Do the TPMS Sensors need to be re-trained during tire rotation?

[Ace Holliday]

My 2019 Ranger requires nothing to be done to reset wheel location. The truck knows automatically after driving a couple of miles. There is no "procedure" or "special tool" required at all. Just rotate the tires and drive.

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[slowmachine]

owners manual or service manual? makes a big difference.

Owner’s manual, in both cases.

 

[geophb]

@slowmachine
Ok, so you got me questioning myself and I just went out and did my own testing.
This is front right tire air'd down some, I then swapped that tire with the rear left tire.

Then after the classic drive for XX time over XX mph, it switched to this.

Not gonna lie I was watching the dash like a hawk and when it switched I damn near crashed the truck. It surprised me that much.
I can't say about putting in a new sensor but as far as rotating the tires its confirmed, it auto updates. Win some and lose some, lately its been the latter for me.

I edited my previous post, the story about the 2016 f350 is still correct. Ford must have changed their system recently. I plan to do some digging at some point.
Mis-information is just as bad as no information.

 

[IdahoRanger]

You have low air in your tire

 

[slowmachine]

Questioning my own methodology, I did another test. The sensors in these wheels did not come installed on the truck from the Ford dealer, they were purchased on eBay.

Parked in the garage after a day of driving.

Inflation adjusted in 3 PSI increments for clarity.

The truck is sensing this on its own. No tools or reset procedure required.

 

[slowmachine]

@slowmachine
Win some and lose some, lately its been the latter for me.

No losers here. When we increase the collective knowledge base, we all win.

 

[slowmachine]

I’m going go out on a limb and suggest that the 2019 Owner’s Manual is likely incorrect. The Owner’s Manuals for both years are sloppy, and it seems like a lot of the content was simply copied from other Ford Owner’s Manuals without much effort to customize it for the Ranger. Space Saver Spare???

 

[Zman]

WTF !

Could they make it any more complicated?

Really!!! Why in the hell would you have to “Retrain” the tires after rotation?? Lol. ?‍ If that’s the case then the dealer better perform the retrain for me!!

 

[Washashore]

I’m going go out on a limb and suggest that the 2019 Owner’s Manual is likely incorrect. The Owner’s Manuals for both years are sloppy, and it seems like a lot of the content was simply copied from other Ford Owner’s Manuals without much effort to customize it for the Ranger. Space Saver Spare???

Agree that the 2019 manual is likely incorrect. I have a 2019 (manufactured Jan '19) and I see the same behavior as your 2020 TPMS system.

 

[BaGMaN]

Really!!! Why in the hell would you have to “Retrain” the tires after rotation?? Lol. ?‍ If that’s the case then the dealer better perform the retrain for me!!

they do. they have the little remote to retrain them . i bought one on amazon for $24.... took a minute ta do. the thing is , ya have to put it in the right mode. on/off is for new tps. emergency flasher mode is to reposition known tps.

 

[Radioman]

I’m going go out on a limb and suggest that the 2019 Owner’s Manual is likely incorrect. The Owner’s Manuals for both years are sloppy, and it seems like a lot of the content was simply copied from other Ford Owner’s Manuals without much effort to customize it for the Ranger. Space Saver Spare???

Absolutely, totally, agree with your comments regarding the owner's manual. I have purchased many new vehicles over the years and the 2019-2020 Ford Ranger owner's manuals are truly bad. Ford should be ashamed. I love the Ranger but am not pleased with the support the manuals provide.

Edit: That's is why I really like this forum. I learn a great deal from all of you. (Well, most of you. )

 

[geophb]

Figured I would drop some info for anyone interested. Apologies for a long read, but we are already at 5 pages in this thread anyway.
I have been doing research all morning on how all this is supposed to work. After further confirming our finds with other reports of auto learning on other forums (f150,fusion,mustang). I needed to know how. Took a lot of mind numbing amounts of technical docs and patents to find what I was looking for.

The tpms sensor located in each wheel broadcasts both a unique ID and a pressure reading when pinged with a low frequency signal, from the low frequency initiator. All (4) tpms signals are received by the central RTM (remote transceiver module) which essentially is a radio frequency receiver. The tpms sensor is other wise "sleeping" as some say.
But how it auto learns the location of the wheel is what I wanted know.

Well I found two systems that can auto learn
1. Some systems use (4) low frequency initiators, one in each wheel well. A system like this can easily just ping individual tpms sensors and update the info accordingly. Not a common system, from what I can find. The ranger (or any ford as far as I am aware) does not have sensors in each corner.

2. The other system uses a module (offset in the vehicle, the one in the ranger is above the passengers head by the curtain airbag) with directional low frequency initiators. Was a long and confusing read but in short the module fires a low frequency signal to front or the rear of the vehicle and records the info. It also uses higher and lower strength low frequency signals to the determine the which tire is closer by which tpms sensor gets activated by the lower power low frequency signal.

Spare tire: The second systems patent touches on the ability of a fifth sensor in the spare being able to be recognized if desired. It does this by comparing the variation in the RSSI (received signal strength) of the rear sensors. The variation in the RSSI of the spare is more or less constant compared to the tpms sensors in the running tires which will fluctuate as the tire rotates.

Conclusion: With either system it will relearn tire rotations and even a new sensor as designed. (Note: May only work with OE sensors).
My guess to why the manuals have the procedure is in case the auto learning part is unsuccessful maybe?? Either way, I learned some cool stuff. Glad I didn't pursue electrical engineering though.

 

[Duwop]

Got new shoes today and my Tpms idiot light was on when I got into truck went back in to get someone to reset it. I don’t think they knew what to do after 20 minutes going from tire to tire with so gadget they couldn’t reset. They told me to drive it it would work itself out. I drove home 45 minutes late no reset so I called back they told me to bring it back they’d make it right. I found this thread about resetting and got irritated about have to go thru the steps but gave it a try. 2 hours latter after numerous failed attempts the computer just reset itself. How I don’t know nor do I care but I never want to do this again and hope it never needs it too.

 

[kellogs]

People, all these pages filled for nothing. The real question is:

Can the newer, auto-learn while driving, Ranger also be trained on a set of TPMS sensors the old way ( stationary + LF exciter / activator / scanner tool) ?

Post #63 suggests it can.
Post #66 suggests it can not.

it would be totally awesome if any of you who has the LF exciter tool and who has also done the auto-learn before attempt the stationary relearn on your vehicle. That would be the "never seen before senor learn" procedure and not the "known sensor reset" procedure. i.e. described at https://www.tpmsrelearn.com/2016/12/08/ford-1/

Kudos!

 

[fusseli]

I'm probably at 5 rotations and 50k miles or so, just got my 2nd set of Grabber ATX. I've never trained or touched the TPMS... and I've never noticed an inconsistency with psi and tire location. So I declare this is all much ado about nothing, and an unnecessary silly procedure to worry about!

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