TPMS Issues / Interference From Phone Charger
 

Curious if anyone has any issues with the TPMS in the 2nd generation TSX. I have a 2010 TSX V6 Navi, and have recently been having all kinds of problems with the TPMS Malfunction Light coming on. The tire pressure is fine in all 4 tires. I have brought the car to the Acura dealership 4 times now in the past month, and they do not seem to know what is causing the issue. They replaced the TPMS sensors in all 4 wheels, and the malfunction light has come on on yet again.

As of this morning, the dealership said everything checks out fine and think a cell phone charger in the car might be causing RF interference. So I unplugged the charger and will see how it goes. Seems odd, that the phone charger would be causing the issue, but I am not sure what else it can be.

Has anyone else had this issue? This is my 3rd Acura I have owned, and it is the first problem I have ever had of any kind! I am not used to all these trips to the dealership.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Yeah i have this problem as well. I have suspicion that it may be the Bluetooth causing it.

I brought it in one time and they told me a sensor had gone bad, so they replaced it. Lights came back on 2 days later.

Also cold seems to have some effect on how often it comes up.

I vaguely recall someone having a similar issue with an odd cell phone charger. Depends on the amount of current it draws I suppose. But even still, that's pretty shitty of an Acura to allow something like that to interfere with something that is seemingly really unrelated; TPMS.

Do a quick search on the forum. I think I recall someone mentioning the same thing about the charger, but I'm not 100% sure if it was TPMS it was affecting.

If this doesn't solve your issues, it could be your TPMS module, not the sensors themselves.

Should be easy enough to determine if it's the charger. Pretty easy to solve too if it is (umm . . . charge the phone at home?).

Short answer: I had TMPS issues that I ended up pinpointing to a phone charger, after many iterations.

I finally concluded that this charger was interfering with the signal, under certain conditions. I replaced it with an original blackberry charger and the issue is finally solved.

Long version: Then the TPMS "system error" light comes on, it's due to a number of conditions, including: low battery in one of the sensors, sensor malfunction, lack of one or more sensors (eg.,spare is being used) or signal failure.

The phone charger interference was causing the "signal failure" codes to be set.

To further complicate things (in my case), 2 of the sensors were generating low battery codes when driven in very cold temperature at highway speed for over one hour. I had to perform many code reads and resets, and replace the sensors with "low batt" to finally conclude of interference with phone charger...

Inexpensive or non-standardized chargers can cause issues. While the systems are designed to accept a certain amount of interference, they can't be built to account for any and all interference.

I was at an FCC lab a few years back and they demonstrated how a popular children's bedside lamp would create sufficient interference to disrupt television programming in an adjoining room. There was nothing the TV station could/should do but the manufacturer of the lamp was required to conduct a recall.

The phone charger could have defective shielding or it could have been built to non-US standards.

This thread was very helpful...I am experiencing the same issue with my TPMS system. Look it to the dealership yesterday and they couldn't find an issue and indicated it may be the phone charger. I have a 2.0 phone charger that I purchased from T-Mobile (so it should be standardized and up to US standards), but once the original cord broke I bought a cheap cord from Walgreens. Coincidentally, I did notice the clock had been reset one day earlier this week. I'm going to unplug the charger from the car adapter when not-in-use and buy a new cord. Hopefully this resolves the issue.

I wanted to chime in here. I ran into the same thing and the culprit was the cheap charger sold in various auto parts stores (among other places.) All three. The name brand or factory charges aren't an issue. I assume the cheap ones have a ton of RFI at the same frequency as the tire transmitters. Someday I might pull my SA out and see if it's radiated (likely) or conducted. But the Acura system doesn't like them. My HHR SS and Silverado have no issues.

Either way, if you lose all 4 at once, unplug the chargers one at a time. Give it a minute or so for the sensors to relink.

Having the same issue. Bought a 2013 TSX Wagon from a dealer, had this issue from day one and they kept running us around without any real answers until this week and blamed the Cell Phone charger. Apparently they know about this, but does anyone know if they have found a fix for it? It's a little ridiculous that Acura has not come up with a fix and that basically you cannot charge your phone in the car:???

I
t isn't the car's fault. The problem is with the charger you are using. Try a different brand to see if it resolves the problem.

Usually it's the cheap, generic MIC chargers that have the issues. They're made cheap by skimping on the components and shielding used inside the unit, so some of the electrical wizardry magik escapes and interferes with the sensors.

This is also not a problem that is unique to Honda/Acura either. Most vehicles are susceptible to the EMF bleed from cheap electronics. Heck, sometimes they're susceptible to authentic parts too; but those are typically better made and less likely to cause the interference.

Also, if you consistently have the problem; just imagine what all that EMF is doing to your gonads. :what:

I just recently had this same problem and thanks to the responses on this forum, I solved the problem. Without a doubt, it is the phone charger that I was using. I did a test where I drove the car with the phone charging and after about 20 minutes, my TPMS light came on with an error message. I unplugged my charger and after about 2 minutes, the warning disappeared. I repeated this several times with the same result. When I did not have the phone charging, I never received the warning, only when the phone was charging. By the way, it is one of the cheap chargers I got at Wally world. Hope this helps!

I'm very happy to have found this thread, this problem was driving me nuts. I have a 2012 TL, and I believe it has the same problem. I have an adapter that can power two things at once, and every time I have had the problem, I had my phone hooked up because I was using Waze, and my son had his Nintendo Switch charging. I was going down the path that speed/length of trip had something to do with it, but interference makes even more sense.

add me to this thread fixed my TPMS error messages, 2014 TSX recently purchased, thought it was broken sensors or something, un-plugged my charges and no more error message!

I had the very same issue when my charger was plugged in the front by the AC control I now have it on the storage/arm rest and no errors.

Another victim here: Installed a AUKEY 2 port 4.8A charger over the weekend and had the TPMS error. This AUKEY charger works fine in a Nissan. I misplaced the 3 port charger I normally use in the TSX wagon and needed a charger for a road trip...now I need to find the original one I had that works without errors.

Glad I found this thread!!!

Add another to the list. Does anyone have a known good charger they can suggest?

I just had same issue as well. The TPMS error happened my last two road trips from San Jose to San Diego at about the same spot on 405- this happens to be about 30 minutes after my wife needs to plug in her phone to charge it. Glad I found this thread- never have any TPMS problems at other times. The next time the light comes on- I'll have her unplug to phone to confirm that light goes off quicker. My light would cycle on/off at 20-30 minute intervals with the phone plugged in.