Replaced front axle tires, TPMS light is on again!

[psukim]

So last week I replaced my front OEM tires with some falken azenis FK510s after the front left tire was destroyed from presumably a nail that caused low tire pressure + pothole. The shop moved the new tires/wheels to the rear, adjusted the PSIs and I was on my way.

I reset the TPMS light once it came on since it gets triggered whenever it senses that the wheels have been moved and drove for a few days before the TPMS light came on again. I checked the tire pressure and they are all within the recommended PSI so now I'm confused.

Called the local honda dealer and they said I need to reset the TPMS around 3x since I have different tires on the front and rear - and that it should fix the issue. Has anyone ever experienced this and what helps reset the light for good? I don't want to have this light come on and give false alarms since I know the tires are good (no nails, right PSI, etc).

I could play it safe and buy new tires for the rear so they are all the same but I still have 30-40% tread on them...

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[bluehatch17]

I have had to do it 1 or 2 times. 3 doesn’t sound too outrageous. It’s not an exact system. It just has to relearn the range.

 

[AjHawk]

Hello! Our models use the ABS speed sensors to monitor tire pressure. It does that by watching the speed of each wheel and if one (or two) of them are spinning faster than the others, if would indicate that the pressure is low in that tire. If you have two new tires and two nearly worn out tires, it could trick the TPMS system into thinking the worn out tires are low on pressure. If you've already tried to Calibrate the TPMS on your main screen and it's still coming back on, then you will need to replace those other tires to have the light stay out. Hope this helps, best of luck!

 

[BrandonSmith]

With the ignition in the ON position, but the engine not running. Go to TPMS calibration and do it three times in a row. The tpms light will flash a couple times and go away. that is a “special” tpms calibration that will take a couple days in the background.

 

[BABY NSX]

Yes. Try the recalibration three times in a row. My light came on and I had to do it three times then the light has stayed off. I think none of my tire pressure were off and the light came on.

 

[psukim]

With the ignition in the ON position, but the engine not running. Go to TPMS calibration and do it three times in a row. The tpms light will flash a couple times and go away. that is a “special” tpms calibration that will take a couple days in the background.

wow didn't know that there was a "special" method for resetting the TPMS. I'll give this a shot - thank you!

 

[BrandonSmith]

wow didn't know that there was a "special" method for resetting the TPMS. I'll give this a shot - thank you!

It’s in a TSB somewhere. I didn’t even find it in the service manual, just a TSB.

 

[1lastnerve]

Hello! Our models use the ABS speed sensors to monitor tire pressure. It does that by watching the speed of each wheel and if one (or two) of them are spinning faster than the others, if would indicate that the pressure is low in that tire. If you have two new tires and two nearly worn out tires, it could trick the TPMS system into thinking the worn out tires are low on pressure. If you've already tried to Calibrate the TPMS on your main screen and it's still coming back on, then you will need to replace those other tires to have the light stay out. Hope this helps, best of luck!

+1
I'm not sure about any "special" method for resetting TPMS, but until you get 4 identical tires you will continue to get the TPMS warnings. I highly doubt that Honda built in a way for the car to "Learn" that you would ever have 2 different sized tires on the car.

 

[BrandonSmith]

The indirect TPMS uses two things for calibration: resonance and wheel speed. The system stores data for three calibrations to calculate target values. Resetting the TPMS 3x clears the cache and changes the calibration calculation due to a lack of comparison data.

The resonance should be the same for matching tires, but varies based on tire construction (compound, tread pattern, profile, etc.) - this is most likely what is causing your problem due to the difference in tires. That cache needs to be reset.

Something else the system uses to determine “tire pressure” is three separate comparisons of resonance and speed. The system compares data between the two front wheels and the two rear wheels. In a separate comparison it also compares the left with the right. Then in a third comparison it compares the front left and rear right against the front right and the rear left.

Bottom line: old data will interfere in these calculations. Clearing the cache (by resetting/calibrating the TPMS 3x in a row) eliminates the old data and sets new target values that the system calculates. Calibrating, driving, calibrating, driving, etc. never gets rid of the old data or target resonance values - so nothing will change.

 

[CastorX]

Since the topic came up again I just write a short summay:
- The Civic has an indirect TPMS system that compares tire rotation speeds and wheel speed signal analysis on the front wheels and compares the current values to the learned values
- The ITPMS software component runs on the electronic brake control module (EBM or EBCM, or ESC) made by Continental and it I think it is a Conti MK100 unit
- Reset when the tires are cold, that means before you start driving in the morning
- After reset once start driving the car the system will start learning the new calibration values so you have to drive the car with the new tires on and the larning process must accept the measured vales.
- During learning and detection the external temperature is also taken into consideration
- The system temporarily disables learning when:
1) the road surface is very bad
2) the car accelerates, brakes or corners
3) a pressure loss is detected -> Warning will be shown after some time
4) you go steep uphill
5) very heavy load in the car
- The car must be driven in different speed intervals during calibration, because the system learns the new values in different speed intervals for both circumference analysis and frequency analysis
- The SW can extrapolate and interpolate so if you don't drive in every speed interval That's not a big problem. There are 5-6 intervals I think somewhere between 30 and 130km/h, but I don't know it exactly.
- If the learning is not complete for XY miles (I don't know the exact number) an incomplete calibration warning must be shown
- There is no need to reset it 3 times in row. One reset is enough
- It is OK to have different brand of tires on the front and rear axles because it learns the new wheel speed ratio values after reset. Frequency analysis is done for each wheel separately and in case of the civic only the front wheels are checked with it
- Use the factory recommended tire and wheel sizes if possible
- Always use the factory recommended tire pressure

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