joedirtae09 Posted July 14, 2010 Share Posted July 14, 2010 Ive had my car for about a month now and it the past week the light for my tire pressure keeps coming on and off. The tires seem fine, all 4 have plenty of air and run smoothly. Could the weather be a setting it off? Lately its been in the 90's and super humid then the temps will drop off at night. Are the sensors that sensitive or are mine just buggy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RabidWombat Posted July 14, 2010 Share Posted July 14, 2010 They are fairly sensitive. The stock pressure is about 36 psi, and they tend to go off if it gets below about 32 psi. Check your tire pressure in the morning and make sure they're all good. When you say coming on and off, you mean comes on and stays on, then later it will go off and stay off for a while. A blinking TPMS light indicates a system error, such as a missing sensor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valerka Posted July 14, 2010 Share Posted July 14, 2010 I had the same thing going on when my tires were over inflated. They were like at 40+ PSI it would start blinking after 10 minutes of driving. Double check the pressure and make sure it's not too high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeblow Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Is it on for a few minutes and then back off intermittently? If that's the case, they're probably overinflated like valerka suggested. One of mine was overinflated one time on a road trip and as I drove without stopping for extended periods of time, it would come on and stay on, but then I'd slow down for a stop sign or stop light and it would kick off as the air cooled down in the tires. Now its on all the time because I upgraded wheels and didn't bother with the TPMS sensors for an additional $80/tire or whatever they cost. It's cool; I'm with the band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subfan Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Don't forget to check your spare. That will cause the light to come on also.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted July 15, 2010 Author Share Posted July 15, 2010 thanks for all the pointers... On 2 different occasions, the light came on for about 20min and then turned off. But every other day the light hasnt come on. I'll def have to check the psi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryN Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 What tire pressure are you running now? See if you can inflate them to all 35 PSI. If the problem still comes on, then you might have to replace a TPMS sensor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-BGTLimited Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 Don't forget to check your spare. That will cause the light to come on also.. how do you figure? I didn't see a sensor in mine. And when I brought my car to Subaru to tell them the light blinks they tell me its not... it starts blinking after about 15-20 min ride sometimes so when they start the car all looks fine, so they look at me like I'm crazy. And believe it or not... even after the system does "blink" trying to tell you there is a system problem(as the manual says a blinking light means TPMS error), IT NEVER LOGS A CODE ABOUT IT! I thought just MAYBE they would have found a saved code for bad sensor in one tire, but they got nada. The system is severely flawed and honestly should be junked unless they can setup something that works better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King08 Posted July 15, 2010 Share Posted July 15, 2010 don't forget to check your spare. That will cause the light to come on also.. lmao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subfan Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 lmao Apparently they are not in the Spare on Subaru's... When my light came on with my previous Audi, the guy at the tire shop told me that the spare would cause it to come on... Maybe it is just Audi, Toyota and Nissan (probably others also), I have heard the same about all 3. Personally, I am happy my car doesn't have them. They seem like more of a hassle than anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-BGTLimited Posted July 16, 2010 Share Posted July 16, 2010 They seem like more of a hassle than anything. They are, its rather annoying... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 UPDATE Now the light has been staying on... I was convinced I had a nail or something causing the leak. I went 2 different tire shops and they both told me they couldnt find the leak. For the past 2 days Ive been adding air and Ive been losing air just as fast... Im beginning to think theres something wrong with the valve stem. Im taking my car in to the dealer today... hopefully I can get some answers. Does anyone know if the original subaru factory warranty covers issues with wheels/valves? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lltomtomll Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 oOOo hope the dealer can fix it for free Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Does anyone know if the original subaru factory warranty covers issues with wheels/valves? They should be covered under the 3yr/36K warranty as long as it's a defect. They're not going to cover a bent wheel leaking air, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted July 22, 2010 Author Share Posted July 22, 2010 Just got back from the dealer and I dont know if I should be happy or more concerned. They couldnt find anything wrong... no leak and no crack in the valve stem. They were nice enough to reset the TPMS for free. If that damn light comes on again... Theyre going to take the tire off to check the wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryN Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Just got back from the dealer and I dont know if I should be happy or more concerned. They couldnt find anything wrong... no leak and no crack in the valve stem. They were nice enough to reset the TPMS for free. If that damn light comes on again... Theyre going to take the tire off to check the wheel. I would be more concerned... I am surprised they didn't take off the wheel in the first place to check for cracks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-BGTLimited Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 You stated that your tire WAS loosing pressure though... If so then your TPMS system was working the way it should. What I'm referring to is when your driving and the light starts to blink. According to the manual that means there is a problem with the system, and all tires check out at the proper pressure. BUT if you bring the car to them the damn problem never logs a code so there is no way to find the problem unless you get the light to come on while they take it for a 3 min test drive... which obviously never happens. Did you try removing the valve stem core and swapping it to another tire to see if the leak follows that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted July 23, 2010 Author Share Posted July 23, 2010 I hear what youre sayin B-BGTLimited.... the TPMS did its job but in a confusing way. The first time it came on a couple weeks ago, it only stayed on for 20min and then turned off. Then a week later it did the same thing. Both times, the light never blinked, it was on and then turned off by itself. The past couple days the light came on and stayed on until I put more air in the tires, no blinking this time either. When I went to the dealer, they ran some basic tests and got the error codes off the logs. They reset the sensors so they would have a base to go from. If the light comes back on, Im supposed to go back to the dealer with the light on and if possible without putting more air in. Then theyre going to remove the tire from the wheel for more tests. Im assuming they'll swap out the valve stems like you said. The light didnt come on last night at 1am and this morning at 8am... Maybe its fixed or maybe when I go out for lunch later the light will be back on? I wish they just found a nail in the side wall so I could just replace the tire and get all this crap over with!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 ITS FIXED!!! i think.... So the TPMS light came back on and I went to the dealer. They took the tire off the wheel and everything checked out. But the the valve stem was stuck in the actual sensor, they couldnt remove it. Although they couldnt prove it, they said who ever threaded the valve must have locked in in the sensor causing it to crack and leak air. I got the sensor/valve replaced for around $125. I hope this will be the end of my troubles.... I def want to get some new rims now!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vr4Legacy Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Good luck! If you do get new rims, I'll take a pair of your old ones... I've had a dented rim for a couple years now (Hit a NASTY pothole in Feb of '09... state will be paying for damages by Aug of '11) so I have a rim that is especially sensitive to swings in temp. As mentioned 32psi seems to be the tipping point.... and just the heat from driving on them will raise it enough to turn the light off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS5689 Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 It doesn't help that our TPMS is a basic piece of crap. The system just throws a light on at you, c'mon?! Almost every other system I have seen will tell you what tire it is and what the PSI in it is. Of course the Subaru's tells you NOTHING. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-BGTLimited Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 It doesn't help that our TPMS is a basic piece of crap. The system just throws a light on at you, c'mon?! Almost every other system I have seen will tell you what tire it is and what the PSI in it is. Of course the Subaru's tells you NOTHING. And when it does throw a blinking diagnostic light it doesn't even store the error! That pissed me off the most. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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