Do Denso TPMS transmitters need to be activated/turned on? (1 Viewer)

[bloc]

Hello all,

I wanted to put TPMS in my new-to-me rock warriors. I ordered four of the the Denso 550-0103 transmitters off Amazon.. part number cross referenced from rockauto. Per my research this is a Pacific Industries made, denso-supplied version of what comes OEM on my 2013 cruiser.. and they look exactly like what I see in pictures and such.

Installed everything, mounted tires, and finally got around to bringing the tires back to the shop to have the TPMS recoded. (Techstream doesn't want to work).

Odd thing is the tire shop's tool can't pick up any signal from the TPMS transmitters in the wheels. Not that it's not the right frequency or anything.. which should only impact the vehicle reading the signal.. just.. nothing. The old factory spare with TPMS is readable instantly with his scanner.

Do these things need to be switched on or activated or something prior to use? I can't find anything about it online and their tech said he's never heard of a sensor like this. He did try some kind of electronic "unlock" that his scanner had, but I'm betting that is for clonable sensors only.

I don't want to run clonable sensors as I prefer denso quality and reports of the battery life on these are great.

Any Ideas?

 

[bloc]

 

[bloc]

ANNDD... all I had to do was look a little harder.

This document mentions a "trigger tool"

https://www.carid.com/images/denso/tpms-sensors/pdf/tpms-sensors-installation-instructions.pdf

Then on this page under TPMS Tool General Knowledge it says they are shipped in sleep mode and you need a specific trigger tool to activate the sensor

FAQ - ATEQ-TPMS

Questions fréquentes concernant les outils TPMS ATEQ

www.ateq-tpms.com

Leaving this little learning experience up for board knowledge.. even if I look a little dumb.

 

[tominboise]

I just had a set of these installed in my rock warriors a week ago. The tech at the tire shop turned them on using his tool. He tried to clone them to the original set first but was unable to, so just activated them and linked them to the 200. They have been working great. I used Denso 550-0103 from Amazon.

 

[bloc]

I'm beginning to think the tech wasn't familiar with the process to activate this type of sensor. I checked the manual on the unit they have and it should work.. Going back next week with more info on their programmer and hopefully this will get sorted out.

 

[bloc]

I just had a set of these installed in my rock warriors a week ago. The tech at the tire shop turned them on using his tool. He tried to clone them to the original set first but was unable to, so just activated them and linked them to the 200. They have been working great. I used Denso 550-0103 from Amazon.

What tire shop was this? A national chain?

My Discount is so far totally unable to activate the transmitters. They split the bead to hold their unit next to the Denso part and still nothing. I even looked up documentation on their scanner to see if they were using it correctly and they were.. And they said they haven't had issues with other Toyotas, though I doubt many people are bringing them new in the box toyota transmitters, let alone landcruisers/LXs in case they use a different TPMS system.

Thanks for the info though. This is turning into a huge pain in the ass, and the problem seems to be that the experts (the tire shop) doesn't know what they are doing. Including trying to jack up my truck by the skid plates AGAIN.

 

[tominboise]

It was a Big O tire shop in Boise, Idaho.

 

[bloc]

So i verified that Discount was using the correct procedure in their programmer and still they couldn't get the sensors to wake.. even with breaking a bead and holding the unit up against the sensor. Not quite sure what to do next.. maybe call bigO and find out what tool they used. Leaving for Yosemite friday and don't want to stare at the TPMS light the whole way..

 

[RET2]

They may need to be activated prior to install?

 

[40Man]

I had two new Denso sensors put in and activated at Discount yesterday. They programmed no problem.

 

[bloc]

"activating" is exactly what Discount never could figure out. Ended up bringing it to toyota earlier and they programmed and they now work fine.

For the record the tech at toyota said they dont need to "activate" factory sensors with RF or anything described in the denso literature.. once you put pressure on them they wake up and start transmitting. It's possible the literature is for different models or something..

The thing that is throwing me for a loop is discount's device would read my spare with the original sensor perfectly. Move to the new transmitters, even days after they've been assembled and had pressure, and the same procedure wouldn't pick up a signal. And yet toyota just programs the IDs into the TPMS module and it's working.

I kinda want to get to the bottom of this.. If for nothing else than to understand how the system works.

 

[40Man]

"activating" is exactly what Discount never could figure out. Ended up bringing it to toyota earlier and they programmed and they now work fine.

For the record the tech at toyota said they dont need to "activate" factory sensors with RF or anything described in the denso literature.. once you put pressure on them they wake up and start transmitting. It's possible the literature is for different models or something..

The thing that is throwing me for a loop is discount's device would read my spare with the original sensor perfectly. Move to the new transmitters, even days after they've been assembled and had pressure, and the same procedure wouldn't pick up a signal. And yet toyota just programs the IDs into the TPMS module and it's working.

I kinda want to get to the bottom of this.. If for nothing else than to understand how the system works.

Keep in mind the Denso sensors aren't really Denso sensors. I'd look at Pacific for proper information regarding activation. IIRC, they state a large reduction in pressure or driving activates them.

How long between mounting the tires and trying to activate them? There have been times when I mounted my winter or summer tires (dedicated rims for both) and drove straight to discount and not every sensor would activate (they claimed some were dead) after driving around a while and went back and Discount was able to activate (they can wake up with large pressure changes or centrifugal force). The short drive to Discount from my house evidently wasn't enough for to wake up all the sensors in my second set of wheels/tires. So I'd try driving around a while and going back. I've also had better luck with some tire technicians than others. I purchased those exact same sensors and they activated fine yesterday at Discount, and they didn't even charge me to swap in new sensors.

It may be that the time driving around before going to Toyota activated them...Were the tires mounted on your truck when you took them in?

 

[bloc]

Keep in mind the Denso sensors aren't really Denso sensors. I'd look at Pacific for proper information regarding activation.

Very good point..

How long between mounting the tires and trying to activate them? There have been times when I mounted my winter or summer tires (dedicated rims for both) and drove straight to discount and not every sensor would activate (they claimed some were dead) after driving around a while and went back and Discount was able to activate (they can wake up with large pressure changes or centrifugal force). The short drive to Discount from my house evidently wasn't enough for to wake up all the sensors in my second set of wheels/tires. So I'd try driving around a while and going back. I've also had better luck with some tire technicians than others. I purchased those exact same sensors and they activated fine yesterday at Discount, and they didn't even charge me to swap in new sensors.

It may be that the time driving around before going to Toyota activated them...Were the tires mounted on your truck when you took them in?

Tires were attempted to activate approximately 4 days after I had them mounted. Then again at six days. And yes on the truck. Plenty of time for pressure or driving to wake them up. Then another ten days or so before getting them to toyota.


I'll see whether Pacific gives any better documentation as to what's going on. If I find a spare rock warrior I might have to go through all of this again. Keeping all my stock wheels/tires/TPMS together to sell as a package doesn't seem so cost effective at this point.

 

[lx200inAR]

Hate to drag up an old thread, but this is literally the exact situation I'm in and I know @bloc is an active member. My only new/different info is that I ordered 4 Denso 550-0103 (marked PMV-C11A) from eBay and a 5th from Amazon. The one from Amazon had, for lack of a better phrase, nicer packaging, even though technically everything was the same, the Amazon Denso sensor packaging seemed sturdier. Either way, had my tire shop install all 5 tires and sensors to a set of 5 RWs. Cut to 3 weeks later after I've finished repainting the RWs I go to install and only the Amazon sensor gets picked up by the truck. I used Carista to program the sensors through OBDII. Techstream verifies the changes as well (I need to order a VxDiag, since my version of cable wouldn't program TPMS).

Did you ever figure anything else out about what got the sensors working? I've now put a few miles on them and the TPMS light did not clear, but i haven't checked Techstream to see what's not working again. I'm assuming it's still going to show 4 sensors not connected.

Barring any revelations from this thread I'm going to take them back up to the tire store, the owner told me he'd program them for me if I didn't get it worked out.

 

[bloc]

Hate to drag up an old thread, but this is literally the exact situation I'm in and I know @bloc is an active member. My only new/different info is that I ordered 4 Denso 550-0103 (marked PMV-C11A) from eBay and a 5th from Amazon. The one from Amazon had, for lack of a better phrase, nicer packaging, even though technically everything was the same, the Amazon Denso sensor packaging seemed sturdier. Either way, had my tire shop install all 5 tires and sensors to a set of 5 RWs. Cut to 3 weeks later after I've finished repainting the RWs I go to install and only the Amazon sensor gets picked up by the truck. I used Carista to program the sensors through OBDII. Techstream verifies the changes as well (I need to order a VxDiag, since my version of cable wouldn't program TPMS).

Did you ever figure anything else out about what got the sensors working? I've now put a few miles on them and the TPMS light did not clear, but i haven't checked Techstream to see what's not working again. I'm assuming it's still going to show 4 sensors not connected.

Barring any revelations from this thread I'm going to take them back up to the tire store, the owner told me he'd program them for me if I didn't get it worked out.

I ended up bringing it to toyota and the tech there had no issue getting the original 4 to work. He did say sometimes you have to raise pressure, drop it, then raise again to get them to wake. But there is no radio/electronic “activation” to these.

I put a similar Amazon sensor in my fifth rock warrior and got it working just fine using carista.

 

[psnyman]

I ended up bringing it to toyota and the tech there had no issue getting the original 4 to work. He did say sometimes you have to raise pressure, drop it, then raise again to get them to wake. But there is no radio/electronic “activation” to these.

I put a similar Amazon sensor in my fifth rock warrior and got it working just fine using carista.

FWIW I ordered replacement Denso TPMS sensors from Toyota when I got my new wheels for my 2016 LC and Discount Tire couldn’t pick them up with their tool - turned out the serial numbers for the sensors were updated between 2016 and 2020 - when I got him to manually configure his tool with 2020, it picked them up and he was able to program them no problem

 

[lx200inAR]

I ended up bringing it to toyota and the tech there had no issue getting the original 4 to work. He did say sometimes you have to raise pressure, drop it, then raise again to get them to wake. But there is no radio/electronic “activation” to these.

I put a similar Amazon sensor in my fifth rock warrior and got it working just fine using carista.

Hmm.. well.. I have tried a cycle of drop and raise twice now and on two wheels/sensors, but haven’t tried raising -> lowering -> raising them. I’ve read both lowering 6 psi in 30 sec and 20 psi in 30 seconds. Pushing the valve lever on the valve stem will not release 20 psi in 30 seconds.. 6 psi is borderline. Do I need to get a valve stem remover to relieve air fast enough to set off the sensors?

I also am not totally convinced my eBay sensors aren’t fake.

4 eBay sensors

Vs Amazon sensor. The markings all
Match, but the markings are much more vivid on the Amazon sensor that started up like a champ.

 

[bloc]

I would be wary of fakes. And yes to the core remover.. super useful for off-road travel. I’m not familiar with the specifics of rate of drop, though.

Hearing all of this makes me want to find an actual denso distributor the next time I need sensors.

 

[TLC2013]

I was a little leary of the amazon denso sensors. The $35 price seemed almost too good to be true. So far i have bought 9 of them and they have all worked perfectly and registered on the first attempt with the carista app/obd2 reader. No need to air down and air up. I Just installed them into the wheels, programmed the TPMS ID into carista and then hit the tpms button under the steering wheel/dash.

 

[lx200inAR]

Just got back from the service station. Even more confused than before I went. I know for a fact that my front passenger sensor is the one sensor my car could read. Verified by codes entered and “data list” in tech stream. I even changed the pressure in the tire to verify tech stream updated. The tech used his sensor reader on the truck at each tire location, and of the 4 mounted sensors, his scanner could pick up all but the front passenger sensor (the one tech stream shows is working). Is there any chance that once the car has connected to the sensor that the sensor reader tool stops recognizing the sensor, perhaps to keep techs from accidentally duplicating sensors?

I hooked up tech stream and it’s still showing the one sensor working. Tried clearing the DTC, but that didn’t help.