C5-1

So right after I turn on the car the dic tells me that I have a flat tire and that I should not drive more than 55mph. I get out check out the tire and it looks fine, so I go on my way and 5 minutes into the drive the flat tire message dissapears and the dic shows normal tire pressure. Is my tps running low on batteries or do I actually have a flat?

AORoads

tpms, to my knowledge, is supposed to last about 10 years, so even with an '05 (not sure what you have) it should be good. what is the actual tire pressure, per hand gauge?

JoesC5

Spend a dollar at Walmart and pickup a pencil type air gage and use it if there are questions about whether a tire is flat or not. It won't take up much room in your car, I promise.

C5-1

Hand gauge reads 34-35 and tire looks fine. DIC read 1 psi took a little bit of air and now it reads 0. How would I know if the tire is flat. I ve never had a flat on a run flat... does it look like any other flat tire?

JoesC5

Run flat tire looks basically the same whether is has air or not. Unlike a regular tire, the runflat is supported by the stiff sidewalls when there is low/no air so the sidewalls don't collapse like a normal tire. If the tire gage says it has air, then you most likely have a malfunctioning tire sensor if only one tire is showing a problem.

BEZ06

Did you check ALL the tires???

If the sensor in the tire that is reporting low on the DIC was previously on a different corner of the car and got moved when new tires got mounted, then if the DIC says "Left Front 5 psi" it might actually be talking about a different tire than the LF.

As mentioned, the batteries in the C6 tire pressure sensors have a "designe life" of 10 years, but some will last that long and some won't.

Bob

C5-1

Checked all the tires and all have tire pressure

BEZ06

I looked in your profile to see what model year you have, and it says you have a C5.

I don't know too much about the C5 TPMS, but the sensors in the C5 were rated with a design life of 7 years or 100,000 miles.

I would say that you have a battery in the sensor getting weak, and you'll probably need a new sensor.

There are some higher-end TPMS tools that can do some good diagnostics on tire pressure sensors:




You can see on the screen that it says "Batt OK", and the dark triangle in the upper left of the screen means that the signal strength transmitted by the sensor was strong (a triangle only 1/2 or so filled in black would indicate a weak transmission from the sensor - probably due to a weak battery).

Bob

Bill Dearborn

It sounds like the sensor is getting flaky. I had this happen last year. Coming out of T11 at the Glen the car just died, with a chime dinging away then the power caught and I went down the straight to T1 where I got on the brakes. Chime started making noise again and DIC said flat LF tire/ speed limited to 55 mph. So not having run flats I pulled into the run off area and waited for the safety crew. They asked me what was wrong, I said car is telling me I have a flat tire. They checked it and said it was fine. Got a replacement and the problem went away. Sensor was only 4 years old.

Bill

C5-1

Thanks for all the input guys....It turned out to be a bad sensor. Took the car in to a tire shop and they found no leak at all. They checked the tire sensors and one was dead and another one was on its last leg.

Again...thank you all!

AORoads

guys on C6 are amazing, aren't they?

seijack

When you are ready to replace these work great.

2005-2009 TPMS

johnnyvettes

my 2000 c5 were still good when i sold it it was 13 years old
just picked up this 10 grand sport and it looks like two are bad