jillbeau

Hi all,

I'm posting here for some guidance, because clearly my local Honda dealer can't figure out my problem.

I drive a 2011 Civic EX with approximately 28,500 miles on it. Original wheels, original tires. At the end of April 2014, the TPMS light came on in my car (not the low pressure light, the amber letters TPMS). The thing is, it doesn't stay on, it usually comes on during my drive to work then is off when I turn my car on to drive home. We had a pretty brutal winter here and there were tons of potholes, so I thought maybe I ran through a particularly rough pothole which caused the light to come on.

I took the car to the dealer and they said that a sensor had to be replaced. I figured my problems were over. Wrong answer.

I have now had the car to the dealer 4x since April for the same problem...the TPMS light turning on and off. Each time I get the same answer, they had to replace a sensor and the problem is "fixed". I just took the car this past Saturday for the 4th time to address this issue. Again, same answer. And, surprise, surprise, the light came on again this morning, 3 days after it was "fixed". The light will usually come on within a few days of being "fixed", but at times I am not able to get there right away and it will be a few weeks before I am able to go back. That's why I have been dealing with this since April.

Has anyone had this particular problem? They have replaced all 4 sensors in my car at this point (and 1 sensor twice), and I'm having the same problem. The dealer's answer to this problem is to continually replace sensors hoping it will solve the problem. Clearly it's not solving the problem. I am so incredibly frustrated right now. I have a feeling that the sensors are probably fine (how can the sensors be going bad so quickly, it makes no sense!), and there is another problem.

My car has an extended warranty which is paying for all of these replacement sensors or I would be even more angry. At this point, it's just taking a lot of my time.

Do I continue to go back to the dealer each time the light goes on until they fix the problem? Maybe after they replace each sensor 10x, they will realize that there is another problem. I do love spending my Saturday mornings sitting at the Honda dealer.

Is there anything I can do to solve this problem?

ezone

That sounds odd.
I would like to know what fault codes were retrieved each time you went to the dealer.

Assuming the sensors in the wheels are truly good, I'd suspect a bad TPMS receiver in the dash as first choice..... or maybe some sort of RF interference (either inside or outside the car) as second choice.

Do you run a laptop or any sort of electronic equipment in the car while driving?
Does the TPMS light illuminate and extinguish about the same locations on your daily trip? (try taking a different route)
Did the dealer use Honda sensors or aftermarket?


Try a different dealer?

jillbeau

Thank you for your reply...you have a couple of great suggestions that I hadn't considered before.

The diagnostic code from the last visit was "TPMS DTC 38", which indicates a left-rear tire pressure sensor transmitting failure. I don't have the other paperwork on hand from my previous visits, but I believe that they were similar. I know that the sensors on all 4 wheels have been replaced.

Unfortunately, the light does not come on in the same place each time. It normally does come on during my commute, but it has also come on over the weekend when I am in driving different routes.

The only electronics I have plugged in my car is my ipod using my USB port and my phone, which uses a charger with a DC connector. I've been using my ipod in my car since I purchased it 3 years ago with no issues. However, the phone charger was purchased within the past few months. I will try to stop using that for a few days and see if it makes a difference.

As far as I know the dealer is using Honda certified parts. I am in contact with the service manager at the dealer to find a solution to this problem.

I believe this is an odd problem, I haven't been able to find any other threads on any forum with the same issue. I know that the techs are doing what they think will fix the problem, but isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results? I gave them 4 chances to fix it, now they need to come up with a different solution, which very well may be to replace the TPMS receiver.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

ezone

TPMS code 38 location is simply called tire #4, not left rear. One would need to verify sensor ID numbers between the data list and actual wheel positions in order to correctly choose the sensor in question.

I wonder if someone didn't actually replace the correct sensor(s)?

jillbeau

Hello again,

I just wanted to give an update on this TPMS problem I've been having in case anyone else is browsing this forum with the same problem.

After contacting the service manager, the dealer gave me a loaner car for 2 days and kept my car to try and identify the problem. They re-learned my TPMS and had a few techs drive my car around to try and replicate the problem but the TPMS light did not come on. The service manager actually drove my car home one night to see if he had a problem but, again, the light did not come on. After 2 days of being unable to find the cause of the problem, the dealer requested that I pick up my car and drive it for 2 weeks without using my cell phone charger. After the 2 weeks, I started using my cell phone charger again to see if the light would come on.

As you may have guessed, all of this frustration over the past 3 months has been caused by my cell phone charger. The light did not come one once for the 2 weeks when I stopped using my charger. The first day that I plugged the charger in, the light came on. It's come on 4x over the past week, all when the charger was plugged in. I pulled out the charger each time the light came on and it went off within about 30 seconds.

Needless to say I will be purchasing a new cell phone charger that will (hopefully) not cause this problem again.

Thanks again to the poster who indicated that this might be a radio frequency problem. Small crisis averted.

CraigW

iTrader: (1)

All I can say is... WOW.

Thanks for update.

What's the make of that thing ???

ezone

That was me

Good to know you got it resolved! Thanks for the update.

What kind of phone and charger?