I have a 2009 F150. The truck just turned 35,963 miles (i.e., bumper to bumper warranty is all but up). The truck is 15 months old. For at least the last 10 months, I keep getting a message that says "Tire Pressure Sensor Fault." When I get this fault, the tire pressure warning light blink about 18 times and then goes solid. It irritates the heck out of me. This is not the same as a low tire pressure warning. This is a warning that indicates there is a problem with a tire pressure snesor, but provides no indication of which sensor (at least to me). It is not a consistent problem. I can go weeks without seeing it. It can come on, stay on for a hundred miles and then go off. When I first saw the fault indication, I called the dealer. They told me to bring it in when the fault was indicated. Of course the fault was never "active" when I went anywhere near the dealer until yesterday. It finally was on when I arrived at the dealer. Of course it was Sunday, so the dealer was closed. I abandoned the truck at the over night drop off in hopes it would still be "bad" today. So far I have not heard anything. I am not hopeful.
Has anyone else had this sort of problem? My truck has the valve stem type sensors. I've had one flat fixed, and one tire replaced (with the OE tire originally mounted on the plain spare tire rim - the spare tie does not have a sensor). The sensor failure occured randomly before and after these tire changes.
I have a theory - As a part of typical dealer scamology, my truck had the tires filled with nitrogen. I actually watched the process. The hooked all four tires to a machine that sucked the tires flat and then pumped them up with nitrogen (well ~96% nitrogen instead of the usual
80% - what a SCAM). I think this was a horrible idea. I think there is a good chance that this stupidity damaged one or more sensors. I doubt they are designed to be exposed to a vacuum. How likely is it that the dealer damaged a sensor in an attempt to scam another $30 out of me for this nitrogen nonsense?Ed