Hello all!
I am the extremely happy owner of a very early (Dec 2005) GS300 S190. As ever, the car runs like a watch and cossets its occupants in silent comfort - with one exception - the incessant soft ping of the TPMS 'check system' warning...
The original sensors lasted well, i bought the car at 10 years old (and 67K, full Lexus service history) and it was another couple of years before the sensors started failing.
I had 2 of them replaced about 2 years ago, and my local Farmers (tyre depot-type place) made a good job - they clone their own generic sensors to match the codes on the existing ones.
About 9 months ago (January in Scotland, surprise, surprise), the TPMS 'check system' light came back on. I cleared the fault using my OBD tool, and it didn't reappear for another few weeks. I've been driving it like that until the MOT was due (a month from now).
I took it in for MOT and service (trusted independent mechanic) and he sent it to his own tyre depot to have the dead (#3 according to OBD) sensor replaced. It came back from his tyre depot with a new (Schrader) sensor, but also a note from them saying they'd been unable to program the new code into the ECU via OBD. I don't know why they didn't just clone from the old sensor. This left both the 'check system' and 'low tire' messages on the display.
I took the car into my local Farmers this afternoon. They succeeded in programming the new ID code into the ECU via OBD, but when they re-initialised the TPMS system, the two error messages remained on the display. Even stranger, when they then used their TPMS scanner to read the codes from all 4 wheels, all 4 came back with the same ID code - that of the new sensor. They checked the scanner on another vehicle, and it correctly read all 4 unique IDs on that vehicle, then the same -i.e. all 4 same ID code - on mine. OBD however apparently shows the three existing sensors, with their own unique ID codes and pressure readings, and shows sensor 3 as absent (no pressure reading, tyre temp at -40, etc.
I am beginning to suspect the sensor that my mechanic's tyre fitted is at fault here.
Has anyone else seen this particular, or a similar problem, before? I will post a couple of photos of the packaging from the new sensor. The photo label in particular looks dodgy - not sure how clearly it will come out but the quality of printing on the 'EZ -Sensor' part and the photo are poor.