Jason Bloomberg
Member
Not many cars get better at 60,000 miles and almost 5 years old. Ours did. The original TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) for the Model S like most other required manually reading the TPMS sensor on each wheel and then plugging the reader into a port on the car. For some reason instead of using a standard OBDII port like every other vehicle to report the readings via CANBUSS Tesla has its own proprietary port. My guess it has to do with security to prevent the potential for hacking due to limitations of OBDII and CANBUSS protocols. The result is that for these early Model S every time we seasonally swapped wheels and tires we had to go to the Tesla Service Center on a 250 mile round trip for a free 1 minute visit so they could read and update our TPMS so it would recognize the newly mounted set.
Tesla started using a different system by mid-2014 which was manufactured by a different company and can be updated from the center screen with the push of a virtual button and taking the car for a drive. The early system was not too much of a problem most owners and in part due to low numbers of vehicles being produced until about mid-2014 when production really started to ramp up (and has continued to accelerate ever since). The early system also only gave rudimentary warnings like "low tire pressure pull over now". The newer system actually displays the tire pressure for each tire .
When we got our CPO 2012 P85 Signature Edition Model S in January 2016 it came with 21" Silver Cyclone Wheels and summer tires. The car had 19,000 miles on it. We immediately purchased from Tesla a winter set mounted on 19" 10 spoke rims which were installed right after our initial inspection of the car. That summer we swapped to the summer set and had our first trip to have the TPMS sensors read and uploaded to the car. We kept getting error messages so Tesla replaced the TPMS sensors for new ones that matched the old system. It worked fine until this month.
We were on the freeway in a not nice part of Denver at night and got a low pressure warning. I got off the freeway and all of the fires were fine. I used a tire gauge to check them. The next day I contacted Tesla and told them I wanted to know how much it would cost to change to the newer system and when could it be done? I looked online and it seemed to range between $500 - $1200 based on other'sites experiences. We were willing to pay it. The estimate was never clarified.
When I got an email back Tesla decided to cover this under warranty instead of treating it as an upgrade. They also included changing the TPMS sensors in our winter set of wheels/tires at no cost as "goodwill". So about 10 days after the freeway low tire pressure scare incident, I took our car to the service center and we now have the same TPMS system every Model S has since mid-2014. While waiting I was loaned a P85D with Autopilot so I didn't have to "hang out at the Sevice Center" for 6 hours while they upgraded our car. This was no small job. It involved changing all of the TPMS sensors in the wheels, on the car, a module in the main computer, and a section of wiring harness which on a Signature Edition required removing and reinstalling part of the interior of the car.
This is probably the last time I'll go to that Service Center (at Evans and Monaco) as on the 14th of this month they are relocating to a much larger space at 5700 Broadway (and Littleton). I wish them well with their move and thank them for their excellent service.
Tesla started using a different system by mid-2014 which was manufactured by a different company and can be updated from the center screen with the push of a virtual button and taking the car for a drive. The early system was not too much of a problem most owners and in part due to low numbers of vehicles being produced until about mid-2014 when production really started to ramp up (and has continued to accelerate ever since). The early system also only gave rudimentary warnings like "low tire pressure pull over now". The newer system actually displays the tire pressure for each tire .
When we got our CPO 2012 P85 Signature Edition Model S in January 2016 it came with 21" Silver Cyclone Wheels and summer tires. The car had 19,000 miles on it. We immediately purchased from Tesla a winter set mounted on 19" 10 spoke rims which were installed right after our initial inspection of the car. That summer we swapped to the summer set and had our first trip to have the TPMS sensors read and uploaded to the car. We kept getting error messages so Tesla replaced the TPMS sensors for new ones that matched the old system. It worked fine until this month.
We were on the freeway in a not nice part of Denver at night and got a low pressure warning. I got off the freeway and all of the fires were fine. I used a tire gauge to check them. The next day I contacted Tesla and told them I wanted to know how much it would cost to change to the newer system and when could it be done? I looked online and it seemed to range between $500 - $1200 based on other'sites experiences. We were willing to pay it. The estimate was never clarified.
When I got an email back Tesla decided to cover this under warranty instead of treating it as an upgrade. They also included changing the TPMS sensors in our winter set of wheels/tires at no cost as "goodwill". So about 10 days after the freeway low tire pressure scare incident, I took our car to the service center and we now have the same TPMS system every Model S has since mid-2014. While waiting I was loaned a P85D with Autopilot so I didn't have to "hang out at the Sevice Center" for 6 hours while they upgraded our car. This was no small job. It involved changing all of the TPMS sensors in the wheels, on the car, a module in the main computer, and a section of wiring harness which on a Signature Edition required removing and reinstalling part of the interior of the car.
This is probably the last time I'll go to that Service Center (at Evans and Monaco) as on the 14th of this month they are relocating to a much larger space at 5700 Broadway (and Littleton). I wish them well with their move and thank them for their excellent service.
