TPMS woes

[glscholes]

Hi, first time.posting here, and I am having a problem with the 2007 RS4 B7 I have bought. Love the car (why wouldn't you) but the tpms system has been coded out of the instrument cluster, which is not a problem, I can enable that as I have VCDS. What I need to know is how to view the live data, do you need to enable security access to view, and if so, what is the security access code? Looking at the sensor id's, it looks like the same numer comes up in 3 of the 4 wheel positions, which is obviosly wrong, so I want to try a wheel swop, but don't know how to do this either! Any help would be greatly appreciated to get my system working properly again. Thanks in advance, Graham

[coffey555]

I assume the TPMS was disabled because the wheel sensors had stopped working due to flat batteries? Have you fitted new wheel sensors yet?

If you have new sensors, just re-enable the TPMS coding, follow the wheel change procedure as per the owners manual and job done.

I tried looking at live data etc and got nowhere with mine until I changed the sensors. The car does not know what wheel is on a certain corner of the car, it just reads 4 signals and monitors the pressures. If you have the same sensor in 3 positions it sounds like 2 of the sensors have failed.

The new sensors are in hibernation mode from the factory, they wake up once you fit them and inflate the tyres. They also go into sleep mode if the car has been sitting for an hour or so. Go through the wheel change procedure in the DIS, then drive the car to wake the sensors up and they will pair with the car. If you get a flat tyre warning after 30mins then the pairing has failed.

Just make sure you get sensors with the correct frequency.

[glscholes]

Thanx for the reply, it looks like the TPMS system was coded out of the cluster because of the warning, which would lead me to believe there was a fault of some kind. I will recode and go through the wheel change procedure. I have not seen this procedure yet, but from your explanation I assume it is done on the DIS? As it is coded out at the moment, I cannot see how to do it but am more that willing to learn by trying.
I have not changed the wheel sensors as they are ridiculously expensive here where I am currently living (South Africa) and I may wait until I return home to the UK to buy new ones, if that is what it takes.
I will also try deflating and re-inflating the tyres to see if that wakes the sensors up again after recoding the instrument cluster, will let you know.....

[coffey555]

The batteries last around 6-7 years I think. I coded my TPMS out so the warning was not displayed for a few years until I changed the sensors out during a wheel refurb.

The 3 known issues with the TPMS system are flat batteries, aerial fault or the TPMS controller.

Yes, once you enable the TPMS coding I think the wheel change procedure is in the DIS menu. Currently working offshore in West Africa so I can't check for you.

There is actually a guy on board from South Africa that has a Daytona RS4 saloon!

I picked my sensors up from eBay, guy from Poland was selling brand new ones for a good price.

[MB2]

I would re-enable TPMS and can trouble shoot it from there.

A failed sender is definitely a yellow tyre with line through it, I think you get yelloe/red as low pressure in one tyre without the line through it for low pressure.

If you have VCDS see what the sensors are telling you after having taken it for a drive - mine was returning nonsense pressures and it was the antenna not the sensors.

The antenna is an easy fix, the sensors are best sourced via eBay or similar and fitted when the tyres are off anyway, but I wouldn't buy the sensors until you have decided if it is those that look like the problem. You never know it could all work, but previous owner had aftermarket wheels fitted without TPMS for example ?

[glscholes]

Thanx for all the input, joining this forum was well worth it!!

I will do as you both suggested and re-enable the TPMS display and troubleshoot from there. I will provide more feedback and possibly ask for more guidance after completing your checks

Graham