TPMS issue

[iliketurtles]

The guy I bought my 135 from gave me the BMW winter tire package... I dont drive the 135 in the winter so I decided to slap the set on my 328i. I know the tires/rims have the tpms sensors but for whatever reason refuse to register with the 328 (after multiple resets). I get the flat tire symbol with INACTIVE on the display.

The winter tires haven't been used for 2-3 years - do tmps sensors go bad if not used for extended periods of time? Thanks

[cochise325]

Do the valve stems look the same between your winter tires and summer tires?

[Pyewacket69]

I've never had the need for a second set of wheels/tires for winter driving, so this may be completely invalid, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that the individual TPMS wheel sensors need to be registered to the vehicle, and there's a limit of how many that can be registered at one time.

I have no idea if that's true, or how you might go about doing the registration.

I do know that my 2009 Tacoma pickup manual states that as a necessary procedure, and states it's a "dealership" function, so I may be getting the 2 makes confused.

I'm curious to see the "fix" for your issue...

[cochise325]

My 2006 325xi Sport Wagon does not use a tpms sensor mounted in the wheel. But the car still looks for a soft tire, by using the wheel speed sensors. A soft tire wants to rotate slower than one that is fully inflated, so the car senses it and notifies the driver. My valve stems therefore look different than a wheel that has a tpms sensor in the wheel. That is why I posed the question about his winter wheel valve stems and his summer wheel valve stems.

[iliketurtles]

This has been helpful and gave me some new ideas for searching - i came across something that says the communication frequency for the BMW tpms changed in 2010. The winter package was on an 08 and my 328 is an 11...

I think it might be that the tmps sensors in the tires are out of date for my car... Argh - i can get the right sensor (oem) off eBay for about 100 bucks for 4, but I question my resolve to make the indicator light go away for this season.

[Pyewacket69]

I think I'd make a call to a dealership and ask a few questions before making any purchasing decisions...

[iliketurtles]

I got a note from shoptpms that generally confirms my earlier findings... the protocol for communication changed between 08 and 11 - need to get modern tpms sensors!