Low Tire Light ON.. All tires OK !!!

[Steam Engine]

Light came on @ 1600 miles. Stopped the car and smoke was coming out of my rear drivers side wheel. I was right around the corner from the dealership so after a couple minutes i rolled in. No more smoke. Really dont think my E-Brake was on. It's a manual.
They put it in the shop imediately. Initially the service mgr came out and said the tire pressure was fine and they're trying to figure out the smoke. after an hour, the tech came out and said "the tire pressure was low".... I told him that conflicted with what i was initially told. He said it must have been a misunderstanding. I asked if there was any particular tire that was low, he said " all of them were low".
And when asked about this topic, he said it only applied to older models.
And no reason could be found for the smoke.
I had the car 2 days. Drove it from langhorne PA to Chattanooga.
No problems since Thursday.
Not a good way to start the journey. Im glad it didnt happen while i was on the blue ridge pkwy.

 

[joesmoe3]

Silly new owner -- how do I know if I have . . .

TPMS ?

if I have the rain sensor ? [rain sensor was answered in another thread -- wires behind the rear view mirror and I don't have any]

The dealer seems to know little about the car.

 

[Ray R]

If you have a 2011 Jetta TDI Sport Wagon as your profile indicates, then you have the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System).

 

[S_Sanders]

I bought new tires on Nov. 4. All seemed normal until Dec. 30 when the TPMS light started flashing for one minute then staying on. Since the owner's manual and this thread indicates that is an error indication, I took it to the dealer. They discovered that one of the TPMS sensors was GONE! No loose parts in the tire, just totally gone. The valve stem portion was all that was still there.

I'll be returning to the tire store tomorrow to get my $175 back that it cost to replace the sensor.

I wonder why it took two months for the system to throw an error when a sensor was missing.

 

[RNDDUDE]

For owners of the 2011+ ABS-based system, remember that the ABS wheel sensors only can infer a low pressure tire by comparing the rotational differences between all 4 rotating tires, and if it sees one that is different, it assumes "low pressure". The same message would appear if one tire was OVER inflated. Also be aware that if you do not check pressure occasionally, and all 4 tires lose pressure equally, the system will NEVER notice it. The old system was more finicky, but it DID read actual pressure. The new system is less error-prone, but it CAN be tricked into not reporting a problem when one does exist (all tires low).

 

[RNDDUDE]

Well, whaddya know, today while driving to work the low tire indicator came on, and sure enough, I had picked up a nail. The cool thing is that it warned me well before the tire was low enough to cause damage. This is on a 2011 JSW that is NOT running internal wheel sensors, but instead used the ABS sensors to compare rotational differences in all 4 tires. It works, and well!

UPDATE...I actually drove on this about 10 miles before I stopped and changed to the spare. When I went ot the tire dealer I bought them from, they said I had heat damaged the sidewall from running it low and it would have to be replaced. The good news is that they will replace tires for free within the first 90 days (I qualify, thankfully). The lesson learned is if you see the tire warning light come on, PULL OVER IMMEDIATELY AND CHECK YOUR TIRES!

 

[specsalot]

Nice - Great comments about all potentially running low. An easy detail to miss.

 

[gary9696]

The problem I had with my 2010 Jetta SW was that the TPMS light flashed for a minute or so, then went solid, also the turn signals, and light flashers would not work. After turning the vehicle off and letting it sit for a while the problems stopped. It happened twice, and I took it in to two different VW dealerships that didn't find anything wrong. When it reached 20,000 miles last year and I took it in for the maintenance there was also a recall for it to be reprogrammed, and I haven't had the problems since then.

 

[v1k1ng01]

I have the same issue folks! My air pressure light is on, but all PSI on my tires are perfect. After replacing all my tires to a string of bad luck in flats, my air pressure light ibn on despite no problem. I'm going in tomorrow for my 21k sercvice, and hopefully they will fix the light this time.

 

[pknopp]

Swell first problem. My light came on but I went and checked the pressure and all are exactly the same. I don't know if I'll mess with it now or wait until the 10K service in a couple months.

 

[tomo366]

Swell first problem. My light came on but I went and checked the pressure and all are exactly the same. I don't know if I'll mess with it now or wait until the 10K service in a couple months.

What are the pressures?

 

[pknopp]

What are the pressures?

38 all around.

 

[GoFaster]

I am pretty sure "38 all around" is not as per specifications. Set front and rear tire pressures to exactly the pressures that it says on the door plate and see what happens.

I know you want to run high pressure for fuel economy, but it might not be that simple. It's possible that with the ABS-based system that you can find a different (higher) setup that still keeps the system happy, but you'll have to play with the front/rear pressure difference to do that.

 

[tomo366]

I am pretty sure "38 all around" is not as per specifications. Set front and rear tire pressures to exactly the pressures that it says on the door plate and see what happens.

I know you want to run high pressure for fuel economy, but it might not be that simple. It's possible that with the ABS-based system that you can find a different (higher) setup that still keeps the system happy, but you'll have to play with the front/rear pressure difference to do that.

The light will not come if it is too high only if it is too low I know I have tried it Sounds like a bad sensor do you know anyone with a VCDS

 

[pknopp]

The light will not come if it is too high only if it is too low I know I have tried it Sounds like a bad sensor do you know anyone with a VCDS

Nope, but the way I understand it, I do not have sensors. The 2012 works off the ABS. I thought about going back down to factory specs to see what happens. I know that if that fixes it, I will tell the dealership to just turn it off.

 

[JettaTDiPA]

Well. oddly enough this thread came to life at the same time mine decided to light up- ring a bell- and post message.
Yesterday, it decided I needed to have another annoyance courtesy of VW.

Just another "idea" VW engineers have - I am convinced the group of engineers have a pool going to see how many crappy items they can put on a car, and which idea gets the most complaints wins the pool.

Mine has 11k- just had 10k service two weeks ago. Tire pressures are all at 35psi @ cold temperature. As such, the only change was tires were rotated 2 weeks ago. If that was the problem, it took two weeks to detect?

I just add it to the list of items the dealer can try to disable. They tried to disable that annoying horn blowing when I lock the door- but it came back a week later.
For the thousand plus time, the dam thing tells me I don't have a cell phone connected to the tooth- (like I didn't already know that). Dealership has had no success in killing the blue toothy thing for fear it will make the radiator boil over, or the taillights start glowing green. (See, my idea was just cut the dam wires- tech was too concerned that would screw up all sorts of things)

My dealer is 65 miles away, so I am just going to wait until next service or until enough crap crowds the message center and dash board with lights, I will waste a day taking it to dealer. Its been 3k miles since last CEL, so I should be getting one of them pretty soon.

Ok, off my soap box now.

 

[pknopp]

Not to take this off-topic but I was able to turn the horn off myself. There is a fairly recent link somewhere that notes how to do it. I can probably find it later if you can't.

Search my user I.D. I noted when I was successful in getting it to turn off.

 

[tomo366]

Tire pressure monitoring is a requirement since 2008 since ford had the bad tires on the Explorers

 

[JettaTDiPA]

Follow-up to earlier post-
I had first checked to make sure all four were at 36psi (and they were).
I overinflated them to 45psi and drove it for about 10 minutes. I returned home, let tires cool - and bled them back to 36psi. Drove it again for 10 minutes, then reset it. Lights, bells, warning messages are gone.

Suppose it is just another VW's "one of those things". All is well that ends well.

 

[highender]

Please have your TPMS updated !

THe real value of TPMS is not that it saves treadlife and tire life,,,, but it can warn you of dangerous low air pressure when you are driving at higher speeds.
Low air pressure inside the tire , when traveling at speed, will warm up much faster and , when ambient temperatures and road temperatures are high, can cause catastraphic tread separation and tire failure.

THis happened to me 2 weeks ago, when I was in my 2002 Jetta tdi ,with NO TPMS. The rear tire got over heated, causing tire tread separation from the sidewalls. My car fishtailed, and we went sideways onto shoulder of freeway, and then rolled over at least 2 times. Car was completely totalled. We are fine.
So if I had the TPMS in that car, I would have seen the warning light, slow down and pull over.

it is one of the greatest safety features...

 

[tomo366]

it has saved me on the highway twice.

 

[pknopp]

Please have your TPMS updated !

THe real value of TPMS is not that it saves treadlife and tire life,,,, but it can warn you of dangerous low air pressure when you are driving at higher speeds.
Low air pressure inside the tire , when traveling at speed, will warm up much faster and , when ambient temperatures and road temperatures are high, can cause catastraphic tread separation and tire failure.

THis happened to me 2 weeks ago, when I was in my 2002 Jetta tdi ,with NO TPMS. The rear tire got over heated, causing tire tread separation from the sidewalls. My car fishtailed, and we went sideways onto shoulder of freeway, and then rolled over at least 2 times. Car was completely totalled. We are fine.
So if I had the TPMS in that car, I would have seen the warning light, slow down and pull over.

it is one of the greatest safety features...

My light is on but all my tires are fine. I doubt after getting it reset that I would ever believe in it again.

 

[SomeJ]

My light is on but all my tires are fine. I doubt after getting it reset that I would ever believe in it again.

How often do you have to use the reset button? (you don't have to take it in to be reset) If it is just a few spread out "random" times then get over it. Many of us have had this happen at least once. I would rather have a few false positives then not get a warning when there is a problem. (it is always good practice to have a tire pressure gauge in your car at all times anyways) If it happens all the time, then take it in to be looked at.

J

 

[pknopp]

How often do you have to use the reset button? (you don't have to take it in to be reset) If it is just a few spread out "random" times then get over it. Many of us have had this happen at least once. I would rather have a few false positives then not get a warning when there is a problem. (it is always good practice to have a tire pressure gauge in your car at all times anyways) If it happens all the time, then take it in to be looked at.

J

I'll get over it. I could more easily do without it.

 

[ksing44]

I think this may have just happened to me after 2.5 years. About two years ago a friend helped me reduce the number to 2.2 bar and all has been fine for years. Now, I have the flashing light and all tires are OK. Hey, just like the title!

I'm hoping my friend can check the settings with is VCDS, to see if it simply spontaneously went to 5.5 bar. I never had the problem before. I'm hoping I don't have to go to the dealer. I'm out of warranty now and they have messed up a number of things. If I do have to go to the dealer, I may try a different dealer even though it will be a hike.

 

[rfortson]

How often do you have to use the reset button? (you don't have to take it in to be reset) If it is just a few spread out "random" times then get over it. Many of us have had this happen at least once. I would rather have a few false positives then not get a warning when there is a problem. (it is always good practice to have a tire pressure gauge in your car at all times anyways) If it happens all the time, then take it in to be looked at.

J

Yeah, I thought this was just a reset press in the glovebox. Happened to me once in a year. Not a big deal to me.

 

[ksing44]

I think this may have just happened to me after 2.5 years. About two years ago a friend helped me reduce the number to 2.2 bar and all has been fine for years. Now, I have the flashing light and all tires are OK. Hey, just like the title!

I'm hoping my friend can check the settings with is VCDS, to see if it simply spontaneously went to 5.5 bar. I never had the problem before. I'm hoping I don't have to go to the dealer. I'm out of warranty now and they have messed up a number of things. If I do have to go to the dealer, I may try a different dealer even though it will be a hike.

Sure enough, in my car the setting had changed to 5.5 bar! Funny, or not so funny really, that the thing resets itself to such a high pressure. Hopefully it won't happen again for at least another 2-years. I guess I really do need my own VCDS for this VW.

 

[Got Haggis?]

the past two times i've taken my car to the dealer this light has come on about a day after. this was for my 10k service and just last week my 20k service (which i realize rotates the tires)

i just pressed the button in the glovebox and the light goes off and doesnt come back on...that should be ok, right?

i haven't checked the tires with a sensor yet, i suppose i should just to be safe

 

[11JTDI]

I used to think the TPMS was more trouble that it was worth too but on our '08 Mercedes it has successfully detected very minor leaks before they became problematic on two occasions. I have more important things to do than check my tire pressures weekly.

I remember the first time it said "correct tire pressure" I thought to myself "are they using 'correct' as a noun or adjective"? They surely could have worded that better!

Turns out it was a noun and one of my tires was 3 PSI low and had a nail in it. Ours has two stages - the white "correct tire pressure" warning is for small variations and the red "CHECK TIRE IMMEDIATELY" is for severe leaks. I have never seen the red warning, fortunately.

I know this is old but it was at the top of the page since someone recently posted to it so I had to say something.....

A Noun is a person, place, or thing so I don't think 'correct' is a noun, EVER! I've never met a person named 'correct' you cannot GO to 'correct' and I have never seen a 'correct'

I think you meant to say 'correct' is a verb since it was telling you to perform an action!

 

[11JTDI]

I had mine done on Tuesday. If it comes on again, with no apparent loss of air in the tires, I will have the dealer remove those stupid sensors in the tires and disable the dash light by VagCom...just like my DRL.

Good luck getting them to do that. TPMS is fedrally mandated on all model year 2008 and newer vehicles sold in the Untied States! So, by removing it, they would be violating federal law, just like if you remove a non-malfunctioning catalytic converter.