cmichels1999

Thanks in advance for any help...

I have a 2008 Corvette Z51. I am trying to get my TPMS sensors to work with my track tires. The re-program sequence is not working.

The TPMS sensors I ordered are the following:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am using an ATEQ VT5 programming tool.

I followed these steps:
1. Put the four track tires on
2. Put car in accessory mode
3. Held lock/unlock buttons on the FOB while in the car until I heard the honk.
4. Left the fob in the car
5. Went to driver front tire and put the ATEQ VT5 by the tire stem on the tire rubber and pushed the button to wait for the honk but no honk.

It is worth noting that I repeated this same sequence with my street tires and the sequence worked completely. Also, my friend used his VT10 tool to try to see if that worked on my track tires and it didn't.

Does anyone have any suggestions that might help.

The below picture is the set of wheels I am using for my track tires. My track tires are Pirelli racing tires front 245/645 18in; rear 295/680 19in.

Radiologue

I am new to the corvette world but have been researching the topic prior to hitting the track. I think I am going to try to circumvent the TPMS system altogether. Some forum member disconnect the steering wheel position sensor under the dash and below the steering wheel. Alternatively, LG motorsports offers a Track Box TPMS eliminator kit.

ErnieN85

I have had to use a rubber hammer near the sensor (repeatedly)
While holding down the tool button to get them to work.
There seems to be a shut off when the wheel isn't turning over 6mph
hitting with the hammer wakes the sensor
HTH

cmichels1999

Thank you for the advice. I will give that a try. Do you think that taking the car for a short drive would also work then? I will try the rubber mallet idea first though!

phipp85

Certain sensors only work with certain years. Are the ones you installed compatible with your year car?

cmichels1999

Thank you for taking the time to try to help. The link to Amazon in my original post points to part number: 25758220. I plugged that into gmpartsdirect.com and used the feature to check if that part fits my 2008 Z51. It does according to the GM site. Here is a screen shot from the site:

harrydirty

I ran sensors in my track tires for a few years and here are some things to try:

1. Make sure you have fresh batteries in your ATEQ
2. Try moving your street tires a few feet away from your car
3. Take off the metal valve caps on your sensors when activating
4. Point the ATEQ unit towards the sensor

On point 4, I used to point my TIPS unit on the rubber tire next to the valve/sensor, but at a 90-degree angle to the tire (perpendicular). Sometimes a sensor would be a bit balky. However, when I leaned the unit towards the sensor (120 degrees to the tire) this would help activate the sensor sooner, more reliably. I'm guessing that the signal transmitted can be directional?

btw, it appears your sensors are oem GM parts? If so, they should be as reliable as your original ones. I found that aftermarket sensors either would not activate reliably or would break down due to stresses of track driving. However, GM sensors solved all my issues for me.

cmichels1999

Thank you for responding and your help. I am still unable to get this to work. Going through your checklist:
1. Battery was first used on 06/04 so it should be fresh. My guess is, if that was the issue, the street tires would not work but they do.

2. I think I satisfied this but maybe not. I did take the driver front off and put it feet away. I left the other three street tires on and just put on the one track tire.

3. I took the metal cap off and tried as you suggested

4. I tried various angles with the TIPS and different positions around the valve stem (i.e. on the tire 90 degrees, 120 degrees, on the rim by the valve stem for both angles etc.)

On the part. I did order it from Amazon and not gmpartsdirect.com. However, if I understand right the oem part is AcDelco, but I may be wrong.

I guess one option might be to order one sensor directly from GM and see if it works on its own. I could then order three more if it works.

On another note, as the person indicated above. I tried the mallet. I also put just the one track tire on and took it for a short drive around the neighborhood to see if I could get it to activate. No luck with this. It is worth noting that the in-car read out still showed the tire pressure reading from the street tire from the prior time I drove the car. I am not sure if that helps or not.

Thanks again so much for trying to help me. This is frustrating, but the support from the community has been great!

harrydirty

Hmmmm......just changing out one tire should work, as long as the street wheel that you removed is far away enough (I try to keep them 5-10 feet away).

The mallet is an interesting try, not sure why that would help you. The sensors do go into sleep mode when not moving after a while, but the ATEQ should activate them into transmitting.

The display you saw of the last reading from the street tire makes sense; all you are seeing is the last value in memory and will stay until updated or you drive too long w/o an update (20 minutes?); at that point it assumes something is broken with the sensor system and will give zero value on that wheel and will go into limp mode. This was the behavior in my '07 Z06.

Based on what you have described, yes, I agree that since your street wheels work and your track wheels do not, it probably is not a battery issue on your ATEQ. HOWEVER, in my experience aftermarket sensors were difficult to initiate, even with fresh batteries, while the GM ones were a breeze. I would put in fresh batteries just to eliminate that possibility........it's cheap enough (and not no name batteries like Harbor Freight stuff).

Before you buy anything else you might want to take a track wheel to a local shop or dealership and see if they can activate the sensor. They have units that not only activate, but can see the serial number and psi info on their screens, thus confirming that your sensors can actually wake up and transmit the minimum data set.

Lastly, depending on where you live, there may be other guys on this forum living nearby that have different units (like TIPS) that will let you try their units to see if this is an issue specific to your ATEQ/sensor combo.

cmichels1999

This is great stuff, I am going to call up the tire shop that did my mounting and see if they can do the test for me that you suggest. I will try the battery change. As you said, it is easy to do.

As for the other TIPS unit. My friend dropped by with his ATEQ VT10 model and it did not work. I will see if I can find someone with a different manufacturer to help.

I will report back with what I find out.

phipp85

What color were the sensors? Black, green, or grey? Did you verify that Amazon actually sent you the correct part?

cmichels1999

The sensors they sent were grey, they looked just like the picture. As for checking if they were the exact part number I did not. They did look like the picture.

I took the car/while and tire set to a tire shop. On Thursday they are going to do some analysis for me. I should be able to fully answer your question then.

Thank you for trying to help me out.

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

https://www.lgmotorsports.com/lg-mot...liminator.html


Use that and don't worry about them anymore.

cmichels1999

Thanks for sending this. I will keep this in mind, I do like using the competitive driving mode on the track some so I do want to try to solve this first. If not, I will come back to this. Thank you!

cmichels1999

I took the car and four track tires/wheels into the tire shop. Even with their equipment they were unable to get the sensors to work. To fix the situation, they installed these sensors. Part number 21193/21194 (sensor and valve stem). A link for these can be found here: http://web.alligator-sensit.com/inde...-sens-it-home- they were able to "clone" my sensors with these that I use on my street tires. In theory I can change the wheels without programming. They then tested that the program sequence works with these sensors and my ATEQ VT5 tool and they said it did. I have not checked for myself yet as I have not had the time.

In addition, below I took a picture of the part number on the sensors I originally used and they are the OEM part number but they don't work. I don't know why. Here is the picture:

harrydirty

Sorry that your sensors did not work, but at least that makes sense. With the cloned sensors you are correct that you should not have to re-program, but you probably still need to make sure your other set of wheels are not close. I am not sure what will happen if the computer "sees" two identical sensors transmitting. This is why I did not go the clone route since I would be trailering my track tires and I did not want to take the chance of fouling up the electronics.

Also, if you will be depending on the sensors to give you psi info at each specific wheel, then you need to ensure that you keep each wheel at its programmed position, otherwise the psi info will not reflect the correct wheel position. Everything will still work ok, but the specific psi info will not be correct for each wheel position; re-programming will fix it, so it will be easy now that everything works.

Let us know how everything works.

cmichels1999

You have been a big help, the suggestion of going back to the tire shop will work. Thanks for pointing out the fact that the wheel position needs to be consistent on switch. On the re-programming and distance, that is exactly what the tire shop said to.

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

But it does. While it does start the car with everything off by default, you can scroll back through and use all of the normal settings just like stock.