Smartire TPMS early sensor replacement

[vernierMike]

Some advice would be most welcome...

2009 Vantage with a warning on the dash (flashes for the 90 secs then stays on), the TPMS left hand orange LED flashing and the one for the red wheel (NSF) flashing too. As the car is 10 years old with no record of TPMS replacement and the tyre pressure is fine I am putting 2+2 together...

Decided to replace rather than bypass the module (found a handy plug endplay thing for £30). An odd decision, perhaps, but I reckon that it has its uses...

So I have procured replacement sensors for £140 for the four of them from AutoDoc.

What next? I was thinking of getting my friendly local tyre place to loosen the tyres and put them in, keeping the old sensors in wheel-order if that will help with re-programming? Do I still need to go to a dealer/specialist to get these reprogrammed? Suppliers literature suggested self-learning but other advice is to the contrary. Would anywhere else know how to re-programme these?

[bogie]

My local tyre place supply and fit all the common brands of TPMS sensor, £40-50 a wheel. They also have tool to reset/relearn for some systems.

I recently had one changed on my 2012 Roadster, on the later systems there is no need to re-program, it does itself within 5 mins of driving, it was up and running by the time I left the tyre place. Im not sure about the earlier systems though. Tyre fitting place may be able to advise and do it for you whilst fitting.

[Phil57DBS]

surprising....
there is nowhere left of TPMS sensor for the first Smartyre system!
only available at dealer for £200 each !!!!!

[Dewi 2]

vernierMike said:

So I have procured replacement sensors for £140 for the four of them from AutoDoc.

Have you followed Pete's recent comments on this subject?
I think the sensors were sourced from Germany, but if I remember correctly, there was later a mention of some difficulties with the operation.

Edited by Dewi 2 on Monday 16th December 14:20

[rovcallum]

Phil57DBS said:

surprising....
there is nowhere left of TPMS sensor for the first Smartyre system!
only available at dealer for £200 each !!!!!

I’m watching this thread with interest as I remember the last thread on Smartire system. This is a now defunct TPMS with hard to find spares.
Keep us all posted if you get it working.

[EVR]

I've become quite an expert in those, check out my advice here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[vernierMike]

EVR said:

I've become quite an expert in those, check out my advice here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Good grief, you are! Don;t know how I missed that thread but thanks for posting it.

I have got the LED box slung under the glovebox, so presumably an early one - were there various version of this or just the one?

Firstly, I'm now concerned that I might not have the right sensors... they are 433MHz STARK sensors and the Autodoc website says suitable from car manufacture date 10.2008. As my car is a 2009, I suppose could be either way although the previous threads say from 2010. Does the old LED Smartire installation and the sensor date of 10.2008 date suggest I have got the wrong (later) sensors and is there an easy way to confirm month of manufacture for my car so I can be more confident?

It would be much easier to bypass but I am interested and keen to get this working if I can.

[EVR]

I would not know for confirming the car's month, but I know that the early Smartire is just one version.

I believe the key to make your system back in order without spending a fortune is this post of mine, you need to buy the right Autel sensors and copy over the config file with the Autel tool, that you can either buy (I think) or find a tyre shop who already resells Autel sensors that has it in their tool box.

[vernierMike]

So I've checked with the AM dealer who sold me the car who said that the sensor dates I have should be fine. I have ordered a cheaper Autel TS401device for £130+postage from Amazon which should read the existing sensors or be able to be manually programmed if flat as a pancake and it says it reprograms any other sensor, not just Autel ones.

So I'm going to get this first, see if it can read and write to the sensors I have and then the local tyre place will fit them for £25 a wheel.

Still looking at over £350 DIY... I suppose I'll have the tool then but how often will I need to 'do' TPMS's I do not know.

Will advise progress...

[EVR]

vernierMike said:

So I've checked with the AM dealer who sold me the car who said that the sensor dates I have should be fine. I have ordered a cheaper Autel TS401device for £130+postage from Amazon which should read the existing sensors or be able to be manually programmed if flat as a pancake and it says it reprograms any other sensor, not just Autel ones.

So I'm going to get this first, see if it can read and write to the sensors I have and then the local tyre place will fit them for £25 a wheel.

Still looking at over £350 DIY... I suppose I'll have the tool then but how often will I need to 'do' TPMS's I do not know.

Will advise progress...

Best of luck and please keep me/us posted, you might be one of the first known owners that will succeed in replacing the sensors for the original Smartire system without shelling out 250€+ each at the dealer.

I believe you can offset the cost a little by reselling the tool once done and confirmed it worked, the sensors are good for 5-7 years normally. I don't think you will have any trouble finding customers here.

Edited by EVR on Sunday 22 December 19:26

[vernierMike]

Thats a good point, it arrived today so will charge up the tool try it over the Christmas break...

Fingers crossed....

[oily mist]

I'm also eagerly await news.

My TPMS is currently bypassed - the work of a previous owner no doubt because the warning light was flashing and they didn't fancy selling a kidney to source a full dealer replacement of 4 sensors.

I quite fancy the challenge of reinstating the function at a sensible cost and thus far the option seems to be purchase of a retro-fit sensor system in place of the smart tire unit and figure out how to send the fault signal(s) up to the DIM unit. However, if the alternative pressure sensors can be configured as clones of the original smarttire sensors then there's a 'nicer' alternative. I hope you've had time over Christmas to have a go at reading the old sensors and seeing if the new ones can be programmed as clones. Good luck.
Eric

[vernierMike]

Interim update and a question;

The Autel TS401 is not detecting the sensors in any of the wheels. I've tried all ways to do so and am very glad I have an air compressor or I'd be very tired by now albeit 'd have worked off some of Christmas lunch.

I emailed the suppliers and they kindly responded on Boxing day saying that it's the OE sensors not triggering. They said that they trigger on low pressure. I should deflate the tyres and hold the TS401 against the stem when doing so. Some rummaging on the internet reveals that it seems that the Smartire sensors trigger at 18psi and transmit only every 15mins when stationary, constantly when rotating. So the tool picking them up not he drive might not be too straightforward, in fairness.

I tried this with ignition on and off, with high pressure and low pressure and being sure that I held the device against the stem in scanning mode as the tyre pressure went past the 18psi triggering point but to no avail. The in-car system did pick ups the ow pressure in the correct wheel so the sensor is triggering and transmitting.

I did try to scan one of the brand new, unused sensors out of the box and the TS401 read all the data for that one straight away, somewhat reassuringly in the correct model and date mode (the instructions say it will warn if it reads a sensor but it isn't correct for the model).

So I have emailed back to the manufacturer for more guidance.

I am tempted to try manually programming the new sensors, imagining that the OE sensor will have its ID written on it so I can programme the new one, which looks fairly straight forward on the menus. It's £25 a wheel at the local tyre fitters to try, and I'll give that a go depending on what the Autel people say overnight - the are in Shenzhen.

Can anyone confirm this is the case - that the OE sensors have their ID written on them?

Will update when I have more news!

[oilit]

daft suggestion of the day - is it worth jacking car up and turning ignition on, and manually turn wheel round (to simulate driving) so see if enables you to pick up the signal as it (should) be transmitting permanently then?

[joinery80]

Could someone pls tell me how to reset warning light on dash after topping up air in tyres pls thanks shaun

[V8V Pete]

joinery80 said:

Could someone pls tell me how to reset warning light on dash after topping up air in tyres pls thanks shaun

I think if everything is working correctly it should reset itself. Maybe try going for a drive?

[vernierMike]

oilit said:

daft suggestion of the day - is it worth jacking car up and turning ignition on, and manually turn wheel round (to simulate driving) so see if enables you to pick up the signal as it (should) be transmitting permanently then?

Do you know, I'm going to give that a go! Will need a willing assistant but why not?

[joinery80]

Cheers Pete

[EVR]

I don't have any experience with the old sensors, since my car has the Beru/Huf system, but I thought the idea was to copy the new config file from the Autel tool to the new Autel sensors, the old one don't have a role in this. And said file was either already loaded in the Autel tool or it could have been obtained and downloaded to it from the Autel website.

Am I missing something?

[vernierMike]

EVR said:

I don't have any experience with the old sensors, since my car has the Beru/Huf system, but I thought the idea was to copy the new config file from the Autel tool to the new Autel sensors, the old one don't have a role in this. And said file was either already loaded in the Autel tool or it could have been obtained and downloaded to it from the Autel website.

Am I missing something?

I'm trying to clone of the ID of the original sensor - found this on 6Speedonline, looks like I'm method 2 but can't find a definitive 'this does' or 'this doesn't' work.

Support sent me the below instructions for programming a 433 MHz Autel MX sensor to support a Smartire system.

Relearn Procedure:
Please note:
If new ID is created for the this sensor, OE tool is needed to perform relearn.
With Autel tools, the only solution is to copy the OE Sensors' IDs, and no relearn needed.
There are two methods to copy the OE sensors' IDs.

Method 1:
1. Please perform a rapid tire deflation while pressing the trigger button on Autel tool to receive sensor data.
2. Then use the 'Copy By Activation' function to program Autel sensor.
3. Install the duplicated Autel sensor to the location corresponding to the OE sensor.

Method 2:
1. Uninstall the OE sensor, a series of numbers (173-1-1-XXXXXXX)�are printed on its surface, among which XXXXXXX is the OE sensor's decimal ID.
2. Use the 'Manual Create' function to program Autel sensor.
3. Install the duplicated Autel sensor to the location corresponding to the OE sensor.

Note:
If necessary, please pay special attention to the sensor ID format conversion when using the 'Manual Create'.