Embarrassing Story Time -- Adventures with TPMS
 

About a week ago I got in my Z and my TPMS light was on, no big deal. I didn't have a good tire pressure gauge, though, so I went by Autozone and picked up one like this:
http://i.imgur.com/W8WeUhu.jpg?1

I checked all the tires and they all read just over 35 lbs. Perfect.

At this point I do some research and find out that there have been some issues with TPMS lights triggering incorrectly and figured I had some issue. But everything I saw online was about new tire installation or the TPMS light triggering an error code. My tires haven't been changed recently and it was a solid light, no blinking. Color me confused.

More research and I still have no idea what the issue is. I did find something online about how to manually reset the sensor by cutting the shielding from a wire and using a paperclip to ground something, it seemed a little hinky so I didn't bother with it (thankfully). At this point I'm about to give up and just take it to the dealership. I hate doing that.

I go out there today during my lunch break to take it to the dealer, but decide to check tire pressure again (I should note at this point that I kept meaning to recheck them, but I like doing it in the morning when they're cold and kept forgetting). So I pull my gauge out of the glove box and...it's still reading 35 lbs.... See on this new gauge, you have to reset it after every pressurization because it's valved to hold air until you read it. Needless to say, I'm feeling like a pretty big dumbass at this point . So I recheck and my back left tire is reading just under 29 lbs. All better now.

Tl;dr got cocky and didn't read directions, almost looked like a fool in front of a service department instead of just me.

Anyway, thought somebody would enjoy that.

Ha ha nice , good on ya fessin up

ROFL I sure am glad I've never done anything that stupid. :)
Thanks for sharing.

As I get older, I find these type of things occur more often to me. A sense of humor helps.

Service Dept
 

Those service guys have seen it all. But, I haven't ever seen a gauge you reset after each check. So, maybe you weren't so dumb after all.
Regards

lol nice

That sounds like something I would do.

I had an electrician over to the house a couple of weeks ago. He added a few outlets, did some garage wiring, etc. I had him look at an outdoor outlet that was intermittently working. It was dead when he looked at it and, after a bit of investigation, came and asked me if I knew this one particular indoor wall switch controlled the outlet, which it does.

Duhhh.

I've got the same type of gauge and, as much as I hate to admit it, I did the same thing when I first got it. :icon14:

I have the same gauge. It is nice since it holds the pressure reading for longer examination. I also like the feature of the straight stem and "nozzle" which is useful when taking pressure reading on my truck with HRE wheels which utilize a rather unusual Schrader valve stem configuration.