Damaged tire pressure sensor???

[I.B. Washincars]

I had a lady stop in yesterday that has used my car wash many times. She said that a few days ago her tire pressure warning light for LR and RF came on as she was leaving my wash, with the LR turning off after a bit, but the RF did not. She took it to a shop, telling them that it came on after the wash. They told her that the wheel scrubber damaged it from pushing on the wheel too hard. The wheels are factory chrome wheels. There is not a mark on them near the valve stem and no damage to the stem itself. I have two Mark VII machines with wheel scrubbers with a total of about 250K washes between them and have never had any tire issues whatsoever. She was very nice and didn't really strike me as someone trying to get one over on me, but is only going by what the repairman said. Frankly, I think he was just spitballing and hung the blame on the car wash since she said she just washed it.

What do you guys think? Anyone had any issues like this?

BTW, the vehicle is a 2007 Chevy Tahoe.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

Total BS imo. Just like the guy who sees a scratch after he washes his car, he thinks the car wash had to be the cause.

The TPS light comes on & off regularly in Jamie's sonata, its been doing it for a few years. Multiple people I know have the same issue with these sensors, nobody I know replaces them because they are expensive and seem to have a high failure rate. (thats my impression, not necessarily a statistical fact)

Edit: by the way, if your wheel scrubber causes TPS failures, that should be really easy to prove. Just run a few cars through...

 

[2Biz]

Tahoe's are notorious for this issue. My son has one and has had the same issue. PLJ is right, people usually don't have this fixed because it so expensive to fix. What was the manufacturer thinking when they put sensors inside the wheels??? $$$$

My son had his Tahoe put on a scanner and turned that sensor off. Now the light doesn't come on for low tire pressure!!!!

My Buick uses wheel speed difference calculated from the anti lock brake sensor on the rotor. Does the same thing, but way more reliable. If you only knew about all these booby traps before buying?

 

[Earl Weiss]

TPMS sensors, especialy the first gen are breaking all over the place especialy the first gen sensors. Had one break in a wash wash on the PS and no tire brush.

I refuse to fix them.

See

http://www.tirereview.com/reader-comments-tpms-sensor-corrosion-a-big-issue/

http://carlswashnlube.com/testimonials/

You can do more searches. I told one customer the same thing. This needs to hit the news wires like the Faulty ignition switches, Faulty air bags, Toyota / lexus UI issues. Until then we fight an uphill battle.