I had a leaky winter tire, so while I was getting my summer tires swapped over (same wheels) at Firestone I told them to look at that, assuming it was a puncture. Turns out it was a TPMS sensor leaking so I had them replace it. Initially all was well.

The next morning on my drive to work the warning came on. I had read that sometimes it takes time to learn the new sensor, so I drove a few days. Sometimes it would take a while to show up, other times it would be there as soon as I started the car.

I took it back to them and they cleared/reset everything. I drove it home and to work the next day - nothing. On my way home yesterday (drove a total of ~40 miles since getting things reset) it's there again. Started the car up this morning and it immediately showed up.

Before I get into a cycle of bringing it back there and them fixing it for one day, what are my options for a possible real cause and fix? I've read the stuff about phone chargers possibly causing issues - I haven't changed anything inside the car in that regard. Could the new sensor be bad? Could it be the "wrong" kind (non-OEM? no idea what kind they used), causing issues?

Thanks for any help.

 

Hello to you!

I’m not an alarmist, but when it comes to those TPM sensors, the US regulatory agencies ARE. They want every winter tire, and factory OEM tire to have those sensors, and that made me nervous about my wallet,… because next winter I want to get myself four rims and winter tires.

I got into an email discussion with a place in the UK that specialized in TPMS sensors and “tyres” dedicated to matching the OEM part from the manufacturer.
They told me TPMS have to be coded to your car by the mechanic BEFORE it leaves the shop, and that if done right it should never “take a few days or so for the car to mate with the sensor”. They actually did NOT want to sell me any pre-coded sensor for my Jaguar, because they did have pre-coded for 2015--2016 Jags, but not for the 2017--2018 XEs. Wha!!!?

--In the case of our new XEs, they advise I definitely get the tire initially mounted (and TPMS fitted) at the Jaguar dealership first time around. This ensures proper sensor-mating. After that, you’re free to go to ANY tire shop for seasonal changing, balancing, etc.

--They also advise do NOT let a mechanic put on metal valve caps, or even black plastic valve caps, since both types often contain a metal or non-rubber ring inside the cap that can foul the sensor reading (and promote funny deposits on the valve similar to corrosion---a science that is too far over my head). Use only the certified “grey plastic valve caps” used on Jaguar, BMW, and a few other makes. (Here in NY, our drivers often find their grey caps STOLEN off their parked cars---turns out these caps cost nearly $4.00 each).

---Additionally, I just left a Jaguar service center two days ago. The customer ahead of me just had some service done, and noticed his car saying “low pressure warning” on the rear right tire,… so he got irate and raised a red flag. The mechanic seemed to know exactly what was causing the false reading, reversed the car back into the shop, and swapped out the hexagon shaped collar that’s located on the outside of the tire. He says sometimes the sensor unit hidden inside the tire is perfectly fine… but the “transmitter” collar you can see on the outside of your tire is a bad egg. 30 seconds to replace, and apparently the guy’s car was fine.

These three things make me feel you SHOULD get that car back to a Jaguar service center, and ask them to check the coding. That British vendor who emailed me all that info about TPMS stuff seemed really reliable (especially since he talked me out of what would have been a juicy purchase from him, with no chance of me every realizing I’d wasted my money), and if he says there’s not waiting period for these sensors to work properly, I believe him.

 

Thanks for that info - if I do go to a dealer, can they change the coding? What kind of process is involved in this? I don't necessarily want to be on the hook for paying for what amounts to someone else's screw up, but that's a separate issue. I definitely don't want to have to buy a NEW new sensor at the dealer if I can avoid it.

 

Article from VDO, TPMS sensor supplier, about relearn and TPMS sensor programming.

https://www.redi-sensor.com/tpms-fac...s-programming/

Sounds like your replacement sensor needs to be programmed and then perform a relearn.

 

Is this something a non-dealer can do? I'd prefer to have Firestone fix this since I already paid them.

 

Now you’ve arrived at the hard situation: It’s a “trust” thing.
Should you trust that the Fierstone tech will admit there's a possible mistake he made with his work,... and not blow you off with a bye-bye explanation?

Should you trust that the Firestone tire tech can diagnose what he (did wrong) at the first visit, an re-do his work?

If at least one other tire and TPMS specialist tells you “you really ought to take the car to an authorized dealership to ensure the sensors were installed and coded properly in the first place”, do you play it safe and go to a dealer?

The supplier I communicated with admitted that his team can't reliably code the new model car of mine, and I respect him for it,... but how many other non-dealers will admit to me what car brands they can code accurately and what brands they can't accurately do?

Replacing a faulty transmitter on the outside of the valve takes 10 minutes. It’s apparently called “re-coring”.

Re-coding the entire sensor while it’s still tucked inside the assembled tire, reportedly takes 60 seconds per tire. The authorized technician has the hand-device and the Jaguar code to program it with.

If this is correct, you could take it to a Jaguar dealership, and have all four sensors re-whatever (coding, re-learn, da, doo), and it should take less than half a day----and you can trust it’s done right with all the genuine devices and authorizations they may need.

The “trust” thing is never in me when it comes to a outside mechanic working on an expensive car. No matter what it is, I want the Jaguar dealership to do the intitial work…. Then I can trust a 3rd party to regular checks, cleaning, testing, rotating, etc.

But maybe you have more trust in your Firestone guy than I would.

 

Just to clear up some confusion on here. The jag system in the XF does learn automatically. You do not need to program anything. When you put on a new tpms sensor it takes a short while (usually a few mins) as you don't want it to learn the sensor alongside you in another car... )but it does not need any programming

The system is very finicky and for whatever reason non-oem sensors don't work well. I had a set in my summer wheels and they worked about half the time and gave a fault error the rest of the time. I would reset with code reader and it would come back on a day or two later. I eventually replaced with new oem ones and (with no programming) they have worked perfectly ever since

Sometimes other devices appear to interfere with the system too

I'd start by checking if it's a real oem sensor. And ask them to pull the code and see which wheel it is. If the same wheel each time then replace that one sensor (unfortunately you need code reader to know which wheel is giving an error - the system only tells you the wheel if it's a low pressure warning, not for an error)
If it bounces around multiple wheels then could be a system issue and the dealer can reflash the system

 

Thanks, that was really helpful!

 

 

Firestone ended up replacing the universal sensor with an OEM one from Jaguar (at no additional cost to me). This fixed it for good.