Hi I have a 2009 Fabia mk2 which has a yellow tyre pressure warning light on the dashboard. I have checked the tyre pressures and they’re fine so I used the reset button at the side of the handbrake and the yellow warning light went off for about a second and then came back on again, I have tried this repeatedly and also tried disconnecting the battery to no avail. There are no other warning lights on and everything else seems to be working properly. The tyres have been on the car for more than a year without any issues and they’re all in good condition.

 

Does anyone know how to get the light to stay off on a more permanent basis?

 

Many Thanks

Is it possible that the TPMS has battery issues causing the warning light?

Thanks for your reply. Are you talking about the main battery? I have tried disconnecting this for a while but it had now effect on the light

No, the individual tyre sensors usually have tiny batteries in them which eventually go flat and cause an alarm unless yours uses some sort of voodoo magic rather than a wireless protocol similar to Bluetooth.

2 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

No, the individual tyre sensors usually have tiny batteries in them which eventually go flat and cause an alarm unless yours uses some sort of voodoo magic rather than a wireless protocol similar to Bluetooth.

That is only true for some manufacturer's TPMS, the usual or factory fitted system that VW Group includes in its "normal" cars, just uses the ABS sensor data - so no proper "tyre pressure" sensors with battery in them.

 

Edit:- I'm sure that I've read that this problem has happened to other people with this indirect TPMS on VW Group cars, but I can't remember reading what the usual root cause and so fix is - maybe even a software update/patch.

Edited 20 September, 20241 yr by rum4mo

Blimey, what a rubbish system, it'll only tell you if the tyre is dangerously flat, proper TPMS tells you the actual tyre pressures but relies on battery powered  sensors, these are the systems I've seen on more expensive cars.

I do not know the procedure for resetting the Fabia TPMS but the ABS-driven system in the Honda Jazz depended on driving for a spell. Confirm in your owner's manual if something similar needs to be done. The Jazz TPMS triggered on just a few PSI loss of pressure but was sensitive to tread depth. It was lost if you had a worn tyre on one side and a new one on the other.

9 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

Blimey, what a rubbish system, it'll only tell you if the tyre is dangerously flat, proper TPMS tells you the actual tyre pressures but relies on battery powered  sensors, these are the systems I've seen on more expensive cars.

 

Maybe surprisingly they can or do work fine, I ended up with a chipboard screw in the centre of a rear tyre on my wife's 2015 Polo a couple of weeks ago!

 

I had just left my local Skoda parts place (easier to get to than the local VW place), and the warning appeared as I drove up a slip road onto the city bypass, now, as I've had "ghost" warnings in the past on both of our cars, I chose to go by "feel", which seemed to be okay, and drove on to Screwfix a few miles further on, got out and checked the tyre that the alarm was indicating was the problem, the side wall felt less firm than it should - but the nice shiny screw sticking out of the centre of the tread really confirmed that that tyre was needing attention!

 

So I managed to get home and stick a trolley jack under that wheel before it lost too much of its air - lucky I suppose.

 

I've had a few occasions on my own car when its winter wheels were leaking air past the valve bodies where I've been reminded to top a tyre up, and the drop in pressure was only 5 > 8PSI down from where it had been at my previous tyre pressure check. (ended up with all the powder coated ie refurbished alloys leaking at the valve area - I've worked out that this was due to this being the point where the alloys get suspended from when being powder coated and so does not get any covering so will always end up with corrosion starting there)

24 minutes ago, Jocko said:

I do not know the procedure for resetting the Fabia TPMS but the ABS-driven system in the Honda Jazz depended on driving for a spell. Confirm in your owner's manual if something similar needs to be done. The Jazz TPMS triggered on just a few PSI loss of pressure but was sensitive to tread depth. It was lost if you had a worn tyre on one side and a new one on the other.

 

It is really just, with the car stationary, after checking and correcting the tyre pressures, go into the TPMS menu, STORE new pressures, then CONFIRM, then drive off and the system will quickly collect the data from all 4 wheels.

The system on the Fabia and nearly all Skoda was and is as was introduced to warn BMW drivers and others that might not even notice a Run Flat tyre had a puncture decades back.   It knows nothing about Pressure.  Just the circumference of the tyre and rotations.  Then once logged if there is enough of a change.  That is not only a loss of pressure.  The system can detect an increase in diameter and this is when some think they get a false reading.   Bearing going or brake binding and the hub and wheel getting hot and the air in the tyres and the wheel expending.   The system might be simple, but checking pressures and resetting the TPMS is as well. All tyre pressures do not need to be the same. Or even tyre size.  You can fit the odd one out spare, reset the TPMS and not get a warning. 

21 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

Blimey, what a rubbish system, it'll only tell you if the tyre is dangerously flat, proper TPMS tells you the actual tyre pressures but relies on battery powered  sensors, these are the systems I've seen on more expensive cars.

 

Its nice to be able to see the pressures but it does come at a small cost and inconvenience when the car gets 10+ years old when the valve stems have never been changed as they don't change them by default like they do a regular valve stem.