"Service TPMS" warning with valves from eBay

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I have a 2019 Suzuki Jimny GLX (SZ5). The original wheels are fitted with the factory TPMS sensors, which work perfectly. I recently bought a second set of wheels and fitted them with these aftermarket TPMS sensors:


The sensors generally work, however I’m experiencing an annoying issue. If the car is stationary with the engine running for more than about five minutes, an amber warning appears on the display saying “SERVICE TPMS”. This also occasionally happens when crawling in heavy traffic. The warning then clears itself after driving at normal speeds for a few minutes.

This has been happening consistently for the past two weeks. I initially assumed the system might “learn” the sensors over time, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. After driving for a short while, all four sensors show the correct pressures in the TPMS service menu, so they are clearly communicating with the car — the issue only seems to occur when the vehicle is stationary.

I contacted the seller and was advised to “perform a vehicle reset”, although I’m not aware of any such procedure for the Jimny.

Is there anything I can try to resolve this, other than swapping my original valves over to the new wheels?

Thanks in advance.

Have you had it on a code reader to see more specifically what it thinks is wrong with itself?

The system resets i.e relearns after 20 minutes switched off. 

You're not parking near the old wheels are you?

You're not parking near the old wheels are you?

Sometimes. Never thought it could be an issue. Could it be?

Good idea about the codes. I have an OBD2 reader. Will try to read it tomorrow.

The TPMS in a Jimny reads radio signals from the four wheels through one antenna. The key is that the antenna is placed off-centre.  Thus to determine the wheel position of each sensor, it ranks them by the relative "loudness" of the signals.

That means that when one signal drops out, the system can no longer tell which wheels the remaining sensors are transmitting from. So it just throws up its hands -- and displays the error message you see.

There is nothing wrong with your Jimny, and you can't "reset" the Jimny to clear this error message.  The problem lies in one of your new-to-you wheels, specifically its TPMS sensor.

Usually, this problem of a TPMS sensor dropping out is due to age: the batteries get weak enough that finally they no longer transmit.  Alternately, an internal fault can cause the signal to be interrupted.  If this problem indeed only happens when the wheels are not rotating, perhaps the internal fault is temporarily "fixed" by the motion of the wheel.  But in any case, you have a sensor that is not up to the job.

To determine which one is failing, you would need a handheld TPMS sensor scanner.  This is a device that one holds next to the sensor in the wheel, used for activating/programming/testing.  Most people don't have one at home!  Any good garage or tyre shop will have one of these devices

It may be best to wait until the problem is happening absolutely consistently, because the device won't be able to tell if a sensor didn't work yesterday, if you know what I mean.  (What is that term for when you take the car to the garage to fix an annoying noise, and it stops making the sound the minute you drive up?)  

In the meantime, no harm in continuing to drive with it like that -- you aren't damaging anything, it poses no safety or operation risk, and no amount of poking at the car will fix it anyway.  You can keep going until it dies for good, at which point diagnosis at the tyre shop will be easy.

Motacilla wrote:

The TPMS in a Jimny reads radio signals from the four wheels through one antenna. The key is that the antenna is placed off-centre.  Thus to determine the wheel position of each sensor, it ranks them by the relative "loudness" of the signals.

That means that when one signal drops out, the system can no longer tell which wheels the remaining sensors are transmitting from. So it just throws up its hands -- and displays the error message you see.


 

On the Jimmy the sensors report angular velocity. As each wheel turns at a different speed when turning corners, the tpms computer can calculate which corner the wheels are on by the difference in rotational speed. The receiver has to also be mounted off the centre line of the car as it has its own sensor to measure it's angular velocity. This internal sensor means it knows the vehicle is turning and which direction is turning and as it knows the current angular velocity of the wheels as well then it knows which corner the wheels are on.  If one wheel is not reporting then it has one set of information missing so it doesn't then know where any of the wheels are.