• Sign Up! To view all forums and unlock additional cool features

    Welcome to the #1 Fiesta ST Forum and Fiesta ST community dedicated to Fiesta ST owners and enthusiasts. Register for an account, it's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the Fiesta ST Forum today!


Messages
398
Likes
51
Location
818
#61
its easy to get them to learn if you have the little tool. I bought a pair of Amazon and have a spare if anyone wants it. $7.50 plus shipping. Though ya all you have to do is get the system going in learn mode then point the little tool at the base of your valve stem when you hear your horn honk once move on to the opposite wheel aka left front to right front to right rear to left rear. After each honk move on. Once done turn the ignition off and restart the car and you should be good to go . I have done on multiple wheel sets no problem.
I'll take it from you, I'm having a malfunction on one of my sensors and it's getting annoying.
 


Intuit

3000 Post Club
Messages
3,602
Likes
2,205
Location
South West Ohio
#62
The Autel TS-401 I bought lets you know the pressure, temperature and battery state for the seensor it's activating.

Unfortunately I have to warn-off potential purchasers of the Autel devices. Defective, it won't charge its battery and since they're pretty miserly you don't find out about thee fact that it NEVER charged for all the times you plugged it in until a yeear has gone by. A search revealed this is a common issuee though, they hadn't realized exactly what was going on with it. Customer service is totally non-existent. I bought another battery and the device wouldn't output to that one either. So I have a ten foot USB extension cord that reaches from the console USB all around the car; powering the device that way.
 


Messages
10
Likes
26
Location
Northwestern, PA
#63
Sorry to bump up an old thread, but I'm having a lot of trouble with this.

Just put my new set of Summer wheels on the car this evening, and was trying to get the TPMS to relearn but not having any luck. I bought a brand new set of OEM TPMS sensors off of eBay, part# 9L3Z1A189A, and these should work. And when I bought the car back in January, the previous owner purchased a brand new OEM Ford TPMS Sensor Tool (he's a Ford mechanic at a dealership) - it's the grey/beige box with the green button, so these should all be fine.

Drove around for about 20-25 minutes or so until the TPMS warning light came on, and then pulled into a parking lot to try to get them programmed. Now, I can get the car into the TPMS learning mode without issue (doing the pedal / start button combo), but when I try to use the tool it never works. I've tried pressing the button once, continuously pressing the button rapidly, pressing and holding the button, all with no luck. I've also placed it against the sidewall of the tire near the valve stem, held it off the tire but near the valve stem, held it on the opposite side of the tire, directly in line with the valve stem (all of these were methods I found online when searching for what was going wrong), all without success.

Is there some step I'm missing? I read through this thread and some people were saying it may take days/weeks for the sensors to actually "wake up". Is this different from when the TPMS light comes on on the dash? Do I just wait and keep trying it every few days? Just frustrated as I spent about an hour and a half trying various methods to get this to work with no luck.

Any help or advice would be appreciated!
 


SteveS

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,291
Likes
1,567
Location
Osage Beach, MO, USA
#64
If you're using the device that is pictured at the start of the thread it works by putting it against the sidewall at the location of the valve stem and pressing the button. I press and hold until I hear the horn beep, which takes maybe 1 second.

I have had problems with new TPMS that were just dead. To try to diagnose that, instead of starting at drivers front tire, try the passenger front tire. It won't program the TPMS correctly, but if you get a beep there it means your driver front TPMS sensor is dead.
 


Messages
10
Likes
26
Location
Northwestern, PA
#65
If you're using the device that is pictured at the start of the thread it works by putting it against the sidewall at the location of the valve stem and pressing the button. I press and hold until I hear the horn beep, which takes maybe 1 second.

I have had problems with new TPMS that were just dead. To try to diagnose that, instead of starting at drivers front tire, try the passenger front tire. It won't program the TPMS correctly, but if you get a beep there it means your driver front TPMS sensor is dead.
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
 


Intuit

3000 Post Club
Messages
3,602
Likes
2,205
Location
South West Ohio
#66
.............. bought a brand new set of OEM TPMS sensors off of eBay ....................
I quit dealing with FleaBay about a decade ago. I literally started labeling myself an "unpaid product tester" ๐Ÿ˜…...............

BTW Update: The Autel brand TPMS device I mentioned doesn't work anymore. Turns on, tries to read, but can't reliably activate or read sensors.
 


Messages
10
Likes
26
Location
Northwestern, PA
#67
I quit dealing with FleaBay about a decade ago. I literally started labeling myself an "unpaid product tester" ๐Ÿ˜…...............

BTW Update: The Autel brand TPMS device I mentioned doesn't work anymore. Turns on, tries to read, but can't reliably activate or read sensors.

LOL! I don't shop much at eBay, but these were actual OEM Motorcraft parts (still sealed in the bags) just like I saw everyplace else, except they were the lowest price I could find. No reason to pay more for the exact same part.
 


Capri to ST

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,602
Likes
1,982
Location
CHAPEL HILL, NC, USA
#68
LOL! I don't shop much at eBay, but these were actual OEM Motorcraft parts (still sealed in the bags) just like I saw everyplace else, except they were the lowest price I could find. No reason to pay more for the exact same part.
They may be OEM Motorcraft parts, but sometimes the problem with eBay TPMS sensors is that they're old and the batteries in them are dead. This could be one reason why they are so much cheaper than everywhere else.
As @SteveS said above, sometimes even new ones can be dead, and to me this unfortunate possibility is more likely for ones bought for a price on eBay that may in hindsight seem too good to be true.
 


Dialcaliper

Active member
Messages
715
Likes
1,184
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
#69
Sorry to bump up an old thread, but I'm having a lot of trouble with this.

Just put my new set of Summer wheels on the car this evening, and was trying to get the TPMS to relearn but not having any luck. I bought a brand new set of OEM TPMS sensors off of eBay, part# 9L3Z1A189A, and these should work. And when I bought the car back in January, the previous owner purchased a brand new OEM Ford TPMS Sensor Tool (he's a Ford mechanic at a dealership) - it's the grey/beige box with the green button, so these should all be fine.

Drove around for about 20-25 minutes or so until the TPMS warning light came on, and then pulled into a parking lot to try to get them programmed. Now, I can get the car into the TPMS learning mode without issue (doing the pedal / start button combo), but when I try to use the tool it never works. I've tried pressing the button once, continuously pressing the button rapidly, pressing and holding the button, all with no luck. I've also placed it against the sidewall of the tire near the valve stem, held it off the tire but near the valve stem, held it on the opposite side of the tire, directly in line with the valve stem (all of these were methods I found online when searching for what was going wrong), all without success.

Is there some step I'm missing? I read through this thread and some people were saying it may take days/weeks for the sensors to actually "wake up". Is this different from when the TPMS light comes on on the dash? Do I just wait and keep trying it every few days? Just frustrated as I spent about an hour and a half trying various methods to get this to work with no luck.

Any help or advice would be appreciated!
Another problem with the EBay sensors is that anything with a price that seems โ€œreally goodโ€ (like $50 for a set) is more than likely one of the fairly convincing looking fakes that are rampant on EBay/Amazon - theyโ€™re even the right shape, marked Ford/Motorcraft and bagged with the correct part number, but there are usually subtle differences in the bag and on the sensor. The worst part is that some of them actually work sometimes but the quality control is garbage.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L6TgvSxVQ6k


Sadly, if youโ€™re not paying ~$50 per sensor (not per set), youโ€™re probably not getting authentic Motorcraft ones. Thereโ€™s no magical way that they are somehow getting ahold of the real units and selling them for 1/4 price for a profit, unless as mentioned above, they are units so old they probably have dead batteries already (which takes a long time for coin cells). Thereโ€™s the old saying, โ€œIf it looks too good to be trueโ€ฆโ€

If you need cheaper, youโ€™re far better off buying the aftermarket universal Schrader units (which is the company that actually makes the OEMs for Ford/Motorcraft). Or any of the other reputable aftermarket brands. Youโ€™ll pay a bit more than the eBay ripoffs, but they usually work.

Rockauto has the best price Iโ€™ve seen for the Motorcraft and decent prices on the aftermarket ones.
 


Last edited:

Capri to ST

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,602
Likes
1,982
Location
CHAPEL HILL, NC, USA
#71
When I checked my dealer for prices, I was quoted over $90 EACH!
I checked RockAuto on the suggestion of @Dialcaliper above, and they are about $47 each. As he says, this would appear to be the cheapest price that you can pay for TPMS sensors that you can trust to be the real thing.
When and if I need new ones I will either buy those from RockAuto, or get them from a reliable Ford parts website.
If you're like me and don't have the ability to put them on yourself, you're also not really saving money if you get crappy ones that have to be replaced, because you've got to pay somebody twice to install them, in addition to paying once for the crappy fake ones and once for the more expensive real ones. That's not even factoring in the hassle, annoyance, and waste of time of dealing with some that don't work.
I experienced some of that when I had my one year old ones switched over to my aftermarket wheels by a tire place that assured me they could switch them over without damaging them. It turned out that they couldn't. Two of them couldn't be reprogrammed, and it finally turned out that they had broken them, all of which caused me one extra trip to the dealer who couldn't program them, and then an extra trip back to the tire place who finally reluctantly stepped up to the plate and installed new ones, which they got at a Ford dealer, at their expense.
 


Last edited:

Intuit

3000 Post Club
Messages
3,602
Likes
2,205
Location
South West Ohio
#72
............... hoping that it's just a matter of getting the sensors to "wake up", as reading the thread some people had to wait quite a while after putting in new sensors before the tool would work; days sometimes, or even weeks. Hoping it's just this and not that the sensors are dead. I'll work on them a little more and give it some more time. If I don't see any results in a couple of weeks however, I'll have to look at getting some new sensors. Do you have a retailer you've had good luck with, or should I just order them from my local Ford dealership?
Been awhile but memory serving, I bought a set from a seller here on the forums... yeah I think that's what I did.
The "wake up" issue is what prompted me to replace them.
Previous years I'd drive around, then reattempt... eventually get them all to trigger.
Well, that year there was one that just wouldn't "wake up" or trigger. Didn't make sense to just replace one if the battery was done.
So that's when I bought another set from a seller here on the forum.
Tire people installed and synced with the vehicle.
Next season swapping between Summer/Winter tires, I had the same issue with "wake up".
That immediately told me that my original sensors were actually good.
I started placing the tool at the base of the stem inside the wheel, instead of the tire.
They all consistently triggered that way.
But this year doing the same thing, I couldn't get any to trigger.
For the first time this year I started using my OEM triggering tool (instead of the picky/weak/intermittent/DEFECTIVE Autel tool) and never had to "wake up" a sensor following storage.
1681678861427.png
They all trigger, immediately with no fuss. Didn't matter if I had it at the tire or inside the rim.
Just to be sure it wasn't a "wake up" issue, I tried to reuse the defective tool and had the same non-functional experience.
(Well, on multiple attempts it did read one sensor but that was just once and couldn't get a repeat.)
If you're using an OEM trigger tool, test its battery voltage.. maybe it's low?
 


Last edited:
Messages
10
Likes
26
Location
Northwestern, PA
#73
Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I'll start carrying the TPMS Sensor Tool around with me in the car so that I can try to get it to trigger regularly. I'm really mostly using the car to commute back and forth to work in so I don't put many miles on it, so I'll give it a couple of weeks and if I still don't have any luck I'll go ahead and order some new sensors, either from Rockauto (as suggested) or from my local Ford dealer.
 


SteveS

1000 Post Club
Messages
1,291
Likes
1,567
Location
Osage Beach, MO, USA
#74
When I had bad ones out of the box I used the training tool on every wheel to identify which sensors worked and which didn't. Then when I got a new one to replace the bad one, I tested it before I had it swapped into the tire.
 




Top