TPMS won't relearn

[Bikergone bald]

Hi,

I recently bought a 2014 Focus with TPMS. On the test drive there were no tyre sensor faults but i had the dealer replace the battery before i took the car because it had been stood with a flat battery. On the drive home no problems, a day or two later I pumped up the tyres and reset the pressure monitor through the settings on the dash. A couple of days later after a long drive but on a very cold day i got the pressure monitoring fault indication when switching on the ignition.

Now 3 weeks on and in warmer weather i've tried to tackle it. I pumped the tyres up to 40psi and used the ignition on and off method to get it in to training mode. I started deflating the tyre and it was down to around 10psi with no beep to say it had learnt the wheel when it beeped multiple times and the dash said the process had failed. I drove the car a few hundred meters to 'wake up' the valves then tried again but had the same problem. I tried again but this time on a different wheel with the same result.

Am i doing something wrong?

What else can i try? 

Is it possible to disable the system so i don't get the error message and dash light? 

 

Thanks.

Kevin.

 

 

[Botus]

sounds like you are muddling two different systems...  it became law since 2012, and further refinement to the standards in 2016 to inform the driver of cars whether the tyre pressures are off track - German manu moaned that the inferior ABS idea is OK and got away with it...

there is no driver instigated learn feature for real tyre pressure sensors that send info via bluetooth...

lots of brands use the nasty cheap ABS sensor idea this uses differences in tyre diameter to guess if the pressure is a bit off - and they have the teach in joke... (whilst I didn't know ford used it - they must as the manual and the car both have references to resetting even when its not actually fitted)

 

Mate had warnings and teach in menus on his 2016 mondeo - and got nowhere trying to reset - but really he had real BT sensors - but Ford in their infinite wisdom put their sensors on a std rubber stalk valve stem - so the tyre centre has NO idea they need to remove the tyre carefully - and thus normally trash the sensors - like they did on his car, they don't usually tell the owner they just cost him 2hrs of his life and 80 quid....

to make matters worse, even with real sensors that actually transmit individual - tyre pressure, tyre temp and battery condition to the car - on lower spec ford's they don't show any of this info on the dash display...

 

industry std moved to

indirect TPMS - aka budget rot (guessing via ABS)
direct TPMS - aka real info about what's going on inside the wheel transmitted via battery powered BT sensors

 

[JW1982]

From production date 05-05-2014 the old (optional) DDS tire deflation warning system was discontinued. From that date every European Ford has the TPMS tire deflation warning system with pressure sensors inside each wheel as standard.

Earlier vehicles with TPMS like the late Focus MK3 and most MK3.5 do also support DDS. By disabling the TPMS system and enabling the DDS system in the CCC (Central Car Configuration) using a suitable diagnostic system the vehicle still meets the requirements.

The Continental VDO TPMS sensors that are used by Ford have an average life of 7 Years (depending on usage of the vehicle roughly between 4 and 10 Years). Once the integrated battery is empty the sensor stops working and (preferably all sensors) need to be replaced. 

 

Ford uses both metal and rubber tire valves for the TPMS sensors. Which type is fitted depends on the wheel design. The rubber TPMS tire valves can easily be identified by an identification ring on the valve stem. This is an industry standard that is used by most car manufacturers that use rubber TPMS valves.

Every decent tire fitter should know how to recognize a rubber TPMS valve by its identification ring on the valve stem. Especially since these TPMS valves with identification ring have been used for over 15 Years.

[alanfp]

On my 2013 Focus you reset the system via the settings menu. I think it's under

driver assistance/deflation detection (abbr. to deflat, IIRC)

then press reset.

(Has to be done when stationary). That works on mine but don't know if yours is different.