This is weird TPMS

[Greg goes wild]

I had the TPMS warning light come on n the tire pressure the rear would be flashing. This is the 3 rd time that
it has happened. I am thinking it's a malfunction cuz the warning light yellow would go out n the rear tire
pressure would show 1 lb low. Does anyone have a idea why it's doing this?

 

[Ceesie76]

Could be that your tpms sensor battery is about to give up the ghost. You will need a new sensor in that case (better: 2 as the other one could be the same age), that needs to be programmed to the ECU. I did it a few months ago when I got new tires. I programmed them myself using a cheap 'wake up tool' and my motoscan app. I got the original BMW sensors from Wunderlich (=expensive, like $200 for the pair, but so is the unmounting/remounting of the tires at a bike shop). Worked great, there's plenty of how-to info here, much of it from Delray, the King!

 

[Delray]

"Worked great, there's plenty of how-to info here, much of it from Delray, the King!"

Aw shucks, thank you kindly. I'll defer any crown to technically-superior people, like you, Pappy, wspollack, et. al. I'm just a guy who likes to save money, do the work right and pass the info to others.

 

[wspollack]

"Worked great, there's plenty of how-to info here, much of it from Delray, the King!"

Aw shucks, thank you kindly. I'll defer any crown to technically-superior people, like you, Pappy, wspollack, et. al. I'm just a guy who likes to save money, do the work right and pass the info to others.

I don't know beans about factory TPMS. Never had any on a bike, including my C 400 GT (which doesn't have it, doesn't offer it, and has sideways in-the-spoke Schrader valves that prevent adding an external sensor to the front wheel -- all of which is my main complaint about this scoot, argh!).

I'd go with what @Ceesie76 says, i.e., my GUESS would be the sensor battery, as batteries are what you might call a wear item.

 

[Delray]

"Does anyone have a idea why it's doing this?"

I had a rear TPMS sensor fail on my 2013 C 650 GT and the warning light never came on.

The only symptom was the pressure reading disappearing, replaced by two dashes. This happened gradually and progressively. Sometimes the TPMS reading would show the pressure, sometimes it would show two dashes. So instead of my RDC reading showing "36 42" I would see "36 --". Eventually two dashes became a constant and that's when I swapped out the sensor.

 

[Greg goes wild]

Could be that your tpms sensor battery is about to give up the ghost. You will need a new sensor in that case (better: 2 as the other one could be the same age), that needs to be programmed to the ECU. I did it a few months ago when I got new tires. I programmed them myself using a cheap 'wake up tool' and my motoscan app. I got the original BMW sensors from Wunderlich (=expensive, like $200 for the pair, but so is the unmounting/remounting of the tires at a bike shop). Worked great, there's plenty of how-to info here, much of it from Delray, the King!

I did kind of figure it was the batteries that need to be replaced. I do not have a iphone
to do that n i am merchantly inclined. My brother does not know about the motorscan app
at all. He has worked on many bikes mostly Harly Davidson bikes n the old Silver Wing
that i had before this bike. Either i go to a dealer n let them change the batteries OR do
without n by a better tire pressure gauge.

 

[RollaCosta]

Shit, same is happening to mine. Six-year old bike with 29000km

 

[Delray]

Either i go to a dealer n let them change the batteries OR do
without n by a better tire pressure gauge.

For $99 you can get FOBO valve stem caps. I just ordered a set for an '18 Burgman 400 I bought and have used FOBO before. Great product. Not as handy as having tire pressure on the dashboard like BMW, but better than getting down on the ground to check pressure.

FOBO

FOBO

my-fobo.com

 

[Greg goes wild]

Delray that's a very good idea you came up with. But the only problem is i do not have a smart ph just a flip ph. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Ceesie76]

You don't need a smartphone to use the motoscan app. I use my samsung tablet - anything with bluetooth should work, even a pc laptop. Motoscan is not known outside the BMW world because it only works for BMW bikes - a decision BMW has taken, not to conform to the OBD 2 platform. It uses the same port size as OBD 2, but different software. I got the max version of Motoscan, lifetime subscription and all features, for (as I recall) $99. Plus a bluetooth dongle to plug into the OBD port (also useful on cars to do diagnostics) . For the TPMS sensor programming I got a cheap tpms wake-up tool. I can also read and reset fault codes and reset service light among other useful features.

I do prefer having the original BMW TPMS functionality for one important reason: it warns you actively and visibly on the dash when you have a puncture, so you don't have to wait until you actually can feel it in the handling (on, say, the highway) as happened to me recently when my front tire was punctured by a nail. You can also monitor how quickly or slowly your tire is losing air, all very helpful when a puncture happens. (Same thing happened in my car two days ago btw, and same usefulness).

 

[Greg goes wild]

You don't need a smartphone to use the motoscan app. I use my samsung tablet - anything with bluetooth should work, even a pc laptop. Motoscan is not known outside the BMW world because it only works for BMW bikes - a decision BMW has taken, not to conform to the OBD 2 platform. It uses the same port size as OBD 2, but different software. I got the max version of Motoscan, lifetime subscription and all features, for (as I recall) $99. Plus a bluetooth dongle to plug into the OBD port (also useful on cars to do diagnostics) . For the TPMS sensor programming I got a cheap tpms wake-up tool. I can also read and reset fault codes and reset service light among other useful features.

I do prefer having the original BMW TPMS functionality for one important reason: it warns you actively and visibly on the dash when you have a puncture, so you don't have to wait until you actually can feel it in the handling (on, say, the highway) as happened to me recently when my front tire was punctured by a nail. You can also monitor how quickly or slowly your tire is losing air, all very helpful when a puncture happens. (Same thing happened in my car two days ago btw, and same usefulness).

Thank you for explaining it better i do not know hat i will do just yet