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TPMS Questions

3107 Views 11 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  JSM1284
Did a little searching and read through the manual on the TPMS. Has anyone tried to disable the system all together? If so, were you successful? Or did disabling the system trip any CEL's? The reason I ask is because I dont see the need for it. Doing a bit of reading I see there are a couple little service tricks to disable the initialization by jumpering 2 points on the TPMS ECU. But would that disable the system? I also read into the troubleshooting portion and it says that if the system is not working to check a couple things and one of those things is the TPMS antenna and reciever. So, if that were a possible symptom for the system not working, could one potentiall disconnect the reciever/antenna and disable the system? If so, would that trip any CEL's? Or would the system just not function with no lights warning of the loss of that system?

I plan on picking up a set of aftermarket wheels and tires and I'll be damned if I am going to buy another set of sensors or swap over my stock sensors. Just to make the new wheels work with the system. I also dont want to have to deal with that warning light being on. There has to be someone, or some way, to disable the system without having any kind of rediculous lights coming on. If the aformentioned theories I posted would result in CEL's I guess I could dig more into the wiring diagrams and see for myself. I mean, if its just a matter of grounding out the signal going from the TPMS ECU to the light itself, then I may just do that to avoid having the stupid light come on when i swap out wheels.

Anyone get into it this much?
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Brandon402 said:
Did a little searching and read through the manual on the TPMS. Has anyone tried to disable the system all together? If so, were you successful? Or did disabling the system trip any CEL's? The reason I ask is because I dont see the need for it. Doing a bit of reading I see there are a couple little service tricks to disable the initialization by jumpering 2 points on the TPMS ECU. But would that disable the system? I also read into the troubleshooting portion and it says that if the system is not working to check a couple things and one of those things is the TPMS antenna and reciever. So, if that were a possible symptom for the system not working, could one potentiall disconnect the reciever/antenna and disable the system? If so, would that trip any CEL's? Or would the system just not function with no lights warning of the loss of that system?

I plan on picking up a set of aftermarket wheels and tires and I'll be damned if I am going to buy another set of sensors or swap over my stock sensors. Just to make the new wheels work with the system. I also dont want to have to deal with that warning light being on. There has to be someone, or some way, to disable the system without having any kind of rediculous lights coming on. If the aformentioned theories I posted would result in CEL's I guess I could dig more into the wiring diagrams and see for myself. I mean, if its just a matter of grounding out the signal going from the TPMS ECU to the light itself, then I may just do that to avoid having the stupid light come on when i swap out wheels.

Anyone get into it this much?
I put winter tires/wheels on 2 months ago. My warning light comes on only about 10% of the time which leads me to wonder how reliable it is when the factory wheels are mounted.

You can always cover it with black tape if it bothers you.
LoL, the object was to avoid that kind of fix. I would much rather figure out a way to disable the system and not have any lights at all.
So I hear that you can take all the sensors off and throw them in the spare tire and it will be fine. :D
smokentt said:
So I hear that you can take all the sensors off and throw them in the spare tire and it will be fine. :D
Where did you hear this from? As far as i know (and as far as my own searching has come up with) those sensors are positionally tracked by the reciever/antenna unit in the car. So, if they were all in the spare, I would think the system would fault and throw the TPMS light.

Have you done this to your own ride?
smokentt said:
So I hear that you can take all the sensors off and throw them in the spare tire and it will be fine. :D
WTF:confused:
It is my understanding that if you remove all the sensors, you want have any problems. If you have a full size spare, there's a sensor in it and it must be removed also. If the computer detects even one sensor you get the tpms light. If it detects none (sensor) then it assumes everything is normal and to idiot light.
jjthenovice said:
It is my understanding that if you remove all the sensors, you want have any problems. If you have a full size spare, there's a sensor in it and it must be removed also. If the computer detects even one sensor you get the tpms light. If it detects none (sensor) then it assumes everything is normal and to idiot light.
Interesting. Can anyone cooberate this bit of info? Anyone done it? LoL, im starting to think the only way ill find out is when i get my wheels this spring and start experimenting on my own. Damn car and being so new..... lol.
Take the bulb out of the idiot light.
any more info on this?

my low pressure light comes on every time I drive and its about to drive me bananas.
no one? :(
Disableing the system may cause the car to fail Safety inspections(Depending on State). I believe the Federal Law stated that every car manufactured for Model year 2007 and later is required to have the TPMS. Check your states Inspection Laws before Disableing or removing Bulbs, as it may cause you problems in the future.

~Josh
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