F150 Tire Pressure Sensor Fault

Hopefully the dealer resolved the problem.

After telling me several times I needed to bring the truck in with the
tire pressure sensor fault light on, it turns out they could resolve
the problem without that being the case. When I dropped the truck off
with 35,963 the light was on. Unfortunately when they checked the
truck the next morning the tire pressure sensor failure light was off.
This time instead of telling me there was nothing they could do, they
did something. They retrained all the sensors and told me to drive the
truck until the light came on again, and then bring it back. The
light came on the next weekend. Of course by the time I dropped the
truck off, the light was off. However, they could now magically tell
which sensor had turned on the light. They claimed they couldn't do
this before becasue I had rotated the tires and they didn't know which
sensor was in which position. I explained to them that the tires had
only been rotated once (front to rear, no cross), but I suppose they
didn't have any faith in getting it right if the tires were not in the
original position. I have concluded several things - 1) the truck does
individually register the tire pressure sensors 2) there is a stored
code when the tire pressure sensor light is illuminated, 3) if the
dealership really wants to determine which sensor is bad, they don't
need for the light to be on when you bring it in, they just have to do
a little more work and have you make two trips to the dealership.

Everyone at the dealership was very professional, I just wish they had
fixed it last year when the light first started coming on, instead of
waiting until the warranty was all but up.

One funny aside - on the way home from the dealership I stopped to buy
gas. As I was leaving the station, I noticed a small box in the
passenger's seat. The technician had left the pressure sensor
training/diagnostic tool in my truck. I returned it to the dealership,
although I considered hanging on to it until the weekend in case the
damn light came on again.

Ed


"C. E. White" > wrote in message
...
>I have a 2009 F150. The truck just turned 35,963 miles (i.e., bumper
>to bumper warranty is all but up). The truck is 15 months old. For at
>least the last 10 months, I keep getting a message that says "Tire
>Pressure Sensor Fault." When I get this fault, the tire pressure
>warning light blink about 18 times and then goes solid. It irritates
>the heck out of me. This is not the same as a low tire pressure
>warning. This is a warning that indicates there is a problem with a
>tire pressure snesor, but provides no indication of which sensor (at
>least to me). It is not a consistent problem. I can go weeks without
>seeing it. It can come on, stay on for a hundred miles and then go
>off. When I first saw the fault indication, I called the dealer. They
>told me to bring it in when the fault was indicated. Of course the
>fault was never "active" when I went anywhere near the dealer until
>yesterday. It finally was on when I arrived at the dealer. Of course
>it was Sunday, so the dealer was closed. I abandoned the truck at the
>over night drop off in hopes it would still be "bad" today. So far I
>have not heard anything. I am not hopeful.
>
> Has anyone else had this sort of problem? My truck has the valve
> stem type sensors. I've had one flat fixed, and one tire replaced
> (with the OE tire originally mounted on the plain spare tire rim -
> the spare tie does not have a sensor). The sensor failure occured
> randomly before and after these tire changes.
>
> I have a theory - As a part of typical dealer scamology, my truck
> had the tires filled with nitrogen. I actually watched the process.
> The hooked all four tires to a machine that sucked the tires flat
> and then pumped them up with nitrogen (well ~96% nitrogen instead of
> the usual 80% - what a SCAM). I think this was a horrible idea. I
> think there is a good chance that this stupidity damaged one or more
> sensors. I doubt they are designed to be exposed to a vacuum. How
> likely is it that the dealer damaged a sensor in an attempt to scam
> another $30 out of me for this nitrogen nonsense?
>
> Ed
>
>
>

"C. E. White" > wrote in message
...
> Hopefully the dealer resolved the problem.
>
> After telling me several times I needed to bring the truck in with the
> tire pressure sensor fault light on, it turns out they could resolve the
> problem without that being the case. When I dropped the truck off with
> 35,963 the light was on. Unfortunately when they checked the truck the
> next morning the tire pressure sensor failure light was off. This time
> instead of telling me there was nothing they could do, they did something.
> They retrained all the sensors and told me to drive the truck until the
> light came on again, and then bring it back. The light came on the next
> weekend. Of course by the time I dropped the truck off, the light was off.
> However, they could now magically tell which sensor had turned on the
> light. They claimed they couldn't do this before becasue I had rotated the
> tires and they didn't know which sensor was in which position. I explained
> to them that the tires had only been rotated once (front to rear, no
> cross), but I suppose they didn't have any faith in getting it right if
> the tires were not in the original position. I have concluded several
> things - 1) the truck does individually register the tire pressure sensors
> 2) there is a stored code when the tire pressure sensor light is
> illuminated, 3) if the dealership really wants to determine which sensor
> is bad, they don't need for the light to be on when you bring it in, they
> just have to do a little more work and have you make two trips to the
> dealership.
>
> Everyone at the dealership was very professional, I just wish they had
> fixed it last year when the light first started coming on, instead of
> waiting until the warranty was all but up.
>
> One funny aside - on the way home from the dealership I stopped to buy
> gas. As I was leaving the station, I noticed a small box in the
> passenger's seat. The technician had left the pressure sensor
> training/diagnostic tool in my truck. I returned it to the dealership,
> although I considered hanging on to it until the weekend in case the damn
> light came on again.
>
> Ed
>
>

I woulda kept the scan tool for a few days. I would have given it back,
eventually, but I'd have held onto it until I was comfortable that the light
was not going to return. Maybe the next service, "Oh, by the way, your guy
left this in my truck the last time I was here. Sorry, I shoulda brought it
back sooner, but here it is."

The tool isn't a scan device of any sort and is used only for training
sensors.

Shane on whoever for leaving it in the truck... even deeper shame on anyone
that would "hang on" to a device like this for ANY REASON AT ALL... What....
do all your friends check their silver ware chests after you leave?

What is this ****ing world coming to?

"You, sir, are inept... I'll be dishonest to make up for it".

"Jim Warman" > wrote in message
news:7ljLn.5003$Z6.1379@edtnps82...
> The tool isn't a scan device of any sort and is used only for training
> sensors.
>
> Shane on whoever for leaving it in the truck... even deeper shame on
> anyone that would "hang on" to a device like this for ANY REASON AT ALL...
> What.... do all your friends check their silver ware chests after you
> leave?
>
> What is this ****ing world coming to?
>
> "You, sir, are inept... I'll be dishonest to make up for it".
>

1.) I don't have any cars or trucks with air pressure sensors, so I have
absolutely no experience. 2.) if I was told for more than a year that the
light had to be ON for the service guy to fix it, I'd be hesitant when they
finally told me that it did not have to be on if they simply re-educated the
system with the Magic Tool that was left on the front seat. 3.) I'd play
with the tool to understand what it was doing. 4.) I appreciate that these
things are expensive, and the guy that does the service on my car or truck
has to buy this stuff with his own money, so I'd return it. I'd play with it
first.

So, given the circumstances of the OP, I have no trouble sleeping at night
given the comments I've made.

Point 1 has nothing to do with anything here.

Point 2 says you believed what you were told by someone you thought was
familiar with the system. The big concern here is that you have no way of
knowing if this person is knowledgable or full of ****... With todays
society I am more comfortable believing that few people will invest their
time learning their craft... This statement is borne of experience - thank
you.

Contrary to public opinion, you can hurt your computer with the keyboard...
ask anyone that has (with older OS's) typed "del *.*" whilst in the root
directory. Your chances of "hurting" your system are somewhere between slim
and nil... but that wont help you when the tech says "wow - I never saw that
before".

This reply is full of codiciles and caveates and disclaimers... The reply
that I commented on was ?????

Now... while you may be frustrated at finding someone knowledgeable to talk
to. I am faced with "techs" (the quote marks are intentional) that do not
treat this as a career... Something happens and one of those guys will be
drywalling, shingling or driving a truck in a heartbeat. It is ever so
frustrating to spend ones time trying to get rid of the people that give
this trade a bad name... and having customers migrate to them because
they'll take whatever money they can get.




"Jeff Strickland" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Jim Warman" > wrote in message
> news:7ljLn.5003$Z6.1379@edtnps82...
>> The tool isn't a scan device of any sort and is used only for training
>> sensors.
>>
>> Shane on whoever for leaving it in the truck... even deeper shame on
>> anyone that would "hang on" to a device like this for ANY REASON AT
>> ALL... What.... do all your friends check their silver ware chests after
>> you leave?
>>
>> What is this ****ing world coming to?
>>
>> "You, sir, are inept... I'll be dishonest to make up for it".
>>
>
> 1.) I don't have any cars or trucks with air pressure sensors, so I have
> absolutely no experience. 2.) if I was told for more than a year that the
> light had to be ON for the service guy to fix it, I'd be hesitant when
> they finally told me that it did not have to be on if they simply
> re-educated the system with the Magic Tool that was left on the front
> seat. 3.) I'd play with the tool to understand what it was doing. 4.) I
> appreciate that these things are expensive, and the guy that does the
> service on my car or truck has to buy this stuff with his own money, so
> I'd return it. I'd play with it first.
>
> So, given the circumstances of the OP, I have no trouble sleeping at night
> given the comments I've made.
>
>
>
>

"Jim Warman" > wrote in message
news:7ljLn.5003$Z6.1379@edtnps82...
> The tool isn't a scan device of any sort and is used only for training
> sensors.

Actually the thing was laedbel traing/diagnosis. I just took a quick look
before taking it back. It was a OTC tool. I don't recal the model number.

I wish I had it for a few minutes two days later when the light came back
on.

Ed


>
> Shane on whoever for leaving it in the truck... even deeper shame on
> anyone that would "hang on" to a device like this for ANY REASON AT ALL...
> What.... do all your friends check their silver ware chests after you
> leave?
>
> What is this ****ing world coming to?
>
> "You, sir, are inept... I'll be dishonest to make up for it".
>

"C. E. White" > wrote in message
m...
>
> "Jim Warman" > wrote in message
> news:7ljLn.5003$Z6.1379@edtnps82...
>> The tool isn't a scan device of any sort and is used only for training
>> sensors.
>
> Actually the thing was laedbel traing/diagnosis. I just took a quick look
> before taking it back. It was a OTC tool. I don't recal the model number.
>
> I wish I had it for a few minutes two days later when the light came back
> on.
>
> Ed
>
>
>>
>> Shane on whoever for leaving it in the truck... even deeper shame on
>> anyone that would "hang on" to a device like this for ANY REASON AT
>> ALL... What.... do all your friends check their silver ware chests after
>> you leave?
>>
>> What is this ****ing world coming to?
>>
>> "You, sir, are inept... I'll be dishonest to make up for it".
>>
>

I hate to tell the naysayers, I told you so, but I'm vindicated. Two or
three days and the tool is needed if for nothing else to look into the inner
workings of the system.

I feel strongly that a hige degree of personal integrity and honesty is
paramount in a civil society, but when I am told for months on end that the
problems can only be investigated when the malfunction light is on, then to
find that this isn't entirely accurate AND THEN discover a key to the
mystery is laying on the floor of my car, I'm gonna leverage that key for a
couple of days.

I'm certain that the technician that left his stuff in my car had to buy it
out of his own pocket, and I have no beef with him so I'm not gonna keep his
stuff. But, I am gonna use for a couple of days before I drive across town
to return it.

The issues here do not involve me directly -- I'm not the one with tire
pressure issues. All I said to the OP is that I would have held onto the
tool because I thought the light was gonna return. It did. And, after only
two days. No big loss to the techincian if I kept the scanner for two days
while the dealership was open for servicing, plus the holiday weekend when
the dealership isn't open anyway. I'm thinking the OP will be back to the
dealership on Tuesday or Wednesday to have this looked at again, and the
tool can be returned then.

You can jump in my **** with both feet and start kicking when I suggest
taking stuff and never giving it back. When that happens, I'll take the
criticism.

Yep.. that's what it's labelled... notice one button and two LEDs one for
"LO BATT" and one that indicates the button is pressed and the vehicles
response. Any diagnostic capability lies in whether the vehicle responds or
not. No response from one sensor will indicate a concern with that sensor...
No response from 4 sensors will deliver a code.

While Mr. Strickland may feel himself vindicated, it remains that he is
counselling people to retain possession of an item that isn't theirs. In the
eys of the law, "I was going to give it back" doesn't mean a whole bunch,
does it?

What is more amazing, when one considers it... does anyone actually know how
to use the ****ing thing? Hint... you have to get out of the car...

replying to Jeff Strickland, GTeye wrote:
It's not "FREE", EVER... you either pay for it or it's rolled into the price
of what you are buying.

--
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Jim Warman:


The pressure sensors on my 08 Kia must be trained/
calibrated for 41PSI or higher(tire placard). How do I
know this? Whenever I pick the car up from the dealer
after interval service is performed, the dashboard
light is OUT, and the tires feel like four basketballs!


The morning after one of these appointments, I checked
my pressures: 40-50psi - COLD!


I lowered them right back down to 32psi where I normally
keep them(B-pillar sticker specifies 30psi cold), and
after a few miles driving, or even a day later, that low
pressure warning light is back on the dash again. I
just ignore it.