TPMS question

[jamesstock]

I had a punctured tire a few days back. TPMS light lit up (that's when I found the nail). The puncture wasn't that bad and I had time to put in more air (air pressure in that tire was around 28psi) and re-pressured that tire back to 34psi. TPMS light went out after re-inflating the tire. Then when I got home, I took the tire off the vehicle and put the spare / donut on. I left home the next morning in another vehicle w/ the punctured tire w/ me. My wife used the Infiniti w/ the donut for most of the day, drove about 10 miles tops that day. The weird thing was that during that day when the Infiniti didn't have the punctured tire (but the donut), the TPMS light wasn't on at all!!!! Why is that? It only sense 'tire pressure' if it goes below certain level the light till lit up? But if it cannot read from one of more of its tires, it'll NOT treat it as 'under pressure' hence will not cause the TPMS light to lit up?

[NJGuy]

It seems to me that your wife's 10 miles of driving that day was at a low speed. I'm not sure if Infiniti is the same, but on some cars you have to drive over a certain speed for a minimum time/distance in order to "wake up" the TPMS. This gets the sensors and receiver to start communicating with each other. That's my best guess.

If a sensor is missing entirely from the vehicle, the light should illuminate. One of my sensor's batteries went bad, which essentially disabled the sensor. However the light came on after 10 minutes in my wife's commute, which is over 10 miles and covers different county roads and highways.

[EXceptional]

It might take a longer drive for the light to come on.

I did a search and found that the light eventually comes on, once the car is taken out for an extended trip.

[CalgaryDan]

If your wife had driven 16 miles the light would have come on. It's a matter of distance not speed. (happens to me every time I switch from summer to winter tires and back)

[EXceptional]

So right at 16 miles, the light turns off???

[jamesstock]

That is totally weird. If the tire pressure is low, TPMS will lit up. I went to the gas station and inflated it (w/ the car running), and right when I finished and hop back into the car, the TPMS like went out. Got home and took the wheel off the car, put the spare on, and move the punctured tire to another vehicle. Next day the Infiniti was driven for about 10 miles w/ NO TPMS light at all (missing tire..no tpms...spare on...). As far as I know, at least for Lexus / Toyota, the TPMS light will lit up if it cannot read from 1 or more sensors (e.g missing tire).

[CalgaryDan]

So right at 16 miles, the light turns off???

What happens when you remove one of the TPMS sensors from the car (as in switching a wheel): The first time you drive after removing the wheel, the TPMS light will come on after you drive about 24 kms (16miles?). Subsequently, every time you start the car the TPMS light will flash a few times and stay on until you either re-install the original wheel or re-index the system with a handheld programmer (like the one Kal-Tire uses). If the light came on because one of the tires was low, it will reset as soon as you restart the car after re-inflating the tire. The sensor alarms when a tire is a few PSIs lower than the rest of the wheels.
When I swapped the winter wheels for the summer ones, the tire shop plugged in their handheld device and re-indexed the TPMS system.
If you think this is complicated, consider my FX35: The TPMS not only alarm on low pressure but also display tire pressure in either PSI or KPA. When I rotate the wheels (front to back), the tire shop has to reprogram the TPMS according to their new positions.