[champignon]

I'm off tomorrow on a trip for 4 weeks, so I elected to have a new set of mounted snow tires put on my 2018 6MT LCI M2 yesterday (Saturday) at the dealer.

I ordered the set of snow tires from Tire Rack. The tires are 245/40R18 Micehlin Alpin PA4 all around (square setup), mounted on 18x8 MSW Type 77 Rims, with Continental 433MHZ Sensors (at $33/each) installed by the Tire Rack, who also mounted and balanced the tires.

The tires arrived earlier on in the week from a Tire Rack warehouse in Nevada which is a 1-day transit time delivery. There was no evidence of any damage to the tires or wheels in transit.

When the tech brought the car back to me with the snow tires installed, he said that he had driven the car around the block to reset the TPMS system to the new tires and sensors, but that the reset process hadn't completed yet and would probably complete shortly after I drove the car further, otherwise there might be a problem with the sensor(s) in the tires.

I performed another reset and and the status monitor went up to "49%" progress in resetting but never went beyond this, then indicated a "Tire Pressure Monitoring System Malfunction." The message said I would need to check the tire pressure manually, that it was safe to drive the car, but the TPMS system was not monitoring the tire pressures. I had the 4 original summer tires inside the car and trunk so I thought that maybe there was some interference from the sensors in the dismounted tires in the car, so I drove home and removed the summer tires and piled them up in the garage. Then I drove off again and tried another reset on the TPMS system.

After removing the summer tires from the car interior and trunk, the reset never progressed beyond "0%." I have now tried this about 4 or 5 times, now on 2 different days, and the reset never goes anywhere, does not progress to even 1% from 0%, and then ends up showing a system malfunction with the above error messages.

My working hypothesis is that either the sensors mounted in these tires are incompatible with the M2 in some way (wrong frequency, who knows what), there is 1 or more bad sensors mounted in the tires, or maybe they even forgot to put the sensors in the tires in the first place even though they are listed on the invoice and I paid for them. What is surprising to me is that if there was a single bad sensor, which mathematically would seem possible, but not 4 of them, I would think that the car would tell me which tires it can read the pressure on and which it cannot? But I get nothing, just a "Tire Pressure Measuring System Malfunction."

I never had any issues with the Continental summer tires mounted on the vehicle nor was never alerted to any TPMS issues while they were mounted, which makes me doubt that the problem is with the BMW hardware, as opposed to the mounted tires I just got from the Tire Rack. The only other change is going from the staggered 19" tires to the square 18" tires, which seems to me would not effect this system at all.

Any suggestions are very much welcomed! Thanks in advance! I'll be calling Tire Rack tomorrow morning however they won't be able to do anything on this until I return from my upcoming trip, plus perhaps there is some obvious reason for this behavior which a forum reader can point out to me in this thread.

[M Fifty]

Well, you should be able to tell if there are sensors fitted just by looking at the tyre valve stem: If they are rubber - you don't have sensors.

Maybe put the original wheels back on and try a reset just to check everything is working.

Either way, call the supplier.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by M Fifty

Well, you should be able to tell if there are sensors fitted just by looking at the tyre valve stem: If they are rubber - you don't have sensors.

Maybe put the original wheels back on and try a reset just to check everything is working.

Either way, call the supplier.

I'm definitely calling Tire Rack tomorrow morning.

The valve stems are metal, presumably indicating that the sensors, functional or not, were installed.

Taking the tires back off and putting the original ones on doesn't strike me as worth the effort. These systems are very finicky and if there was any issue whatsoever with the system previously, with the OEM tires installed, there would have been an idiot light illuminated before and there never was the slightest indication of problems the last 6 months. Of course, the system could have broken on its first attempted reset, but the dealer should be able to figure that out without having to remount the original tires.

What is surprising to me is that if there was just 1 tire sensor transmission not being received, I would expect the system in the car to inform me of that, in some way, for example showing pressures for 3 tires but not for the 4th one. Rather, the system is acting as though there are no sensors whatsoever installed in the tires. I can always go back to the dealer, but that will have to wait until October when I come back from my trip.

There appears to have been a change of some sort in the sensors and their transmitting protocols sometime either n 2008 or 2011, from what I have read. I wouldn't think there would be any confusion about which kind to put into the 2018 M2, however, so barring some clown at Tire Rack in his first day on the job, it doesn't seem likely that they would have put the wrong sort of sensors in.

[champignon]

I called the Tire Rack this morning and what they told me is that when they ship a set of mounted tires with TPMS sensors, the sensors are inactive until "awakened" after mounting. Apparently they do this to preserve battery life in the sensors, since once the battery is exhausted the entire sensor needs to be replaced.

What they told me to do was to deflate the tires to about 10 PSI, then re-inflate the tires to their recommended pressures. This action will turn the sensors on and they will stay on at that point. I was told to do this in a "clockwise direction" around the car; the lady I spoke with didn't know why they recommend going in this direction, however that is what she is supposed to tell you to do. I did it. I haven't driven the car yet so I can't comment on how this has worked.

The lady I spoke with said that this is normal and to be expected with a new set of tires with sensors shipped from the Tire Rack. She told me to call back if the problem doesn't resolve itself with this procedure.

[bmwizgoat]

Originally Posted by champignon

I called the Tire Rack this morning and what they told me is that when they ship a set of mounted tires with TPMS sensors, the sensors are inactive until "awakened" after mounting. Apparently they do this to preserve battery life in the sensors, since once the battery is exhausted the entire sensor needs to be replaced.

What they told me to do was to deflate the tires to about 10 PSI, then re-inflate the tires to their recommended pressures. This action will turn the sensors on and they will stay on at that point. I was told to do this in a "clockwise direction" around the car; the lady I spoke with didn't know why they recommend going in this direction, however that is what she is supposed to tell you to do. I did it. I haven't driven the car yet so I can't comment on how this has worked.

The lady I spoke with said that this is normal and to be expected with a new set of tires with sensors shipped from the Tire Rack. She told me to call back if the problem doesn't resolve itself with this procedure.

What's the verdict ? Also my car is a Canadian so I'm wondering if tpms will work.... we just have the "ok" sign

[AndrewC1989]

I had this problem as well on my 328 when I put a new set of wheels and tires on it

No idea how it was fixed though (I made my dealer do it)

[champignon]

Did not work, tried again to reset 2 times. Going to call Tire Rack and the dealer, something is malfunctioning, either the car's TPMS system or the sensors, don't know which yet.

[champignon]

Tire Rack told me that there was no further investigation that they could have me do (following rather extensive instructions already sent to me for self-testing). They told me to go to the dealer have them check it out, which hopefully will be covered under the warranty. Tire Rack said that most or all of their tire testing is done with BMWs, that they have a really good relationship with their local BMW dealer in Indiana, so it isn't like they aren't familiar with the cars, but the absence of any localizing information as to which tire, etc., just an overall Tire Sensor malfunction, made further troubleshooting on their end impossible.

I have run out of time, in fact I'm in France now, so can't deal with this until my return the middle of October. I have an appointment scheduled at the dealer then to sort this out (hopefully).

[boostm3]

That happened to me when I received my winter wheel pkg from Apex. Reset wouldnt complete beyond 49% also. I took the car to Pep Boys who scanned the sensors with a tpms scanner and found one of them was not reporting and therefore defective. Apex sent me a new sensor which i had installed in the wheel that wasnt reporting, and all was well after that.

[rich8566]

Originally Posted by champignon

I called the Tire Rack this morning and what they told me is that when they ship a set of mounted tires with TPMS sensors, the sensors are inactive until "awakened" after mounting. Apparently they do this to preserve battery life in the sensors, since once the battery is exhausted the entire sensor needs to be replaced.

What they told me to do was to deflate the tires to about 10 PSI, then re-inflate the tires to their recommended pressures. This action will turn the sensors on and they will stay on at that point. I was told to do this in a "clockwise direction" around the car; the lady I spoke with didn't know why they recommend going in this direction, however that is what she is supposed to tell you to do. I did it. I haven't driven the car yet so I can't comment on how this has worked.

The lady I spoke with said that this is normal and to be expected with a new set of tires with sensors shipped from the Tire Rack. She told me to call back if the problem doesn't resolve itself with this procedure.

Not for nothing I've order several sets of wheels and tires from the tire rack for a variety of BMWs and all had TPM sensors and I did not have any issues at all in terms of activating the tire sensor monitors. Let's hear from you if the deflate/inflate game works out.

[DanG]

Originally Posted by rich8566

Not for nothing I've order several sets of wheels and tires from the tire rack for a variety of BMWs and all had TPM sensors and I did not have any issues at all in terms of activating the tire sensor monitors. Let's hear from you if the deflate/inflate game works out.

He tried the deflate inflate game. No success.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by boostm3

That happened to me when I received my winter wheel pkg from Apex. Reset wouldnt complete beyond 49% also. I took the car to Pep Boys who scanned the sensors with a tpms scanner and found one of them was not reporting and therefore defective. Apex sent me a new sensor which i had installed in the wheel that wasnt reporting, and all was well after that.

Bingo. That is probably what is going on, since it seems to mirror my own experience more or less 100%. Might be more than one sensor. If I incur any additional cost in this process, I am going to try to get Tire Rack to reimburse me for it. When I get back from my trip and go back to the dealer, i'll report back on what was found.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by rich8566

Not for nothing I've order several sets of wheels and tires from the tire rack for a variety of BMWs and all had TPM sensors and I did not have any issues at all in terms of activating the tire sensor monitors. Let's hear from you if the deflate/inflate game works out.

As above, I already tried that. And like you, this is the first problem I've had with wheel and tire sets I've ordered from the Tire Rack, for BMWs and for other cars as well.

I really hate the TPMS system using the sensors. I have other cars that use the other system (ABS I think it is called) and although it might be slightly less sensitive, you also get way fewer false TPMS warnings, and the system is way more reliable by eliminating yet another part that can go bad.

[boostm3]

Originally Posted by champignon

Bingo. That is probably what is going on, since it seems to mirror my own experience more or less 100%. Might be more than one sensor. If I incur any additional cost in this process, I am going to try to get Tire Rack to reimburse me for it. When I get back from my trip and go back to the dealer, i'll report back on what was found.

Pep Boys up here does the tpms scan similarly to the way Autozone will scan for check engine fault codes: FREE!

[///M TOWN]

Originally Posted by andrewc89

I had this problem as well on my 328 when I put a new set of wheels and tires on it

No idea how it was fixed though (I made my dealer do it)

That's the advantage of not ordering by mail.

OP I hope you can get it resolved.

[pz619]

Well, this is concerning. Considering I just bought 4 sensors off tire rack last week.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by eDrive

That's the advantage of not ordering by mail.

OP I hope you can get it resolved.

Assuming that there is 1 or more defective sensors in the set of tires I received, I think this points out a serious deficiency in how BMW has implemented the sensor reset logic within the vehicle. Since the system is capable of monitoring each tire independently and reporting on the pressure present in each tire, it can be reasonably expected that this same system should be able to report that a given sensor is not functioning and can't be recognized.

That information would be hugely more useful than simply giving a global
"Tire Sensor Management System Malfunction" error, which is simply brainless.

[///M TOWN]

Originally Posted by champignon

Assuming that there is 1 or more defective sensors in the set of tires I received, I think this points out a serious deficiency in how BMW has implemented the sensor reset logic within the vehicle. Since the system is capable of monitoring each tire independently and reporting on the pressure present in each tire, it can be reasonably expected that this same system should be able to report that a given sensor is not functioning and can't be recognized.

That information would be hugely more useful than simply giving a global
"Tire Sensor Management System Malfunction" error, which is simply brainless.

I am in agreement with you.

[ZPrime]

Originally Posted by champignon

I called the Tire Rack this morning and what they told me is that when they ship a set of mounted tires with TPMS sensors, the sensors are inactive until "awakened" after mounting. Apparently they do this to preserve battery life in the sensors, since once the battery is exhausted the entire sensor needs to be replaced.

What they told me to do was to deflate the tires to about 10 PSI, then re-inflate the tires to their recommended pressures. This action will turn the sensors on and they will stay on at that point. I was told to do this in a "clockwise direction" around the car; the lady I spoke with didn't know why they recommend going in this direction, however that is what she is supposed to tell you to do. I did it. I haven't driven the car yet so I can't comment on how this has worked.

The lady I spoke with said that this is normal and to be expected with a new set of tires with sensors shipped from the Tire Rack. She told me to call back if the problem doesn't resolve itself with this procedure.

This is a complete pile of BS. Alternatively, they don't always send the sensors out "asleep."

I say that because my wheels and tires are also MSW Type 77 from TireRack, and I also purchased their sensors... and I didn't have to do anything other than throw the wheels on the car, reset the TPMS, and drive around for a mile or two to get the car to learn them.

[ZPrime]

Originally Posted by champignon

Assuming that there is 1 or more defective sensors in the set of tires I received, I think this points out a serious deficiency in how BMW has implemented the sensor reset logic within the vehicle. Since the system is capable of monitoring each tire independently and reporting on the pressure present in each tire, it can be reasonably expected that this same system should be able to report that a given sensor is not functioning and can't be recognized.

That information would be hugely more useful than simply giving a global
"Tire Sensor Management System Malfunction" error, which is simply brainless.

I also agree it is stupid... but I'm guessing there's a reason for it.

You could always test by putting on 3 tires from your summer set and one of the winter, one wheel at a time... but that would be a major PITA. I'd just take it anywhere that can test TPMS and they should be able to figure it out.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by ZPrime

This is a complete pile of BS. Alternatively, they don't always send the sensors out "asleep."

I say that because my wheels and tires are also MSW Type 77 from TireRack, and I also purchased their sensors... and I didn't have to do anything other than throw the wheels on the car, reset the TPMS, and drive around for a mile or two to get the car to learn them.

As I pointed out, my prior sets of tires on rims always worked the first time I tried to reset them.

I believe that it is possible that when Tire Rack buys sensors that they come in a dormant state, to be "awoken" when they are installed on the rims. That would sort of make sense. I also believe that in the normal course of affairs, that if something needs to be done to "awaken" the sensors, such as inflating and deflating the tire once, that this would be something that the Tire Rack would do as part of their normal quality assurance and assembly process. Given human frailties and the potential for screw ups, especially when they get busy, I think it is possible that on occasion the tech might fail to go through an inflation and deflation cycle on one or more tires. Given the huge volume of tires that the Tire Rack sends out, complete adherence to all normal procedures would probably be expecting too much of any process that includes human inputs.

With the above, and since it is likely that a tech might screw up from time to time, and obviously with the desire to put their best foot forward in front of the public, it makes sense that the phone reps would have a set of "talking points" for dealing with customers receiving tires with non-functioning TPMS sensors. I was presumably the beneficiary of receiving that "script."

So, I agree that it is probably NOT normal for tires to arrive at the customer's door with non-functioning sensors, or the telephone reps at Tire Rack would be spending a huge amount of time answering calls about this situation, rather they want to give the impression of normalcy when it does occur. And of course, one cannot rule out 100% that a tire might have had a functioning sensor when shipped, but that the sensor no longer functions after it was installed, due to shipping trauma or just plain failure of the sensor.

So I agree that it is "BS," but it's purposeful BS :-)

[champignon]

I have a mid-course update on the TPMS problems with my car.

I was out of town for a month, so all I could do was to wait for an appointment with the dealer on my return. In the interim, I contacted the Tire Rack and told them that everything I had read indicates that the problem is with the sensors they installed (and charged me for) in the 4 snow tires. I asked them to send me 2 spare, working, sensors, that I could take to the dealer on my upcoming visit so that the dealer could both diagnose and fix the problem in one visit. I dropped the car off and was given a loaner.

An hour later I was called by the SA and told that ALL FOUR sensors in the tires were defective, and that there was no point in replacing two of them as this would just be a waste of time; I should get the remaining two and make another appointment to have all 4 sensors replaced. I asked the SA if they could test the 2 spare sensors I had been sent, so as to assure that they were functional, which they did, and I was told that they were OK.

I contacted the Tire Rack again and they have sent two more sensors. Owing to my need to get snow tires on yet another car (VW R) before it starts to snow in the mountains, I can't take the M2 back in to fix this problem until mid-November (I live 160+ miles from the dealer, most of the time).

Hopefully, the next visit in to the dealer will be the last one for this issue. It is hard to believe that the Tire Rack could possible send out 4 defective sensors in one set of 4 tires; seems to defy the odds. What seems much more likely to me is that the sensors initially installed were functional, but not compatible with the car, and that they are intended for cars other than a 2018 M2.