Tire Pressure Light Saga

[Osiris1975]

Hi There,

I used the search tool in the forums and could not find a solution for this problem, though it seems plenty of other people have had the problem too.
I'm hoping someone could help.

We took my wife's 2006 Matrix XRS 4WD to Toyota for the 15,000 mile service. Ever since then, the Tire Pressure warning light keeps coming on. The first time we noticed it, I went to the gas station and put all the tires at 32psi. We drove the car for a while, and the light still keeps coming on, so I checked the pressure with a gauge, and found that it did not change.

My wife notices it happens when she is driving on the highway,
so I am going to guess the heating of the tires is causing more pressure and causing the light to go on.

So yesterday, we took it to a different Toyota dealer, told them the problem, and told them they need to road test it on the highway to know if its fixed or not. They said they rotated the tires, checked the tire pressure, etc and I don't know what else and road tested it (not on the highway) and naturally, today the light went on again.

So, what gives? I can tell this is going to be a problem I am stuck trying to fix myself.

-I read somewhere that you should have a 2 PSI difference between the front and rear tires...is this true?

-If this problem can't be fixed, is there a way to disable the light so my wife stops nagging me?

[roshermoore]

Does your 06 Matrix have a way to initialize the tire pressure system after a change in the pressure?

My 09 requires that a reset button be pressed in a certain order with the ignition set to "on" after the tire pressure is changed. This initializes the system for the sensor at the new pressure. Check your owner's manual to see what it says about resetting the system.

[Osiris1975]

Originally Posted by roshermoore

Does your 06 Matrix have a way to initialize the tire pressure system after a change in the pressure?

My 09 requires that a reset button be pressed in a certain order with the ignition set to "on" after the tire pressure is changed. This initializes the system for the sensor at the new pressure. Check your owner's manual to see what it says about resetting the system.

I'll check it out, you'd think the Toyota dealer would have done that, though.

[TRXR4KDS]

First of all you don't have an XRS AWD. It's either and XRS or an AWD base or XR.
The tire pressure system I believe on the 06's is based off the ABS system rather than having sensors in each wheel like the new 09's and I believe possibly the 08's. I'd monitor the tire pressure in all 4 wheels, re set the light, the keep monitoring the wheel pressure. When the light comes back on, then see if 1 wheel is less than the others. Possibly a slow slow leak?

[D Rock]

I am pretty sure that in an 06 Matrix, the tire pressure system would be passive -- working off the ABS system as TRXR4KDS mentions above. It doesn't really monitor pressure. It looks for differences in rolling speeds between the wheels. If a tire has low pressure, its diameter effectively gets smaller, forcing it to roll faster, triggering the light. But other things can make that happen too.

I have never heard of the 2 PSI difference front to rear. I would follow what is on the sticker (don't know what that is off the top of my head). Variation in tire pressures, even if they are not too low, could cause the system could trigger the light (I recently had this happen).

If one tire is particularly high in pressure, it would roll at a different speed, which would trigger the light.

If one tire is new (had to replace one for whatever reason), its diameter could be slightly bigger than the other 3 because it has no wear. This could trigger the light.

Hope that helps.

Rocks

[damameke]

I had this issue this past winter, light came on while driving home during a light snow fall;
checked all tires and one was low,, filled up next day, press the reset button and light went away.

came back intermittently the next few days and kept pressing reset button.

i had an oil change scheduled with my mechanic and asked him to take a look
;all he did was reset the code(NC) and it never came back on.

hth

[Zembonez]

Like others here have said, it is not truly a TPMS system like the newer cars have. Do you have 4 matching tires? Is it possible that fronts or rears have been replaced and therefore the overall size is causing a difference in rotating speed? OR - Have you replaced one tire with a new one? If so, it might be throwing the system due to the increased diameter of a new tire versus a well worn one...

These are just guesses.