James P.

Is each sensor coded to a specific corner of the car, or does the car somewhow determine which one is which at engine start ?

sparkhill

The TPMS provides a low pressure warning and you have to figure out which tire is low.

S4gasbord

I don't collect my car until Thursday so I have not been able to RTFM yet. :-P

My wife's MDX has a system which actually tells you which corner is low.

sparkhill

You just get a warning that one or more tires are low. I have heard that if you store your winter wheels too close to the car, they can trigger a TPMS warning even if they are not on the car.

Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

On the RS4's TPMS system but here we go...


I know for a fact that when the new A8 came out the TPMS on that car was very sophisticated. It was a state of the art system with actual wheel pressure sensors in each wheel which sent a signal to the onboard computer giving you the proper info on the screen. The problem with the system is that it was pensive in a way.

When winter time came around in Canada, people wanted to switch over to their winter tires but this became a very expensive under taking. Most people did not want to use their 19 or 20 inch wheels that came with the car but would opt out for a set of 18 inch wheels that fit over the brakes with the appropriate winter tires. Here comes the kicker, the TPMS needed the sensors in the wheels to work and that was an expensive buy. At least in Canada we were lucky in the first year the new A8 was released, we could deactivate the TPMS by Vagging it so you could forgo the sensors. My understanding is that the later cars were unable to disable the system (by law) because the US government wants all cars (regardless of their price range) to be equipped with such devices and they have to be operational all the time (because of the Ford Explorer/Firestone crap). I don't know now if the new A8 kept that expensive TPMS or if they switched to a more common type of TPMS that is even in use in Corollas these days.

The cheaper systems use ABS (yet again) to monitor tire pressure and I don't know if it is smart enough to tell you which tire(s) is/are low in pressure. My understanding on how the system works is that while driving in a strait line on a highway, the system will occasionally through the ABS sensors monitor for an abnormal wheel speed differential. If one comes up it thinks one wheel as a smaller rolling diameter, thus a low pressure situation in one of its tires.

So I guess you guys have to figure out which system was installed in the RS4, the one from the original new A8s or the cheaper more common system.

Hope that helps you out.

sparkhill

You can VAG-COM the TPMS off on the RS4

Jet Jockey/A4 Pilot

Audi dealer is that they are not allowed to anymore.

Do you know if the RS4 uses the same type of system as found on the A8s?

James P.

which tire is low. The dashboard even has a separate indicator for each tire.

Aarononymous

You have to relearn TPMS after you do a tire rotation, through the on-board computer.

sparkhill

larryV just turned it off himself