TPMS mysteriously shows a warning then goes away?

[DevinL]

On Tuesday night I was driving back from work in Moorpark and using the 118 HOV lane when my TPMS light started flashing just before the 405 interchange. I ditched the freeway in favour of sidestreets for the rest of the journey home and did stop to check the tires but everything seemed normal. The light was solid for about 5 minutes then went off just before I got home. At home I checked tire pressures and they were all at 38.5PSI. I was at Carson for service on Saturday where they did a tire rotation, but I'd driven about 250 miles since then before this happened. The light hasn't come back since then. Any ideas or should I just not worry?

 

[miimura]

This happened to me a few weeks ago too. TPMS started flashing then was on steady. I pulled off at the next freeway exit, turned off the car, and walked around the car checking to see if any of the tires were visibly low. They all looked fine. When I turned the car back on, the TMPS light was not on. I have not had it happen again. I dismissed it as a signal glitch.

 

[Bassman]

The TPMSs are very sensitive. It only takes a minor reduction in tire pressure to alert you. If it was cold in the morning and warmer in the afternoon, it could show low in the morning and normal in the afternoon just due to the reduction in pressure from temperature change. Put a little more air pressure in the tires and I would bet that it doesn't light the low pressure warning again unless you have a leak..

 

[DevinL]

Hmm. So this happened a couple more times last week - about 20 minutes into my drive and it's happened now in both the morning and evening. I inflated back up to 43PSI yesterday thinking that would solve the problem, but lo and behold it came up again as I was coming into Moorpark this morning. So I'm thinking maybe when Carson did the tire rotation that one of the sensors wasn't completely reconnected. Going to try to take the car in soon and have them check it.

 

[dstjohn99]

TPMS warning happened to me briefly the other day. It went away after about 5 mninutes. It was a warm and sunny SoCal afternoon, so not sure what's up.

 

[miimura]

I happened to be looking through the manual for a different reason and found that if the TPMS dash light blinks for 1 minute then stays on, the system has detected a malfunction. That is what I have seen the two times it has come on in my car.