I tried to reset TPMS system today, but when I let air out of LF tire, I set off loss of air in LF tire, so the system knows where the tires are, and after adding air to LF tire and driving, low tire pressure alarm whent away.

Last monday the Ford dealer replaced the blend door and updated TBC Battery control module per TSB 07-25-12, to fix wrench lite alarm. They must have reset the TPMS at the same time. All is good for now, I will buy a TPMS reset tool in future. Thanks for the information, now we know we can reset the TPMS when we rotate 5 tires.

 

There is also the argument... just rotate 4 tires and leave the full size spare where it is. Why rotate it in? To keep its tread even with the rest of the tires? Why?... presumably if you get a flat and need to replace one then well.. you'll STILL have one tire that doesn't match tread wise (the the new one). If you repare the bad tire then the full size tire goes back in the spare location. As for if its dangerous to drive with one tire with more tread than the rest when the flat occurs... how much more dangerous can it be than using a donut? And they expect you to do that if you get the flat without a full size spare.

I've never understood the fascination with rotating that spare in anyway. Sure... you get a bit more tread life because you are rotating 5 tires rather than 4... of course when you buy tires again you get to buy 5 tires instead of 4 too.

 

Quote:
"I've never understood the fascination with rotating that spare in anyway. Sure... you get a bit more tread life because you are rotating 5 tires rather than 4... of course when you buy tires again you get to buy 5 tires instead of 4 too."
When you rotate 4 tires, you need to have 2 wheels off the ground at the same time, but with 5 tires, I just move my jack from one tire to next, a great time saver and less work. I discovered this when I first had a truck with matching full size spare. (Hummer H3)

Now all my vehicles have matching full size spare tires, I do my own tire rotations, I can do 2 trucks in the time and energy I used when doing 4 tire rotations.

 

In the past, I'd have my truck in 4-wheel drive most of the winter (unless the pavement was dry) and rotate the spare on the right side, which usually wore more from right-hand turns being sharper. That worked quite nice.

Now most vehicles have 2-wheel drive so rotating just on the right side isn't needed. Unless I have a full-size aluminum wheel on my spare, I'm not going to be rotating it.

FWIW, had a couple inches of snow today and like the AWD so far. Every time the wheels slipped on my Rav4, it would beep and and a warning light lit up. Today, AWD would switch in and out seamlessly, and without fanfare, a big improvement.

 

Actually... in a car with that feature my fiancee said it annoyed the crap out of her... She said, "Look, the car is slipping... I can feel it... flashing a dang indicator and beeping is just distracting me, frankly I don't need futher distractions, I need concentration. sheesh... that light is stupid."

Shes got a point.

 

Yup. It didn't help I still had my summer tires (50's) so not much good for crossing a foot high pile of snow without slipping and that was the only way to get AWD to kick in. It seems to me that there were 4 beeps every time the tires slipped.

 

Just wanted to touch base here. Found the proper transceiver chips, that was the easy part. Found a programmer to write the ROM code and waiting for an estimate of his fee's. Going to start designing the pc board in the next few weeks and then will be able to determine the cost of small board runs from a local company.

Happy New Year all

 

Ford part #8C2Z1A203A, is transmiter to retrain TPMS. msrp=$18.92 from Ford. On one Ford part site it is listed for $10.88. I am going to order it from local Ford dealer. Will report back with results after I have it.

 

Out the door price from local Ford dealer was $18.43. Works great, I retrained the 4 TPMS units in less then 2 minutes.