Low Tire Pressure Sensor fail?

[johnrando]

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/johnrando/IMG-20110718-00014.jpg

The manual says a red low tire pressure indicator means that it's malfunctioning. Before I go into the dealer (figure it's got to be covered under CPO, but it's a $50 deductible), any ideas? Certainly didn't hit anything, etc... guess it just went bad? Common thing? Is there one of these per tire?

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Try resetting it. See if that comes back.

[johnrando]

I wasn't exactly sure how to reset. I pushed/held a few buttons on the dash, and it didn't work, but I was very busy and didn't have time to follow up. I'll look up how to reset it and try that. Thanks for the reminder.

[wsmeyer]

If the system is malfunctioning it flashes yellow five times then solid yellow. Red means flat or low tire. The system on the 2006 330 is fairly primitive as it doesn't use any wheel sensors to actually read the tire pressure it just monitors the difference in rpm of each wheel.

First check the tire pressure in each wheel and make sure they are even side to side.

To reset the system, while stopped push and hold the button until the light comes on yellow, drive in a straight line until it turns off.

Sadly I became a pseudo expert on these stupid things because we had so many problems with the TPMS on our X3 that BMW ended up buying the car back.

Lastly, if it really is malfunctioning do not under any circumstances take it to South Bay BMW, they are completely incompetent and try to convince you it's a tire issue that's not covered under any warranty.

William.

[johnrando]

Thanks for the tip/info.