Looking some advice here. My Fit's TPMS light has been on ever since I put new tires on it last year. I bought them myself and had them put on at some rinky dink shop. After that, my TPMS light came on. Now I haven't been able to determine which sensor is broken, as they all look fine.

So my situation is this: When I got the tires, I went a size up from stock. I want to get the problem fixed to make the car more sellable, but not sure if I should go to the stealership and have them possibly BS me and tell me all four are busted AND I need to pay them for the reset, or just go back to stock size tire and hope that's it and that it goes away?

 

I'm no TPMS expert but going up one size shouldn't cause the TPMS light to go on! I'd suspect that the shop damaged ONE of the sensors. Where you go to have it diagnosed is up to you. My Honda dealership is quite fair and cut me a deal when I switched wheels and had to have the sensors re-calibrated.

 

I went up one size from14 to 15s and swapped the sensors and have no issues. I did unhook my battery after the tire install just to reset anything. You can go to the dealer to find out what is going on and if you feel like they are bs ing you just leave. Watching the tire guy switch my sensors and how the whole process went I am surprised none of mine were broken he said it is common for them to break during swap outs

 

It is possible they broke more than one if you didn't inform them you had a vehicle equipped with TPMS... Looking at the valve stem from the outside won't tell you much usually unless one is cocked at an odd angle.

 

At this point, my luck says all four of them are broke. Seriously that's how things go for me. =/

 

yah, most pos shops do not know how to handle TPMS sensors and break them.

tpms is just a huge hassle for us car folks cause we check tire pressure routinely anyway. which reminds me, i need to find that page where you take apart the cluster and put e-tape over the damn idiot light from behind.

 

I work in industrial environments where metallic stuff in the road is common. Twice I've had slow leaks from shards of metal that my TPMS informed me of. I sometimes work at night and don't check the tires every night. I'd know if I was driving on a flat but TPMS informed me at 24 pounds or so before real damage was done. It IS a pain in the ass at tire change time but serves me well overall.

 

Any tire tech with half a brain should be able to see that the car has TPMS. For cryin' out loud, the stems are metal and screw in place!

As yet, I've not had any sensors broken. I supplied the shop (dealership) with new sensors when I first mounted aluminum rims and kept the original sensors in my steelies. I had two flats repaired (requiring tire removal) on the OE Dunlops and eventually replaced them with Yokohama IG20's on the original steel wheels. That's ten times I've had tires mounted with TPMS sensors, and no broken sensors yet.

Sounds like you need a different shop.

BTW, Wal-Mart did a good job mounting the IG20s. I supplied them with sensor rebuild kits and they didn't break anything (nor did I have any leaks). A funny about the sensor rebuild kits: I had to have Autozone special-order them. I thought I was going to get four kits. Instead, I got a box of 50 for $10. I keep a couple sets in the car just in case I need to have a tire removed. It's cheap security.

 

I had new tires mounted and it turns out one was broke. The new shop told me it was literally inside the tire in pieces when they dismounted it. Must have been turning round and round in there for like the past 20xxx miles!

 

Nah, they broke it.

You would've heard it. Sounds like rocks rolling around inside the wheel. I hit a seriously huge pothole last year at 60mph and I shattered my drivers front. Makes a good deal of noise. No way you would've missed it for 20k miles

 

I work in the tire and lube in walmart and you have to watch how you break a tire. If your not careful you can crush the sensor. Which might be your problem.

 

Exactly. Anyone ever watch the video of the College Hills Honda guys doing the TPMS install on '07 HFP wheels? In the video, they break one of the TPMS sensors dismounting the tires from the Sport rims. Oops!