I recently purchased a 2009 Kia Rio this week, with 48,000 miles on it. When I was at the dealers, the TPMS light was on, they put air in it, fixed the problem. Three days later, the light is on again, does this mean a tire issue, since it came on again so quickly? Also I might ad we had a recent temperature drop from 70s to the 50 degrees, does that have any bearing? Thanks
Is this just one tire? Did they put in enough air to get the TPMS to go off or did they fill that tire, and all others to the recommended tire pressure shown on the tire placard?
You should fill up all tires to the proper pressure and then monitor the system. If the light comes on for one tire only, then its likely that that one tire has a leak.
Since your tires will lose 1 lb of pressure for every 10 degree drop in temperature, the recent temperature drop in your area could certainly have something to do with it.
What you need to do is the following:
Use a good-quality dial-type tire pressure gauge to check your tire pressure. Be sure to do this when the tires are “cold”–i.e., before the car has been driven for more than a mile or so. This is the only way to know exactly what the pressure in those tires is.
If you don’t currently have this type of gauge, then you need to buy one, as it is a vital tool for all car owners. Avoid cheap ones, particularly the “Slime” brand. That is not a joke. There is actually a brand by that name, and it is junk, pure and simple.
Make sure that you also check the pressure in your spare tire, as some cars have a pressure monitor on the spare and this will trigger the TPMS light if the pressure in the rarely-checked spare is low. This exact scenario was driving a friend of mine to distraction last fall. He repeatedly verified that the four tires on his car were correctly inflated, but until I checked (and reinflated) his spare, the TPMS light kept nagging at him.
Check your tires every few weeks, and make sure that you do so whenever there is a significant drop in temperature.
That’s not much of a change in temperature. It may not account for the change in pressure. A 20°F change in temperature is worth a 2 PSI drop in pressure. Check you pressure with a dial gauge in the tire that appears low. How much difference is there between the TPMS value and the gauge value? How much difference is there from the TPMS value when you got the car back and the value now? If you don’t know how much air pressure there was in the tire to begin with, look at the sticker on the driver’s door sill. Use it for comparison. If it is more than 2PSI then you may have a small leak. If you don’t have a tire gauge, get one at an auto parts store, WalMart, Target, or Sears.
Let me clarify something in my post. If the dealer add just enough air to get the light to go off, then the temperature difference could have caused the light to come back on. But if that is what the dealer did, then they didn’t put enough air in in the first place.
VCD made a good point about checking the spare. But there are some good digital gauges out there too, but the good ones are a bit pricy. I paid over $40 for my digital gauge. For most cases, a good dial gauge that reads up to no more than 60 psi for car use is adequate. A gauge that reads 0-250 psi is about useless IMO. They are OK for big trucks, aircraft and some bicycles, but not for cars.
As far as I know he just put enough air in the tire to get the light to turn off at the time. So i will do what you said, inflate all four to the proper pressure and monitor it.
Thanks