TPS light on!
 

Can cold weather cause the TPS light to come on? It hit 22 deg the last few nights and I noticed on the way home from work today that the light was on. I checked my tires when I arrived home and all of them were at 33-34 psi. That me seem a tad low, but the tires were really cold and I only drove two miles home from work. I'm sure that when the tires heat up that they are closer to the recommended 36psi.

Also, how do I turn the TPS light off? I know that I can check the manual and I will, but while someone is typing if they know the answer please enlighten me.

Thanks,

AZ Roadster

cold weather will cause it. 33 psi will set you light off. To reset the light you need to have a least 35 PSI in all tires and you need to drive around for a bit fr it to reset. If all4 tires are at 35-36 psi and the light is still on after 5-10mins of driving it is time to take it to the dealer

Yeah, mine is on right now. Had auto-x on the weekend and was bleeding air out as the tire temps came up to maintain 34-35 psi. Now the temperature dropped so did the tire pressure and the light comes on. Just top them off to around 35 and drive a mile, the light should go out. I think the threshold is around 30 psi. If the pressures are correct and the light is still on then you could have a bad sensor. Just make sure you can keep them above 30 in the coldest weather and you should be ok.

Thanks for the info, guys. I assumed it was something like that because it had not gotten that cold 'til now. Unseasonable, record breaking cold in my part ot AZ this week. The first time I checked the air in the tires it was at 45psi! I took them all down to 36, but with the cold they all fell to 33-34 which is understandable. Now that the cold weather has subsided I will put them all at 36 and go for a drive. I'm sure that the light will go off.

I appreciate the answers! It's what makes this forum great.:tup:

AZ Roadster

IIRC, you lose 1psi for every 10 degrees of temperature.

Two weeks ago I was driving around 32 degrees and was getting a light, but as the tires heated up it went away. Came back again after sitting. I had set my tires to 35psi when the ambient was about 80 degrees.

FWIW, The TPMS is set to signal when pressure drops below 27psi. I've heard that there are other conditions that will trigger it too, like sudden pressure loss, or sudden change in temperature. I wish you could just cycle thru to see which tire is low, like you could on the 350Z! Nissan cheaped out on that one!

This not correct. According to the service manual (page WT-12), the threshold is 27 (not 33) psi.

:icon18: Ha, ha... beat you to that by 30 seconds! :icon23:

I am having the same issue with my TPMS, I checked all four tires and one was at 30 psi. I just pumped some air into them to about 36 psi each and the light has not gone out yet after driving around for 2 days. Should I take it to the dealership or pump more air into them?

mine just came on this morning. 3/4 (didn't take the time to check the last one, in a rush) tires were down to ~30psi. it's been mid 50s at night and mid 70s during the day until yesterday. first time it's stayed cold (40-50ish) for over 24 hours.

i assumed that it was just the air temp, plus i haven't checked my tire pressure but once since i got the car 3 months ago. glad to see it works lol :tup:

mines been on since it started getting bleow 55 (mid oct)

it goes off if i drive it for more than 30 min, then when i start it back up the next day its on

yeah I don't live far enough from work to know if that would've worked. :ugh2:

Increase your cold tire pressure slightly.

Although the manual says the threshold is 27, my empirical testing shows that the light comes on at around 29 psi. If you set the tire pressures on a warm day to 35 psi all around you can expect them to be below 30 on the cold days. Conversely if you set them to 35 on a cold day you can expect them to be above 40 if the temperature comes up.

It's a good thing, just set your tire pressures accordingly about once per month and you will be fine. I see so many cars driving around on under-inflated tires it makes me cringe, although most of them seem to be SUV's, and they have at least one tire with around 10 psi. We have to do so little maintenance on cars these days yet the average person still never checks their tire pressure.

Question: I have nitrogen filled tires with less than 6k miles on the Z. The temp dropped to just 58 degrees in Tampa a few days back, and the TPS light would not go off no matter what. My question is should the nitrogen filled tires prevent a lot of the fluctuation you see from regular air in the tires? Note that I had to take the Z back to the dealership twice to get the TPS light to be reset. What gives?

Nitrogen filled tires fluctuate just as much as air filled tires, after all regular air is 78% nitrogen anyway. Nitrogen filled tires are just the latest fad, it will eventually go away after people realize that the benefit is minimal and the hassle is major.

So this means it's dangerous to fill our tires with Nitrogen???:eek: I always use nitrogen thinking it's better!!!!