Toyota Nation Forum banner

TPMS Story

1431 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  raylo32
For all the bitching I read here on TN about the TPMS system on Tacos and otherwise, I was surprised at my personal experience with it.

Less than a week into owning my new-to-me Taco, I started it up one morning was was greeted by an alien looking orange U with a ! in the middle of it. "WTF!?" I thought, I've never seen a symbol like that before. Since no owner's manual was provided with the truck, I shut it off and went inside to google "toyota dash symbols"... 20 mins of searching later I had educated myself of TPMS and how to reset it... Reset it I did, and the TPMS lamp blinked three times and went out. "Hrmph, sh*tty TPMS really is as bad as they say" I thought, "I can't believe I was late for work over nothing".

The next morning, the TPMS lamp cheerily greeted me once again. This morning was equally as brisk so again I chalked it up to the hyperactive TPMS that I'd read all about on TN. This time, the system would not reset! Gahhh, this is going to drive me crazy! I am disabling the damned thing when I get home tonight...

Call me crazy, but for some reason I actually checked my tire pressure, :lol: it turned out one was running ~20PSI! Turns out there was TWO nails in the tire. Yikes, I could have lost a bead on the freeway... They all appeared fine visually... I would not have noticed the leak until the tire was WAY low.

I'm now a TPMS believer, it probably saved my butt!

Perhaps the craziest part of the whole story? I forked out $30 to repair the flat on the stock Dunslop tire repaired!!!


ibtl;dr
See less See more
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
everybody talks bad about the TPMS sensors cause most guys put aftermarket wheels on and dont swap the sensors and get the dummy light. on a stock vehicle, the TPMS sensors will notify you if the tire is more than 20% out of threshold. this can save your tire in many instances. if you had a slow leak and it went un noticed for several weeks, you can severely wear a tire out running it low for a few weeks. by having the sensors and dummy light in the dash, you are notified if any tire is low.

i personally love mine, i have never had a low tire, or ever seen my dummy light come on, but having the peace of mind knowing i have 4 little aliens inside my wheel that do nothing but monitor my tire pressure gives me peace of mind. i went ahead and bought an extra set of sensors in case i ever do buy another set of wheels or if the local tire shop breaks one when mounting new tires, because that seems to be the problem most folks see.
See less See more
Saved my butt in the Nevada desert once too. Not a big fan of nannyware, but the TPMS is at least useful (don't get me started on the crash data recorder though)...
A year from now when it comes on and all 4 of your tires have the perfect amount of air pressure in them, the reason will be that your pressure will be low in your spare. Air it up and the dreaded !-in-the-U will go away. :D
.....(don't get me started on the crash data recorder though)...


<<<turns key and it's a cranking...... :D Let's hear it on a new thread
I swapped mine over to my after market rims. Never had an issue with the TPMS. I too enjoy having the peace of mind that if I am not paying attention and let my tires go low, I get a warning to air up!
Yes, but.... I am on a business trip and have a Chevy Malibu rental. It has a little led info display under the speedo that you can scroll through odo, trip A odo, trip B odo, oil life %, and LF/RF tire PRESSURE, and LR/RR tire PRESSURE, in addition to having low pressure warning. Actual tire pressure... what a concept. I mean I love my Tacoma, but Chevy does this a lot better.
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top