Hi all. My TPMS system seems to need a reboot or relearn. Any help is much appreciated. Here's the story -

2011 E350 Wagon, 120k. No previous issues with TPMS.

Wife took wagon out of town. Stopped for gas, found nail in driver-rear tire. Went to local tire shop, they patched. No more issues. She came home a few days and 400 miles later.

I daily drive the wagon and after 3 days the TPMS alert "no sensor" comes on for the driver-rear. I also heard a knocking sound and figure the tire shop didn't tighten the sensor and it was knocking around.

Went to my tire shop, they found the sensor was broken and had been epoxied back together (!). So they replace with a Shrader 33200, told me the alert would go out after a few miles.

Light has never gone out. Dash still shows driver-rear sensor missing. I also did the reset function several times. Dash graphic was something like this:

32 32

--- 38


I'm a DIY type so after a week and 200+ miles I decided to swap the rear tires to the front (and properly inflated for each corner).

Dash still shows driver-rear sensor missing. However the dash is showing the correct rear pressures as being on the fronts, and correct passenger-front pressure as being on the rear. So the fronts and rears are reversed on the dash.

Dash graphic is now like this:

38 38

--- 32


This tells me the new TPMS sensor is working - the system is reading that pressure correctly.

It also tells me the computer does not know the position of the sensors, and not seeing the driver-rear wheel.

I pulled fuse 70 from the rear panel. Left it out for several hours, drove for 15+ miles . Re-inserted, same issue. I've driven another several days, 100+ miles.

I've searched all around - is there a way to reboot, force a relearn or discovery?

Or is this a dealer-only thing?

I hesitate to go back to my local tire shop since they probably don't know what to do, or they would have done it.

Any help is much appreciated!

 

It's a 2011 and if the TPMS sensors are original, they are probably on the way out due to battery life. The batteries are embedded in the sensor, so when it goes, you replace the whole thing. I recently got a new set of tires mounted on some OEM takeoff rims and I put new sensors/stems on each wheel for about 40 each. Bought them at amazon and mounted them in the new rims before letting the dealer mount the new rubber.

As for the car relearning the sensors, that part I'm not sure about since the dealer did the install, and didn't charge or even document anything about resetting TPMS. The sensors I bought were ORO-Tek OSC-8214B-M TPMS and mentioned these features:

• Features a Design that Requires No Programming
• Includes Ability to Use the OEM Relearn Procedure
• Offers an OEM Style Sensor

Looking at the Schrader 33200 on Amazon, I noted this in the Q&A:

They are a completely blank sensor with no ID. They will either need programmed by you with an ez sensor programmer or by whoever you're buying them from. they will need to know year, make, model, engine size.

So my guess is that somebody with the correct equipment needs to program the sensor to make it visible to the car. HTH

 

My TPMS is all good after 3 visits to the tire shop. It turned out to be a problem with their tool getting the proper software update.

Thanks all for the help!