Car sat for two days. Start to drive away tonight, and the warning light is on (just the warning light, not the TPMS indicator). IAW Owner’s Manual, we check tire pressures. One is low (24 psi; should be 32). Other three are OK. We inflate the low tire, but the warning light stays on. Owner’s Manual says, in that case, to take it to dealer to get the system checked.
- Any other suggestions on what else I might try (we have re-checked all four tire pressures)?
- Any guess as to whether my trusted indy mechanic will be able to fix it (i.e., avoid the dealer)?
Meantime, I’m going to read the Manual some more to see why warning light comes on but not TPMS indicator.
Check the spare tire also.
There is only one light for low tire pressure. That is the TPMS warning light. Perhaps the light that is on is a warning for traction control, ABS, or VSC? What does your manual say?
Maybe give it a couple days for the warning light to go off first, before going to your shop. Sometimes – I’m really at this point guessing, but I’ve heard this to be the case in some circumstances – the computer has to cycle through a driving routine of several starts and stops and operating temps before it decides to turn the light off. Since you verified the pressure is ok in all 4 and the spare, no harm probably in waiting a bit before seeking out more help.
b_k – The Manual tells me that if the TPMS indicator is some kind of system self-test. Indicator ON means system not working, and Low Pressure warning will not work. Here, the TPMS does go out properly, and the Low Pressure warning comes on.
B’dog – I thought of the spare. However: 1) The Manual does say that the spare has a TPMS sensor, but implies that only the mounted tires need be checked when the warning comes on; 2) I replaced the original donut spare with a full-size, and the salvage yard rim had a busted TPMS sensor (which might even have been removed at the salvage yard). So, I knew that if the spare were used, TPMS would give false readings. The warning light has not come on for the several months the sensorless spare has been there, so I infer that the system is not monitoring the pressure in the spare. Am I wrong?
Correction: Manual says spare (i.e., the original donut spare) does NOT have sensor.
Most tire pressure sensors will “wake up” and send a signal when the pressure is adjusted but some need to be in motion to wake up. Has the vehicle been driven?
Nevada_545 is the winner (again)! I had tried driving it, but I guess I had not driven far enough. The Manual says nothing about having to drive it. (And my ~$25 Haynes manual doesn’t even mention TPMS. I think Haynes is giving up.)
Now, I can focus on hoping that the low tire pressure was an aberration. Maybe we’ll see in the morning.
Thanks, all.
I have been battling with my tire pressure light since I got my '08 Civic Hybrid. Whenever I filled the tire I would have to drive at least a couple of miles before the light would go off. Usually I would have to turn off the car and the next time I turned it on the light would finally be off. The wierdest thing was the last time the light turned on and I went to get air in the tire the tech. said it could be happening because I didn’t have caps on my tire stems. He put four new caps on and I haven’t had an issue in over 2 months. My husband says it’s just a coincidence but I had been dealing with it for years, so whether it really helped or is just a coincidence, I really don’t care!
Try stopping by the local Honda dealer’s parts department and requesting the protocol for “reinitializing” your TPMS system. Doing so establishes the “baseline” for the system, and it’s part of the preparation proticols for prepping new vehicles.
Thanks for the extra info. The car has commuted back to Baltimore (from DC area). No reports of trouble. We’ll see.
BTW, this Civic is not a hybrid, not that it should matter for this problem. I don’t know how I got that tag on there.