TPMS issues on M3P, Tesla saying they need to be paired to car and you cannot rotate or change wheels?

[You.]

Hi,

2020 model 3 M3P with 433mhz TPMS

So i added aftermarket wheels, new aftermarket TPMS...They didnt work so I changed the sensors for stock Tesla sensors....Still didnt work.

I then put the stock sensors in that came in the stock wheels with the car....Didnt work.

Took the car to Tesla and they said the new wheels (Signature) were blocking the output of the TPMS (bullshit), charged me $100 and sent me home with instructions to change the wheels and put the sensors back in.

I then went to a local tyre shop where they used a generic reader to confirm they were working and showing pressures etc.

I put the stock sensors back into the stock wheels, over the course of 1000 miles and many many resets they would not pair with the car so I took it to them and they manually inputted the sensors into the ECU and they now work, they charged me $80 to pair the stock sensors in the stock wheels to the car whilst in warranty when I was under the impression they should have paired themselves.

I disputed this because I am sure it says in the manual that you can autolearn the TPMS and there is even a button to reset TPMS and or wheels in the settings.

They have told me that you cannot ever change wheels, or TPMS or rotate the wheels without taking it to them and paying them to input the vaules of the TPMS into the ECU.

Can someone please give advice on this, I feel like im getting ripped off by Tesla and they are refusing to repair a fault whist charging me for that fault in warranty.

EDIT: cant edit spelling in title omg.

 

[Arthur31]

That's a bunch of BS. I have 3 sets of wheels for my M3P ( OEM, winter and track) and they all have sensors. Zero issues when switching wheels. Car relearns after driving a short distance.

 

[dfwatt]

Hi,

2020 model 3 M3P with 433mhz TPMS

So i added aftermarket wheels, new aftermarket TPMS...They didnt work so I changed the sensors for stock Tesla sensors....Still didnt work.

I then put the stock sensors in that came in the stock wheels with the car....Didnt work.

Took the car to Tesla and they said the new wheels (Signature) were blocking the output of the TPMS (bullshit), charged me $100 and sent me home with instructions to change the wheels and put the sensors back in.

I then went to a local tyre shop where they used a generic reader to confirm they were working and showing pressures etc.

I put the stock sensors back into the stock wheels, over the course of 1000 miles and many many resets they would not pair with the car so I took it to them and they manually inputted the sensors into the ECU and they now work, they charged me $80 to pair the stock sensors in the stock wheels to the car whilst in warranty when I was under the impression they should have paired themselves.

I disputed this because I am sure it says in the manual that you can autolearn the TPMS and there is even a button to reset TPMS and or wheels in the settings.

They have told me that you cannot ever change wheels, or TPMS or rotate the wheels without taking it to them and paying them to input the vaules of the TPMS into the ECU.

Can someone please give advice on this, I feel like im getting ripped off by Tesla and they are refusing to repair a fault whist charging me for that fault in warranty.

EDIT: cant edit spelling in title omg.

Total and absolute crap - very disappointing that a Tesla Service Center is disseminating this level of b*******. We've literally had six or seven different sets of wheels and tires at least on our two performance Model 3. No issues ever as the system auto recognizes the new TPMS and incorporates them. Should be completely painless. Not sure why your system didn't do that automatically. Wonder if you needed some kind of hard reset? (holding down scroll Wheels Plus brake).

 

[Sophias_dad]

It has sometimes taken days for the TPMS to auto-relearn on my 2018 after a winter/summer or summer/winter wheel switch, but I've never had to visit anyone to get programming done.

 

[You.]

Ok so update on this, I escalated this to the manager and he in turn asked the master tech, the tech confirmed that if the wheels are away from the car the sensors will need to be paired with the car, any time you replace/rotate the wheels you will need to take the car to Tesla and they will need to manually input the sensor ID numbers into the computer and you have to pay $60.

I put it to him that there are plenty of people and garages that rotate or have second/third sets of wheels.

This is the *sugar* that makes people buy different cars, I am three hours away from my nearest service center, I cant see what else can I do.

 

[MasterC17]

FWIW, I don't think the employees at that service center are purposely deceiving you, they likely genuinely do not know or understand. It's important to remember that in most cases they don't know anything but what is written in the manual.

I have had aftermarket 433Mhz TPMS that read fine with the scan tool but would refuse to pair with the car regardless. What brand did you purchase?

Stock, or quality aftermarket sensors should pair with the car eventually, but it can take several days and drive cycles for this to happen.

 

[Sophias_dad]

Ok so update on this, I escalated this to the manager and he in turn asked the master tech, the tech confirmed that if the wheels are away from the car the sensors will need to be paired with the car, any time you replace/rotate the wheels you will need to take the car to Tesla and they will need to manually input the sensor ID numbers into the computer and you have to pay $60.

I put it to him that there are plenty of people and garages that rotate or have second/third sets of wheels.

This is the *sugar* that makes people buy different cars, I am three hours away from my nearest service center, I cant see what else can I do.

I literally did my Winter/Summer swap on Sunday. I told the car that I'd switched to summer tires. On my first drive it said 'hey, we notice you have new wheels', make sure you update the configuration. I pulled over, didn't update the configuration(same 18" rim style, but not same rims), but I told it to relearn TPMS or whatever, and voila, it was reading the tpms's. It was definitely faster than previous swaps.

The dealer is full of crap(if you really have 433 mhz TPMS). They shut off and become undetectable after a few minutes of not-driving, to save batteries. There's no way that the car won't say 'hey, those tires have been away from the car' after a week at the airport, unmoving.

These are similar to the sensors I got. Same maker, but not same exact appearance. My 2018 ebay order history is no longer accessible.

www.ebay.com/itm/392121078599


Another option you have is to get sensors that can mimic the ID's of your originals. They tend to be a little more expensive, but the car wouldn't even know the tires had been touched after a swap.

 

[jjrandorin]

(Moderator note)

EDIT: cant edit spelling in title omg.

Just noticed this thread and corrected spelling in thread title.

 

[Clover]

Somethings not working right and they are needing the manually correct for it. I think your best corse may be asking them what broke that is causing this behavior and why they are not fixing it under warranty. That is not within spec or normal. They are using a work around and charging you for it. As many others have stated, the car should be able to relearn without the SC.

 

[RoBoRaT]

Somethings not working right and they are needing the manually correct for it. I think your best corse may be asking them what broke that is causing this behavior and why they are not fixing it under warranty. That is not within spec or normal. They are using a work around and charging you for it. As many others have stated, the car should be able to relearn without the SC.

Looks like OP (@You.) has the same issue with TPMS (assuming the same M3P) as far back as last year (
TPMS Issues) which suggest that the problem stems from other than (OEM stock sensors and known functioning aftermarket 433 MHz sensors).

 

[dsgerbc]

I had no problems switching wheels dozens and dozens of times on my '19 M3P until I decided to install OEM wheels/tires that had spent 4 years in storage. Took a ton of resets and doing this. Not sure what finally helped, but they did eventually come to life.

 

[You.]

FWIW, I don't think the employees at that service center are purposely deceiving you, they likely genuinely do not know or understand. It's important to remember that in most cases they don't know anything but what is written in the manual.

I have had aftermarket 433Mhz TPMS that read fine with the scan tool but would refuse to pair with the car regardless. What brand did you purchase?

Stock, or quality aftermarket sensors should pair with the car eventually, but it can take several days and drive cycles for this to happen.

The original Tesla sensors that came with a car and another set of known working stock units plus two sets of aftermarket sets.

 

[You.]

Another option you have is to get sensors that can mimic the ID's of your originals. They tend to be a little more expensive, but the car wouldn't even know the tires had been touched after a swap.

Yes thats not a bad idea but it seems i will not be able to rotate them

 

[Sophias_dad]

Yes thats not a bad idea but it seems i will not be able to rotate them

I can't imagine that Tesla didn't make accommodation for rotation of four known TPMS sensors. Its clear(at least in my case) that they have a receiver for each specific wheel position.

 

[Ritz]

FWIW, I don't think the employees at that service center are purposely deceiving you, they likely genuinely do not know or understand. It's important to remember that in most cases they don't know anything but what is written in the manual.

I have had aftermarket 433Mhz TPMS that read fine with the scan tool but would refuse to pair with the car regardless. What brand did you purchase?

Stock, or quality aftermarket sensors should pair with the car eventually, but it can take several days and drive cycles for this to happen.

I agree. I'd chalk it up to poor training. I have rotated my tires several times myself on my 3P and the TPMS sensors appeared to take it in stride and I didn't notice any delay in the "re-learning" process.

I also just replaced my tires. All 4 tires/wheels were away from the car during the 30 minutes or so they took off the old tires, replaced them, then did a roadforce balance and then put them back on the car. I specifically asked the tech not to fiddle with the tpms (it was a Walmart service center). The TPMS system was already updated and working fine when I checked it a couple of minutes after pulling out of the lot.

BTW, I skipped the uber expensive Michelin Pilot Sport 4S @ almost $400 per corner and got Falken Azenis FK510 (also performance summer tires) @ $165 per corner. Love these tires!

Best,

 

[dfwatt]

I can't imagine that Tesla didn't make accommodation for rotation of four known TPMS sensors. Its clear(at least in my case) that they have a receiver for each specific wheel position.

That's simply by proximity sensing. What's troubling is that the Tesla Service folks are spouting complete nonsense to a customer about a known and well-mapped Technology where both the research grade technical information and the information from users and Forum members grossly and I do mean grossly contradicts what they are saying. We personally have had 10+ sets of wheels and tires mounted without issue across our two Model 3 Performance vehicles. Never even a trace of an issue. The car detects a new set of 433 megahertz sensors and that's it. Not entirely clear what's going on with the OP's system but I suspect the problem is not the wheel and tire sensors unless defective but the car's handshake with them.

 

[dsgerbc]

That's simply by proximity sensing. What's troubling is that the Tesla Service folks are spouting complete nonsense to a customer about a known and well-mapped Technology where both the research grade technical information and the information from users and Forum members grossly and I do mean grossly contradicts what they are saying. We personally have had 10+ sets of wheels and tires mounted without issue across our two Model 3 Performance vehicles. Never even a trace of an issue. The car detects a new set of 433 megahertz sensors and that's it. Not entirely clear what's going on with the OP's system but I suspect the problem is not the wheel and tire sensors unless defective but the car's handshake with them.

All large retailers test different pricing strategies on small subsets of their customers. It's not beyond imaginable to envision Tesla playing the same game, making a small batch of cars require a service visit to activate new sensors just to measure how annoyed they'd get. Although that'd require training techs to give different answers to different people, which is probably too complicated to be viable...

 

[Sophias_dad]

That's simply by proximity sensing. What's troubling is that the Tesla Service folks are spouting complete nonsense to a customer about a known and well-mapped Technology where both the research grade technical information and the information from users and Forum members grossly and I do mean grossly contradicts what they are saying. We personally have had 10+ sets of wheels and tires mounted without issue across our two Model 3 Performance vehicles. Never even a trace of an issue. The car detects a new set of 433 megahertz sensors and that's it. Not entirely clear what's going on with the OP's system but I suspect the problem is not the wheel and tire sensors unless defective but the car's handshake with them.

It seems we agree. The part I was responding to was that OP was concerned the car wouldn't deal with rotating tires. If we assume for a moment that Tesla has changed software to disable changing TPMS sensors without a SC visit then getting new sensors that are programmed to mimic the old sensors would solve OP's problem even in the face of the changed software.

I gotta admit, I've been holding off on updating Stacy's Mom's software(currently 2022.36.20). Maybe Tesla really did change things regarding TPMS.

 

[dfwatt]

It seems we agree. The part I was responding to was that OP was concerned the car wouldn't deal with rotating tires. If we assume for a moment that Tesla has changed software to disable changing TPMS sensors without a SC visit then getting new sensors that are programmed to mimic the old sensors would solve OP's problem even in the face of the changed software.

I gotta admit, I've been holding off on updating Stacy's Mom's software(currently 2022.36.20). Maybe Tesla really did change things regarding TPMS.

That's very doubtful. We have a new version on one of our Model 3s and again no issues we just swapped wheels and tires so I think it's the OP's likely bad sensor module

 

[heavyD]

Tesla generally doesn't want customers visiting the service centers unless absolutely necessary so I highly doubt Tesla wants customers coming into the service centers to get sensors programmed.