You gotta be kidding me

[dmbuttery]

I just purchased a 2014 Sonic LS sedan two weeks ago with only 35,000 miles on it. I got it for a great price because it literally has no options.

1). It's an LS with the 1.8L engine.
2). Plain stereo with no CD player, No USB port.
3). Manual transmission.
4). Manual windows with the old school crank handles.
5). No cruise control.

But at $5,900 the car was a steal with those low miles. Driving home yesterday, I get the infamous tire pressure sensor warning light. I have had three cars with this option in the past and every one of them had the TPS go bad and show a warning light even thought the tires were always properly inflated.

I pulled into a gas station and checked my tire pressure. All four tires were at 35 PSI. Google search says they should be 35-38 PSI so all were fine. I put them all up to 38 PSI anyway, but the light stays on.

Seriously? The one option I would have absolutely not wanted on a car is the only one this car actually has? That's just my luck. Now I got to figure out how to disable the TPMS or resort to putting black tape over the yellow symbol so I don't see it anymore. It's not like anything is actually wrong other than the stupid light coming on when it shouldn't.

 

[grrwoofnstuf]

TPMS has been a required safety feature on all cars sold in the US for some time now. You can thank Firestone and Ford for that one!

As an aside, it just sounds like the TPMS relearn procedure wasn't completed after the last rotation. 10 bucks says it gets fixed once relearn procedure is done correctly. You can even do it yourself if you can manage to borrow the relearn tool — maybe from a chain auto parts store?

That mileage is crazy low, though! I bought my 2014 RS 6MT a few months ago with 122k on the odometer... and a fat stack of service records, at least. I have no experience with the 1.8, but cheers to not dealing with all the potential engine headaches that the boost-vacuum-boost-vacuum tug of war can create!

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

 

[ScarabEpic22]

I'd recommend grabbing a cheap TPMS relearn tool available on Amazon for ~$11-15 (search for "gm tpms relearn tool" and throw it in the glovebox. You can relearn all 4 TPMS sensors in a minute or two with this instead of having to mess with the overly-complex and time-consuming manual relearn procedure in the manual (something like: fill air, release pressure, wait for horn chirp, then fill to proper pressure).

TPMS have been mandatory on all passenger cars (and most light trucks) in the US since MY2008. They were annoying at first, now the sensors and rebuild kits are pretty inexpensive and there are plenty of aftermarket options available.

 

[dannyg]

I'd recommend grabbing a cheap TPMS relearn tool available on Amazon for ~$11-15 (search for "gm tpms relearn tool" and throw it in the glovebox. ...

Yes, that's what I did, I think it was about $14 on Amazon. I use snow tires in the winter, so I relearn the tires twice a year. Works fine.

 

[Mad*Max]

I just purchased a 2014 Sonic LS sedan two weeks ago with only 35,000 miles on it. I got it for a great price because it literally has no options.

1). It's an LS with the 1.8L engine.
2). Plain stereo with no CD player, No USB port.
3). Manual transmission.
4). Manual windows with the old school crank handles.
5). No cruise control.

But at $5,900 the car was a steal with those low miles. Driving home yesterday, I get the infamous tire pressure sensor warning light. I have had three cars with this option in the past and every one of them had the TPS go bad and show a warning light even thought the tires were always properly inflated.

I pulled into a gas station and checked my tire pressure. All four tires were at 35 PSI. Google search says they should be 35-38 PSI so all were fine. I put them all up to 38 PSI anyway, but the light stays on.

Seriously? The one option I would have absolutely not wanted on a car is the only one this car actually has? That's just my luck. Now I got to figure out how to disable the TPMS or resort to putting black tape over the yellow symbol so I don't see it anymore. It's not like anything is actually wrong other than the stupid light coming on when it shouldn't.

Google is not your friend, check the door jamb for the tire pressure, I had a light on mine and eventually I realized the tire pressure was not set correctly.

 

[Z71]

If you think that one potentially malfunctioning TPMS sensor on a car that is 6 year old is bad, consider this:

Kawasaki started using tire pressure sensors on their Concours C14 touring motorcycles starting in 2008. I have a 2009 model of this bike, and both pressure sensor batteries went out just after warranty expiration. There is an annoying "sensor battery low" message that starts flashing on the instrument panel when this happens. Kawasaki wanted about $ 200 per sensor just for parts, plus another $ 100 fee for programming the sensors. In addition, it would be another $ 120 to remove the wheels and tires and install new sensors, then remount the tires and reinstall the wheels. So $ 620 plus tax total out of the owner's pocket to replace crappy sensors. If this was a car, National Transportation Safety Board would no doubt initiate a recall. But because it is a motorcycle and these sensors are not mandated by law, it is up to the customer to pay through the nose to get the poorly designed system operational.