the tires that are throwing the faults.

 

[craigt]

Just a WAG:
If you are keeping your summer tires in the same garage with the car...

I never thought of that, as I have my summers sitting on a wall-mounted rack right above the hood of my car in the garage. I wonder how far the TPMS sensors reach, because I can imagine parking next to another car with TPMS wheels in a parking lot and have my car be confused about which sensors to pick up.

 

[GenesisCaptain]

They hooked the car up to their code reading device and found that the TPMS light was coming on because something was amiss with the Right Rear sensor and Left Front sensor.

I bet it is a bad TPMS module. My reasoning is that an error at a single wheel could be a receiver or wiring. But, the probability of a fault outside the module on two different wheels is very low.

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[Buford T Justice]

The range of the TPMS transponder can be measured in inches. The summer tires are stored about 8 miles away from where the car sleeps, though it's other two garage mates also have TPMS sensors.

For some reason the receiver is losing contact with the sensors when driving but finds them again if I turn the car off and then back on.

I think the biggest issue I'll have is trying to get the dealership to not immediately blame the tire rack sensors and actually find the problem. They already tried to blame them once and I told them they need to phisically prove it to me. They couldn't prove it and suddenly decided there actually is a possibility something else in the system is broke...

 

[xiaphin]

Aftermarket HID kits cause the TPMS light to come on after driving a while and randomly. Your signature says no mods yet so this can't be the problem. Sounds like the signal is getting interfered with somehow. Interested to see what the root cause actually is.

 

[homeofstone]

Put your other set of tires back on for 3 days or so and see if problem goes away. Then there is less guessing.

 

[Roikins]

How does this looks as replacement for TPMS? https://my-fobo.com/Product/FOBOTIRE

 

[427435]

Modern electronics offer many neat things, but they can be a bitch at times also.

I got my winters and wheels from Tire Rack. Whatever sensors they used, work in my car.

Actually, I probably should drop the air pressure to 20 psi in one tire and see what happens.

 

[Buford T Justice]

Aftermarket HID kits cause the TPMS light to come on after driving a while and randomly. Your signature says no mods yet so this can't be the problem. Sounds like the signal is getting interfered with somehow. Interested to see what the root cause actually is.

Actually, I installed HIDs not too long before this problem started (I forgot about upgrading my signature ). I'll have to try driving with HIDs off and see if it still squawks at me.
I had a deep down suspicion that they might be the problem but I didn't want at admit it because that would piss me off lol. I'll have to look into this, see if it can be blocked or toned down...

 

[xiaphin]

HID kit is the problem. There is a thread on here that talks about how to remedy the issue. Footnotes version. Wrap the ballast in copper tape and run a ground wire. Problem solved. Let us know if this is the problem.