Cold Weather causing TPMS problems/

I got into my car this morning, started it up and everything was normal. Start driving and my TPMS begins flashing. Double checked the manual, and realized I have a malfunction in my system somewhere. I drove to the dealer, restarted my car, and drove a little more. Everything was fine, and I have not had the error since. Took my car to wal-mart to have them look at a tire that has been suffering a slow leak. They just reset the bead and didn't charge me, but did see a small bend in my rim that I will fix later.

Now I drove from wal-mart to my grandparents across town with no problems. I leave there house to go back to mine, still in the same town, and my tpms light is telling me I have a low tire. No big deal it's just really cold tires. Get to a red light after a about 10 mins on the road and restarted my car to reset the tpms. Still on. Same when I arrive a couple minutes later.

I have already spoken to the dealer about the malfunction light, and he believes I may have a sensor going out on me. $75 for a new one through them. But they will have trouble diagnosing it until the sensor fails completely. So I'm stuck with this annoying orange light on my dash until I can come up with probably $120 for the total work bill, and the thing fails completely.

Has anyone else had trouble with there TPMS in the cold weather?

every car i have had with tpms has this problem in late fall anf early spring when the temperature changes drastically.. and you always freeze going around the car to check it..

i hate tpms. i gives you to small a range of pressure, so when the tires are cold its too low and will light up.. but go out when the tires are warmed up from driving.. but then you get it checked and they fill them up cold, so its off until the tires get up to driving temperature, that trips the light until you stop again.

Guess this means I will be driving around for about an hour before I get my tire pressure checked lol. Still not happy about the Possible Bad TPMS sensor on my car.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by daug1502

I got into my car this morning, started it up and everything was normal. Start driving and my TPMS begins flashing. Double checked the manual, and realized I have a malfunction in my system somewhere. I drove to the dealer, restarted my car, and drove a little more. Everything was fine, and I have not had the error since. Took my car to wal-mart to have them look at a tire that has been suffering a slow leak. They just reset the bead and didn't charge me, but did see a small bend in my rim that I will fix later.

Now I drove from wal-mart to my grandparents across town with no problems. I leave there house to go back to mine, still in the same town, and my tpms light is telling me I have a low tire. No big deal it's just really cold tires. Get to a red light after a about 10 mins on the road and restarted my car to reset the tpms. Still on. Same when I arrive a couple minutes later.

I have already spoken to the dealer about the malfunction light, and he believes I may have a sensor going out on me. $75 for a new one through them. But they will have trouble diagnosing it until the sensor fails completely. So I'm stuck with this annoying orange light on my dash until I can come up with probably $120 for the total work bill, and the thing fails completely.

Has anyone else had trouble with there TPMS in the cold weather?

---

TPMS are set with certain thresholds, if factory spec for your tires is 32 psi, when you lose 7 to 10% (roughly 4 or 5psi) of your pressure the light will come on. If you understand the molecular structure of air, when air is warmed up it will expand generating more psi, when air cools, it contracts, dropping tire pressure. a flashing light is an indication of the control unit not communicating with 1 or more sensors. The dealership I work at, we use nitrogen in our tires, the molecular structure of nitrogen does not expand and contract like air with temperature change. In 2 years of my wife driving her 09 corolla, her tire light has only come on once and that was due to her picking up a nail and losing air (nitrogen). I hope this gives you a little more info on your TPMS. if you do have a faulty sensor and you are out of warranty, in addition to the cost of the sensor, once a new sensor is installed, it has to be programmed to the control unit as well

OK, I took a lot of crap from AveoSS for my screen name, but here is another reason why. Like I said before I have had tons of problems with the Aveo and different sensors and CELs etc and hard times from the dealership to fix it. Currently I am living with a CEL. Well now on the way to work my TPMS starts flashing for a minute, then stays lit. OK, get to work and park it. After work, no light, drive for ~25 miles, same thing, light flashes, then stays lit. This has been the same thing for the past four days. So I find myself googling this and low and behold here I am, at this thread. My dash looks like a christmas tree with all of the lights. I am told this is a malfunction in the system and of course it is out of warranty, so this light will stay on too. So basically I am stuck with this car until it dies because I can't sell it or trade it with all the lights, can't pass inspection with a CEL, don't want to pay a dealerships hundreds or even thousands of dollars to fix a car I will never get my money back from.
Thought I would share my experience for others in case they have the same problem.

I should look into putting nitrogen in my tires for the winter. That would certainly let me rule out the cold air issue.

Aveo junk blame the congress for passing a law the requires tpms in all vehicles after 2008.. a feature that is sitll crude in design.. All because americans are stupid and lazy and dont check tire pressures. and <blank> number of people died due to under inflated tires... this is not just an aveo problem, my 08 chrysler t&c does this, my audi did this, and a lot of people have this same problem. its is as paul said air pressure changes with temp, as well as moisture in the air, (nitrogen has no moisture).

i suggest you get nitrogen in your tires if the problem persists, its @ $34 for the swap i believe locally. And might cure this issue for you.

if this was a vag car you could disable it or change the parameters, but i have a light because i wasnt going to shell out another $300 for the aftermarket rims to get tpms.. ill pull the bulb.

Yeah so just to humor myself a bit, I went to the kwik star (close by and free air) and checked my tire pressure. . . the only one in acceptable range was the one I had looked at. So yeah add cold weather leaks to the list of stock aveo issues. . .

All tires lose air From aveos to mercedes....dont be so lazy and check your pressures like every other week. With the tire cold, set the pressure to 32PSI....problem solved. If you set it with the tire warm, when the air in the tire gets cold, the pressure will drop and the light comes on

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ratchet104

All tires lose air From aveos to mercedes...

---

yes, people quit blaming it on the aveo! Haven't you ever heard of letting out the summer air and putting in the winter air? or vise versa? Seriously this is a problem since the model T. It is not just an aveo issue, its not a cheap tire issue, and it is not a rim issue. The only reason your complaining about it is because the fed saw people flipping over because of under inflated tires and now you have a light on your dash.. Adjust your tire pressures that is free.

OF COURSE if you take it to a dealer they are going to want you to buy something.. I just put my winter wheels on my van, its tpms light was on all summer (no sensors in my summer wheels, since its warm out i feel like checking it myself isnt a big deal) i put the stock rims and tpms sensors on, with the winter tires mounted adjusted the pressure and the light went out. Something a dealer will tell you is impossible if the light has been on for 6 months! (they will tell you it needs reprogrammed)

Quote:

---

Aveo junk blame the congress for passing a law the requires tpms in all vehicles after 2008.. a feature that is sitll crude in design.. All because americans are stupid and lazy and dont check tire pressures. and <blank> number of people died due to under inflated tires... this is not just an aveo problem, my 08 chrysler t&c does this, my audi did this, and a lot of people have this same problem. its is as paul said air pressure changes with temp, as well as moisture in the air,

---

I have to agree with petrified.rabbit All because North Americans are stupid and lazy and don’t check tire pressures. This is one of the big reason why firestone tire got killed, and to mean people driving on low tires in SUV's. Your higher taller tires make it more unsafe. If you do not keep an eye on your tires PSI and they drive then like there cars, that are lower to the ground. The cars do not corner as bad as a truck or SUV does the car is a little more forgiving.

But you can buy tire gauge any where all most really good one's or cheap one's And if you use them even the cheap one will tell you better then the tpms will.

I glad I do not have them in they are about 20 years from being ready for use by lazy People for the mean time it's a good money maker for dealer, Tire company, tire shops, service shops People.
Good luck the next best thing is the open up the area where the gauge is put black elec.tape over the area close it up then you do not have to see the low temp only if you’re is not in your Speedo info area, if it is too bad for you your stuck with it.

Point taken, but still losing more than 5 lbs of air in a few hours?

consistently losing 5 lbs in a few hours sounds more like a leak.. nail, bad stem, bent lip on the rim.. something of that nature.

if you lost 5 lbs of pressure in a 30 degree temperature drop, that is the weather.

are you using a gauge to fill it? same one every time?

Is that after driving and then sitting? Because I drag race I know that tire will go up between 3 - 8 PSI after a run I do not burn my tire just dry hop. Now the cold will not let then go up as much but it depends on how you drive the roads, what PSI is in the tires. How they sit in the sun & what side is in the sun. How long they sit in the shade. The best way is to take you tire PSI at morning after you know there all set to the same PSI mark it down, before you go on your norm drive after you get there take PSI again mark it down after work take it again then 10 minutes after again mark it down. Do this the next day take note that the weather is close to the same. To try seeing what is for the norm for your tires, now keep in mind hard braking or harder then take off will make the temp change a little. After you get a base range PSI if they go down a lot more norm, then your tire need to be inspected or your valve, rim. But you have to know that these three things are good! Before you can get the Base line for the PSI of what you tire lose to cold and heat up and cool down. So the best time is in the morning and 15 min after cool down for taking tire PSI then it should be close to what it will be in cold temps. Once you know what the temp range is heat up and cool down you can set your PSI try to sit it in the closes range for the tire to get best traction. All so you will know if it is lower than the norm at cold temps ( as get colder it may make the tire lower ) Oh do not forget front can take a little bit more sometime because car is heavier in front then the rear and rotate tires at proper time to get longer tire life. In summer you may need to let out a little bit out but only in the cooler times. If you let or put air in the tire on a hot tire or cold tire if you take the PSI at a different time at the end of the day or the next you take your PSI may read lower cold after the last time you let air out. So you have to take into account how much your tire drops in PSI after the day or the run after the cool down of normal day. Or the heat up after a normal drive so you know how much it will drop back to when it cool.

Been a couple days since I refilled it, I'm beginning to think the guy at wal-mart was a dumbass and only filled them to 26 or 27 psi, just enough to not set off the tpms.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by daug1502

Been a couple days since I refilled it, I'm beginning to think the guy at wal-mart was a dumbass and only filled them to 26 or 27 psi, just enough to not set off the tpms.

---

That an anther possibly that might be.

it is important to see what your gauge reads when the light is off, to check the accuracy.

accuracy of the gauge i mean, not the light.

I bought a middle of the line gauge and trust it pretty well. The only complaint I have is that I have to make sure I get it straight onto the valve stem or it will read low. Just means paying attention when I check my tires. N e way, I'm at a week now and it got up to 40 today, then went back down. No tpms light, We have blizzard weather coming so I will probably get out and freeze checking them sometime this weekend. Then in the spring I'm going to pull the tire off that rim and see if I can straighten it out so that it won't lose air as easily, or just have the tires bead sealed every time. (not to worried about the rims, when I have the money for some 16" rims, the stock wheels will get winter tires.

Talk about re-programming the tpms, I am going to look into putting sensors into my aftermarket rims. That will be a re-learn twice a year. I need to check proper inflation on the 16's first to make sure it's worth the extra expense first. I can live without the tpms, But I like having the extra warning there.

im not sure how the relearn works on the aveo. but if its just a recognition sequence you might only need the relearn once per set.. depending on how many slots the tpms has for storage. (i would hope that gm puts more than 4 knowing a lot of people have a winter set of wheels, but they do stupid things like naming cars after hedgehogs.) But that is a best case scenario.

i didnt run tpms in my summer wheels because i couldn't find a dealer who was cheap to install/transfer them. And knew how to reprogram the system. It was around $100 per sensor for the dealership, then added $25 per tire for mounting and balancing, Then added cost of reprogramming... since the sensors were new. The regualr price they charge for mounting and balancing was $125. So i had already spent $400 on rims, and $300 on tires.. which means my wheels would have more than doubled in price for a light on the dash.

Yep, that is a concern of mine. I am going to do the research when I find and can afford rims that I like. If the cost is too much, I will probably do them one or two at a time, over time. I know it's expensive, but that light will annoy me, and despite the tpms being annoying, I do like having it.

I have a 2010 aveo5 , I run nitrogen gas in the tires, the tpms light comes on in the cold weather. Been back to the dealer to bump up the psi and I still get the light. Sure hope my black box is not recording that I ride around all the time with soft tires.
Would not want people to start totally ignore the light now would we?

i have the light year round in my car, and all summer in my van, paying the extra money to have tpms in all my wheels is not worth it! i've had 3 sets on my aveo already, think i found the keepers, but im always looking..

tpms is DOT mandate on all new cars.
On the higher end chevys it tells the psi reading, i am thinking the low end tpms is a go/nogo sensor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveodisch

tpms is DOT mandate on all new cars.
On the higher end chevys it tells the psi reading, i am thinking the low end tpms is a go/nogo sensor.

---

All cars sold in the USA, yes, yes it is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by petrified.rabbit

i have the light year round in my car, and all summer in my van, paying the extra money to have tpms in all my wheels is not worth it! i've had 3 sets on my aveo already, think i found the keepers, but im always looking..

---

Rabbit, would you happen to know if there is a bulb in the cluster to pull out to "disable" that light? I'm going to want to kill something come summer when I put on my new rims sans the tpms sensors.

If it is soldered in, I'm going to attempt to rip apart the cluster and paint the diode/bulb black. I think I could probably find some of the ex's fingernail polish around here somewhere. haha

yeah its a bulb cause it lights up :P

it would be right behind the etching of the light.. it probably pulls out.

They can be tricky to get to sometimes, But there is definitely a bulb in there. I haven't had the aveo dash apart, but my last car had a bunch of them dinky things in a cluster, I'm glad I didn't have to pull them as they were also inside a housing to keep the light only showing for the sensor they were meant too. If that makes sense?

I've never had a problem with mine. My Aveo stays in the garage most of the time and isn't driven very far usually. When I know it's gonna be outside for a while, I always check it once every week and check it before I put it in the garage for days at a time. I've had that car for 16 months now, and I don't believe that little light came on once. Plus, whenever I filled up my tires, I used a gauge, which when I read it, every tire was off by about 2-3 psi. Everytime. You just gotta check your tires at least once a week.