[jtkk]

Hello my name is Jerry, I live in Missouri, just bought a 2006 Jeep Commander Limited 4x4 Quadra Drive II, 69,000 miles, DVD,Navigation, Integrated phone, Moonroof package, Brand new tires,Tow package, V8 4.7L(no hemi) and every single power option available, Leather, got it for $15,000, Trade in on this vehicle Excellent condition, and it is , was $16,400 NADA trade in value. One problem , need help, the tpms light indicator is not coming on but in the information center it says "service tire pressure system" where I bought it here in Missouri (Bommarito Honda) they are paying for me to take it Jeep Dealer to service this problem, well went there and they said all sensors are working just fine( even the spare) and they reset system drove it for 3 miles and "service tire pressure system" came back on, also in the information center I told them that the spot where it shows a picture of my jeep and how much pressure is in each tire the rear drivers wheel is reading for the front passengers wheel and the front passengers wheel is reading for the rear drivers wheel, dont know why system is not picking this up, yesterday just by chance I took and swapped them 2 wheels with each other and problem solved, still think that this cant be right because they said when rotating tires this should not happen, they said they will look at it again, HAS ANYBODY GONE THROUGH THIS AND WHAT IS THE CORRECT SOLUTION, PLEASE HELP, also am looking to buy some chrome dress up items if anybody has, intersted in fuel door,door handle covers, mirror covers,bug shield with Jeep logo, window rain guards, and nerf bars, looking for all these items in chrome, aluminum or stainless, and ear phones for dvd, catch all floor mats, and wheel well splash guards, any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks Jerry, anybody out there here in Missouri, I live by Washingtom Missouri

 

[dhh3]

Welcome. I had the same issue with my 2003 Liberty Renegade. When you rotate the tires on the wheel specific TPMS, you have to reset them to the current position on the vehicle. The dealer walked around my jeep with a little gadget, reset each wheel, and problem solved! If the TPMS is the one that just tells you that a tire is low, but doesn't tell you which one, this proceedure does not have to be done. Just as a FYI, if the previous owner had a flat, and used that flat-fix stuff in a can, that gunk can screw up the TPS for good where it would have to be replaced. rangehat:

 

[Mongo]

When you rotate the tires on the wheel specific TPMS, you have to reset them to the current position on the vehicle. The dealer walked around my jeep with a little gadget, reset each wheel, and problem solved! If the TPMS is the one that just tells you that a tire is low, but doesn't tell you which one, this proceedure does not have to be done.

There are several procedures that do NOT have to be done, at the same time the owner should be provided the ability to do it himself, and NOT be forced into the Dealership to pay them to do it. There are many more procedures that do have to be done, that Chrysler went out of their way to make sure it was practically impossible for the owner or independent shops to do it and force them into the dealerships.

Not jumping on you dhh3, yes, your just reporting the facts.

I'm a life long Chrysler owner and fan, couldn't love my Commander the way it is designed and built more, but I'm likely never will buy Chrysler Again. Why, the Corporate's unethical policies exploiting consumer ignorance. If they keep up the current trend, 2012 models will come with proprietary bolts that only the dealers have the wrenches to use.

But, unlike bolts its a lot harder reverse engineering software than it is a wrench, and because of that Chrysler bends the owners and independent shop industry over a barrel and forces us to go to the dealer as our only option.

If I purchase a Chrysler Vehicle, I should have every right to rotate the tires myself, and have the TPMS indicate the pressure at the correct tire, without having to go into the dealer and spend an hour waiting to pay them $100 to spend one minute with their proprietary tool to do it.

 

[jtkk]

Did not work

I went to the dealer and they walked around the vehicle with that little box and reset and it did not work and yes mine does tell you which tire is low and all my sensors are working HELP

 

[dhh3]

There are several procedures that do NOT have to be done, at the same time the owner should be provided the ability to do it himself, and NOT be forced into the Dealership to pay them to do it. There are many more procedures that do have to be done, that Chrysler went out of their way to make sure it was practically impossible for the owner or independent shops to do it and force them into the dealerships.

Not jumping on you dhh3, yes, your just reporting the facts.

I'm a life long Chrysler owner and fan, couldn't love my Commander the way it is designed and built more, but I'm likely never will buy Chrysler Again. Why, the Corporate's unethical policies exploiting consumer ignorance. If they keep up the current trend, 2012 models will come with proprietary bolts that only the dealers have the wrenches to use.

But, unlike bolts its a lot harder reverse engineering software than it is a wrench, and because of that Chrysler bends the owners and independent shop industry over a barrel and forces us to go to the dealer as our only option.

If I purchase a Chrysler Vehicle, I should have every right to rotate the tires myself, and have the TPMS indicate the pressure at the correct tire, without having to go into the dealer and spend an hour waiting to pay them $100 to spend one minute with their proprietary tool to do it.

At the time I had this done, I drove into the service lane. The tech walked around my Jeep in less than a minute, stopping for about 10 -15 seconds at each wheel. He told me the gadget was a "magnet". Maybe a proprietary magnet, but a magnet just the same. Total cost: $0. I do not know how these systems work, but my guess would be that each TPS sends a signal to the receiver - then, maybe like radar, a return signal. The length of time of signal return would dictate to the receiver the location of the tire in question. Now, in their infinite wisdom, if the engineers actually put the receiver in the exact center of the vehicle (wheelbase and track), there would be no need for this "magnet". The TPS's are probably interchangeable between vehicles, but I highly doubt that the receiver is located in exactly the same place on every vehicle. Concerning your rant, this is the kind of crap that I don't miss since I sold my Jeep and don't frequent this site much.. Although there is not much happening on the Nitro Forum, at least I'm no longer exposed to these rants. He asked for some help, and I offered him said help, to the best of my ability. Have a great day. rangehat:

 

[a49erFan]

I have NEVER had to have my sensors tuned and I move my tires around al the time. At one time I had 15 wheels and tires depending on the road surface and all I did was switch tires and drive.

 

[HueyPilotVN]

When I had a flat while off roading, the system first kept reporting that low tire location incorrectly for about 15 minutes after swapping it for the spare until it reset itself and then worked correctly.

 

[Matt_]

Yeah, the XK doesn't require resetting the sensors after rotation... there's a proximity receiver in each wheel well that picks up the closest tire for the reading.

Are your wheels stock? Sensors for the XK are model year dependent. I wonder if the previous owner swapped wheels at some point and has sensors for a later model year, thereby throwing the system off.

 

[dhh3]

Yeah, the XK doesn't require resetting the sensors after rotation... there's a proximity receiver in each wheel well that picks up the closest tire for the reading.

This makes sense. Thank you for the information. Do you know if earlier versions did not have this proximity sensor? I learn something new every day. rangehat:

 

[Matt_]

I thought all XKs were this way and possibly the WK as well. I'm not sure how far back this system goes for Chrysler. I like it much better than the TPMS system in my GMC where I had to "train" the sensors after each rotation. It wasn't difficult to do.... but just an added step. And people on the forums always complained they couldn't get it to work, but I think that was operator error on their part. I never had an issue with resetting my TPMS and went through 4 different tire/wheel combinations, all with different sensors.

Ill have to check my wife's Liberty.... haven't done a rotation on that yet and I know she's almost due. That's an 08 though.

 

[Mongo]

Yeah, the XK doesn't require resetting the sensors after rotation... there's a proximity receiver in each wheel well that picks up the closest tire for the reading.

This makes sense, cause the drawings I've seen show an pick-up near each wheel. I think the issue would be, how do you trouble shoot and fix it if the system fails to adjust its pick-up to the rotated tires?

At the time I had this done, I drove into the service lane. The tech walked around my Jeep in less than a minute, stopping for about 10 -15 seconds at each wheel. He told me the gadget was a "magnet". Maybe a proprietary magnet, but a magnet just the same. Total cost: $0. I do not know how these systems work, but my guess would be that each TPS sends a signal to the receiver - then, maybe like radar, a return signal. The length of time of signal return would dictate to the receiver the location of the tire in question. Now, in their infinite wisdom, if the engineers actually put the receiver in the exact center of the vehicle (wheelbase and track), there would be no need for this "magnet". The TPS's are probably interchangeable between vehicles, but I highly doubt that the receiver is located in exactly the same place on every vehicle. Concerning your rant, this is the kind of crap that I don't miss since I sold my Jeep and don't frequent this site much.. Although there is not much happening on the Nitro Forum, at least I'm no longer exposed to these rants. He asked for some help, and I offered him said help, to the best of my ability. Have a great day. rangehat:

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I stand by what I said, and it is related to the issue.

Most of us do NOT have dealers like yours, and I have yet to make a visit that took less than an hour of waiting around, nor have had any non-warranty item performed for free. The only Dealer in my County will NOT pull a vehicle into the service bay for less than $100, and the next county over, they'll charge $50 for some of the, "it takes a minute with the scan tool" deals, although its still an hour in the waiting room.

Having to visit dealers to properly complete a tire rotation, on top of the already insane level of unecessary proprietary measures engineered into the vehicles over the last few years is unacceptable and people should know that is what they are in for if they purchase.

 

[Matt_]

Mongo, I think your reply to me got mixed in with the quote.

When a sensor or receiver goes bad, you'll get the service TPMS warning on the dash and you should see a reading for the other 3 sensors. In that case you would just swap two of the tires to see if the problem moves. If it follows the rotation then you need a new sensor. If it stays then you need to troubleshoot the receiver for that wheel well.

The OPs case sounds strange. I feel that we may not be getting the complete picture of what's really happening; for instance the report of the front sensor picking up the rear tire..... I don't think that's even possible for this system or we wouldn't be able to park near other XKs of the same model year. The tools that tire shops have can detect bad sensors too.... I believe that's Probably what the Chrysler tech was looking for with his tool.

The other systems use a magnet to "activate" the sensor for the relearn process. The way the computer knows "where" the sensor is located is due to the sequence that you active them. Again, Not how our XK systems work though.

 

[Mongo]

Mongo, I think your reply to me got mixed in with the quote.

When a sensor or receiver goes bad, you'll get the service TPMS warning on the dash and you should see a reading for the other 3 sensors. In that case you would just swap two of the tires to see if the problem moves. If it follows the rotation then you need a new sensor. If it stays then you need to troubleshoot the receiver for that wheel well.

The OPs case sounds strange. I feel that we may not be getting the complete picture of what's really happening; for instance the report of the front sensor picking up the rear tire..... I don't think that's even possible for this system or we wouldn't be able to park near other XKs of the same model year. The tools that tire shops have can detect bad sensors too.... I believe that's Probably what the Chrysler tech was looking for with his tool.

The other systems use a magnet to "activate" the sensor for the relearn process. The way the computer knows "where" the sensor is located is due to the sequence that you active them. Again, Not how our XK systems work though.

Thanks, I went back and edited my post, I did accidentally put my comment on your post in the quote of Dhh3.

This does make sense to me, and does sound like the O.P. has some unusual problem, i.e. his TPMS isn't working right.

Having to visit the dealer after rotating tires if you want your TPMS to read correctly, is just NOT an acceptable answer. A thought I made it clear to dhh3 that I was NOT directing that at him, but at Chrysler that designed the systems, appearantly he took offense anyway.

With one turn after another finding more proprietary crap that is there for no other reason that to force us into the dealer and pay them to do things we should be able to do ourselves or have an independent shop do. Its frustrating.

Hopefully the O.P. will explain better his problem, and maybe some folks have a fix they figured out that can avoid visiting the dealership.

I've just gotten the AutoEnginuity (AE), I have the base TPMS system, it just lights a warning light if any of the 4 tires goes below min pressure. But with the AE, I can pull up the exact pressure in all 4 tires on my laptop. So its appears the only difference is the readout and display in the vehicle, NOT the entire system.

 

[jtkk]

Modulator

Well took back to dealer today and they said they called and spoke with chrysler expert technicians, and they said since all tire pressure readings are reading correctly but loacating correctly and they allready tried the walking around vehicle and resetting that the modulator under the dash must be stuck and not working properly, and will have to replace it, oh boy!!!!!!

 

[Mongo]

Well took back to dealer today and they said they called and spoke with chrysler expert technicians, and they said since all tire pressure readings are reading correctly but loacating correctly and they allready tried the walking around vehicle and resetting that the modulator under the dash must be stuck and not working properly, and will have to replace it, oh boy!!!!!!

The vehicles has a dozen or so "Electronic Control Modules" all talking to each other on the "CAN" Bus, the "Wireless Control Module" controls the TPMS and other things, including the key, remote, RKE features.

So I'm betting they were talking about a "Module" under the dash, NOT a modulator. Although with a wireless system, you may have a modulator, I doubt its under the dash, I could be wrong, but common sense tells me it would be part of a bigger system, like the module or one of the other assemblies.

 

[jtkk]

Tpms

Yes you are correct. It is a module and it is the one that the keys are programmed to also. They put new one still did not work. What next?

 

[dkf435]

I have a 2006 Limited with the Hemi. It has a display by wheel position and will let you know if the spare is low also. Like someone else has said the later Commanders went to a different RF frequency for the sensors and keys then the early ones, 315Mhz area vs 420-430Mhz area I think, it was to make all the rf regulatory approvals easier instead of having different channels and modules for each country.
The wheel sensors usually emit a signal every so offten when the vehicle is stopped or moving slow (parked mode). Once the speed gets up around hiway speed sometimes 30-40 MPH range, then they start sending signals more often. Each sensor has an ID number that is transmitted with the data string for the pressure. The vehicles that have the system that keeps track of the pressure by location will use the IDs to keep the tires in the proper location and the system from using data transmitted by other vehicles in nearby traffic.

The early systems that tracked wheel location, you would have to manually retrain the computer for each wheel after rotation. This was usually done by putting vehicle into the learn mode and walking around the vehicle in a specific order to activate the sensors. The sensors can be activated in two different ways usually, either a magnet placed near the valve stem that activates a switch to tell the sensor to transmit at the specified time or by a RF signal from a TPMS tool or the emitter in the wheel wells. Once the sensors are activated and they are learned the computer assigns their possition and the system should work ok.

Newer systems such that are on my 2006 Limited and other will self train the wheel positions. This is accomplished by having RF emitters in 3 out of 4 wheel wells and commanding the TPMS sensors to transmit at a specified time. The computer then assigns them to the proper location with the 4th sensor being assigned to the location without the emitter and the last wheel that is not showing any motion is assigned as the spare.

Hope this explains and clears things up some.

David Kb7uns

 

[Mongo]

...This was usually done by putting vehicle into the learn mode and walking around the vehicle in a specific order to activate the sensors. The sensors can be activated in two different ways usually, either a magnet placed near the valve stem that activates a switch to tell the sensor to transmit at the specified time or by a RF signal from a TPMS tool or the emitter in the wheel wells. Once the sensors are activated and they are learned the computer assigns their possition and the system should work ok.

Newer systems such that are on my 2006 Limited and other will self train the wheel positions.

Just to confirm;

Commanders do NOT need to have the dealer re-assign TPMS sensors when you rotate wheels/tires. How did you put the system into learn mode? I'm assuming only the dealer's proprietary tools could do this?

Some earlier vehicles did have to be brought into the dealers if you wanted TPMS to read at the proper wheel if you rotated tires.

So, if someone with a Commander is reading the wrong pressure at the wrong wheel after rotating tires and it hasn't fixed itself after a few start ups and shutdowns, there must be something wrong with the system.

And, another question;
What if a TPMS sensor goes bad and you replace it yourself. Does the system automatically recognize the new sensor? How does it tell a new sensor apart from perhaps other sensor in close-by traffic? Does it require visiting the Dealer and paying them to use proprietary tools to put the system into learn mode?

 

[Matt_]

New sensors don't have to be programmed, they're automatically recognized. They only have a very short range so they won't pick up other vehicles on the street or in parking lots.

There is no special/proprietary TPMS tool for ANY Chrysler systems. Even the older style (non XK) TPMS where a tool would make it easier in "learn mode".. every tire shop has the TPMS activator.

As much as i hate the fact that more and more systems are becoming "dealer specific", TPMS is not one of them. If you can't get it to work, go to a local Mechanic. Any half decent shop should have TPMS equipment.

For our systems, if a sensor stops working you replace it and head out on your way, no special setup required. It's a pretty good system IMO.

jtkk,
Did they verify that your sensors are the correct model year? 2006 sensors are not compatible with 2007. So if the previous owner swapped out wheels with a newer model XK, that may be causing your issues.

 

[dkf435]

On the early 2004 Chrysler Town and Country van that we have their were instructions on the learn mode in the EVIC panel but that got changed later in the year to the self learning type where it would tell you one was low but not which one.
On the Jeep Commander I got a set of used wheels on Ebay for the 2006 model year with the TPMS sensors already installed to mount studded tires on. Took them down and had them installed and after driving home all the tire sensors were showing up on the display with the proper pressures. I could tell that they were working because two different guys checked different sides and the one gauge they had was off by 2 pounds.
If shopping for sensors make sure you get the correct year and system, I am a little leary of the Schrader universal ones. A swapped sensor on the Commander should show up fairly quickly once you get up to speed and it starts sending the signals.

David