I had a nail in my right rear tire this morning. The red "Low Tire" light was on (the tach display) and the yellow light was on the speedo.

So off I go to get it fixed...After the nail was removed and the tire inflated and put back on the car I sort of thought the on-board computer would sense/recognize that tire's air has been re-filled and automatically shut that light off.

My question is how long will this light stay on for? Will I have to take it to a dealership and get the service dept. to clear it?

 

You can reset yourself by using the button on the turn signal. depress it several times until you get to set up, then long press it until it starts blinking. then scroll through options by pressing until you get to right area, I believe it will have picture of yellow and it will also say reset. You long press the button again until it says resetting then you need to drive car for about 5 minutes. Clearing instructions will be in owners manual if you want to reference it or if its unclear by how I described it.

 

Ahhh...ok, kinda like resetting the clock/date yada yada. I'll the check owners manual and go from there. Thanks ITMVSME

 

Just an FYI for you.

i live in an area where the temperatures can vary as much as 60 degrees from day to day during certain times of the year and that causes all kinds of problems. with the TPMS as if you set it on a hot day then the next is cold it will show you have low tires. The average pressure drop is about 1 PSI for every 10 degrees of ambient temperature drop. So if you have set it up properly for a 80 degree day and the temp drops to 40 there will be approximately a 4 PSI drop in your tires.

Now as for the TMPS it should reset itself if the low tire was fixed and went back in the same spot on the car. If it went to a different location it may not go off until reset. But if it did go back on in the same location i would check all the tires for proper pressure and you may find that they did not put enough pressure in the tire they fixed. many places only put in 32-33 psi and dont check the door sticker and if the TMPS is set for the Recommended pressure 33 or lower should definitely set it off.

 

Ok Schatzy62...this brings up other questions then. First, Tucson's high and low temps range 20 to 30 degree differences between night and day. So that can make the light come on "depending" on which temp its set at because of inflation and deflation?

Secondly, (regarding these tires) I'm the second owner of the vehicle (2009 MCCS) and the salesman explained to me that the woman who owned the MINI prior to me had just put on new tires. She didn't put the stock run-flats back on (as many don't) she put on Kuhmo Ecsta AST 205/45/R17 WHICH has a max PSI of 50. The question here is - what's the appropriate PSI for this tire? Is it still 33?

 

Yes but only 2-3 degrees is usually not enough if the right pressures are set.

As it is a 2009 MCS I believe that the door jam sticker should state about 38 PSI. But I could be wrong on that. Check the sticker and see what it states use that as a starting point and reset the TPMS on a cool morning before the temps have warmed up to much. This will ensure that the TPMS will not normally go off on you.

As for the proper pressure for that specific tire I cant say and it is also a test and change thing as well. The reason for that statement is a that with the change of stiffness in the side wall of the tire the whole suspension is going to change its reaction slightly at the recommended pressure.

What I have found is that if I use the recommended pressure in my NON Run Flat tires the rear inside edge starts to scallop and this is due to the suspension (springs and struts) being set up and designed for the stiffer sidewall of the run flat tire. So what i have done to remove this issue is to add 3 PSI to the OEM recommended pressure for the run flats. In my case the sticker state 38PSI and i now run 41 psi and this works out well. They are not over inflated and do not cause an extra harsh ride but are now stiff enough to keep from hopping on the road and causing the scalloping.

 

as a test of the tpms system on my 2012 cms all4, i let 5 psi out of the drivers rear tire, started the car and no alert...stopped the car

let out another 5 psi, now 10 psi low, got an alert immediately upon starting the engine

shut down, corrected the tire pressure by adding 10 psi, still had the alert upon starting the car, after driving 10 miles with the alert still on, i manually reset the tpms system via the button on the turn signal stalk and the alarm reset right away

scott

 

That's an excellent test bmwr606...

What I did last night was ran over to the gas station with a few quarters in hand, removed all the stem caps, and fired up the air compressor; then set each tire at 38 psi and fired up the MINI. Unfortunately, no such luck on having the system automatically detect the change. So I performed the action manually in the system and proceeded to drive the car thus shutting off the "Low Tire" red and yellow indicators and life is back to normal...cheers

and thanks to everyone who lent advice...HAPPY MOTORING!

 

i am now running 36 psi rear and 42 psi front

the tpms system does nor seem to mind at all, i have had no warnings

scott