I had new wheels installed on my C6 yesterday (used same stock size tires). The installer informed that the Left Front sensor had been previously broken and glued back on. He showed me the sensor and I saw what appeared to be dried up glue. In any event, the sensor came unglued and since the installer did not have any glue, he suggested that I purchase a new sensor and he would install it for me. I'm not concerned about who actually broke the sensor because I have no way to really prove who did it. Here is my question/issue: The installer gave me the broken sensor which is now inside of my house. He replaced the stem/sensor in the Left Front wheel with a regular valve stem for the time being. The weird part is that when I drive the car, my DIC shows a reading for each wheel in the mid 30's (appears accurate), except the Right Rear shows a constant number of '34' no matter what. Can anyone explain why the wheel without the sensor shows an apparent accurate reading and the Right Rear shows 34???

 

As long as the sensor is with the car it will update the car periodically. Not sure why it is reading 34 psi since it should be reading zero, maybe being broken the sensor is frozen at that reading. HPDE drivers use this quirk to keep their TPMS system happy when driving on the track using wheels/tires with no sensors installed. They put 4 sensors in a pipe, pressurize the pipe to 30 psi, program the car to read those sensors and throw the pipe in the cubby in the rear of the car. As long as its there the car is happy. If one of the sensors is missing/not reading/reading 0 psi the TPMS system will give a Service TPMS or Flat Tire message and the car's computer systems will limit the car's speed to 55 mph. Have had a sensor failure do that to me three different times on the track. As soon as you turn the steering wheel the car responds by flashing a message max speed 55 mph and the front brakes are applied if you are going over that speed. Going straight it will not limit at 55.

Bill

 

Installer may have mixed up the sensors, or programmed in the wrong order?

 

You need to re-calibrate the TPSM System. You can do it yourself, as long as all the sensors are all OEM. PM me.

 

Update: Today the car finally displayed "xx" for the Right Rear. As I figured and as Gearhead suggested, it does appear that the installer did mix up the sensors and that the working sensor in the Right Rear is actually supposed be in the Left Front. So now, i just need to purchase a new sensor (or just re-glue the broken sensor until about 3-4 years from now when I will likely need new tires and new sensors due to battery).

 

Get a new sensor and have it installed, as the TPMS monitoring system wont work properly with one bad, or missing sensor. As you discovered, it usually takes the system about 20 minutes of driving, to report something is wrong. I'd have all of the sensors scanned with a two way program tool(like a Bartech), to make sure you don't have another bad one, before ordering. Consider the system officially dead, possibly cutting engine power, until you get all the sensors functional, and programmed in.

 

I didn't know that would happen as a result of one sensor being bad or dead.

 

Don't re-glue some busted-*** sensor and continue using it. A new TPS isn't all that expensive. Buy a new one, install it and reprogram all the TPS's. At the least, your car will not have full functionality running without one sensor (you won't be able to engage comp mode). I don't know how much faith I'd have in your installer either...did he replace or offer to replace the TPS seals? The 'rebuild' kits cost about $5 or $6 each and are a good idea to do. Mistakes happen with all of us but he should have known the sensors are location specific and not mix them up. Good luck!

 

I don't understand the glue part. The sensors are not glued in, they are part of the valve stem and are bolted in (the nun on the bottom of the valve stem.

I have one you can have from my 06. PM me your address and I will mail it to you.

 

I looked in your profile and it indicates you have a 2007 C6.

All 2005-2009 Vettes built for delivery in the U.S. have OE sensors like this:



You can see the number 25758220 molded into the case - that's the GM part# for the tire pressure sensor for your car.

If it were me, I'd do a search on eBay for that number and buy a used one. I just did a search and found that there are a couple for $30 with free shipping.

I got a new set of wheels and tires for my 2009 and bought a set of used sensors - they're working great 3 years later!! I've got a used set in one of my set of track wheels as well.

You'll see some aftermarket ones on there also, but Bill Dearborn and others have reported that the Dorman ones have not worked too well. The Orange Electronics and Oro-Tek ones have good reviews. Butt....I've got 4 sets of wheels/tires/sensors for my 2006 and 2009, and I've had great performance from OE sensors in all my wheels, and I bought used sets for two of the sets of wheels.

When you get a replacement sensor, your tire shop should be able to simply break the bead and push down the sidewall so the can reach in and take out the valve stem and replace it with the sensor. If it were just replacing a sensor with another one, I wouldn't even bother balancing because the tire wouldn't be moved on the wheel and the sensors weight the same. I guess in your case the sensor weighs a tiny bit more than just the temporary valve stem they put in, so have them rebalance the wheel.

Then, as others have mentioned, you'll need to reprogram all 4 sensors into the TPMS computer memory in the car - and you can see in the video below that it only takes a minute or so.

BTW, if anybody needs a tool like in that video, I have two available: a used one for $130; and a new one for $150.

EDIT: I see John O responded while I was typing - I'd take him up on his generous offer!!!

Bob




.

 

My left front TPMS sensor has been intermittent for months. When it's not functional, I get the "tire flat, max speed 55" message on the DIC, but there is no reduction in power, and I can drive well over 55 without any problem.

 

If you drive aggressively you'll have problems!!!

Those of us that run roadcourse track events can have real serious problems when a sensor goes bad during a track session!!!

The AH cannot be put into Comp or turned off completely, and if it was in one of those modes when the failure occurs the AH comes back full on automatically. Or if you lose tire pressure it will do the same thing, and that's what it really is designed to do - protect you when a tire loses pressure. The stiff sidewalls of run flats don't give handling feedback indications when you lose pressure going straight down the highway, so if you do lose pressure the AH gets REAL intrusive to keep you from taking the off-ramp in a spirited manner and losing control when a side load builds up in a turn.

When you turn aggressively the AH puts on individual brakes - and as far as I know the brake lights don't activate, so the guy behind you can have real issues as your car starts slowing down and probably jerking around!!!

When you try to accelerate out of the corner you get NO throttle response at all until you've got the lateral G and yaw rate down to bassically zero and the steering wheel is straight - only then can you accelerate down the track!

It messes up your whole track experience, and can cause big problems if somebody is following close behind!

I had trouble programming one of my sensors after putting on a different set of wheels/tires/sensors at the track. I normally run in Comp mode, but couldn't select it. I thought "how bad can it be - I'll just go out for this session without the sensors programmed in and run with the nannies full on".

BAD IDEA!!!! I got those symptoms explained above, and limped around and back to the paddock. I got out my TPMS tool and put new batteries in it and got all the sensors programmed properly, and went back out in Comp mode and had no more problems.

Driving on the street you probably won't experience any problems, unless you want to go into Comp you can still turn TC off, but not the AH. If you're carving up a canyon road or doing some other spirited driving you'll probably notice it.

Bob

 

PM sent. Thanks for the generous offer and thanks for the responses

BTW, the glue part was where a previous installer had broken the sensor portion from the valve stem and attempted to glue it back together.