Hello there,
I am trying to figure out if I need new TPMS sensors if I swap the default 2024 ND3 alloys for the BBS ones. Do BBS alloys need a different TPMS sensors?
Thanks.
M.
Someone with more knowledge that me (not hard) will conform, but 99.9% sure they won’t need new ones.
Also, those BBS, the forged ones at least, will set you back a cool £700ish a wheel.
The BBS available on the mazda configurator are not the forged ones considering the price.
I suspect that you have the metal screw in type of ‘valve’ which has a TPM built in. You will nee to transfer the valves or buy another set like these Tyre Pressure Monitoring Sensor, MX5 Mk3.5/3.75/4 & RF – MX5 Parts.
Batteries in TPMS sensors typically last ten years from initial activation by putting pressure in the tyre.
It depends on how soon you replace the tyres after they were originally fitted, and then how long until you will change them again. Will this add up to ten years?
I know mine were still working at ten, because the tyres were OEM Bridgestone, and one sensor threw up a genuine low pressure warning on the way to fit new tyres.
Some tyre places want 60 per sensor, but this Az offering for a set of four is more realistic. The price on that particular page seems to vary quite lot (I’ve seen anything from 35 to 65), but you should find 4 for under 50.
But does the ND3 use TPMS type valves?
Can’t see why it won’t. The ND has used valve TPMS since about the ‘68 plate, time of the 181hp engine. Before that it used the indirect TPMS system, which uses the ABS to monitor. Another indicator of if a particular ND has direct value sensors, or not, is those NDs which have no TPMS reset switch on the right lower dash panel by the right knee have the valve-based TPMS system, whereas those without the direct value TPMS does have a reset switch. In summary though, if you’ve an ND2 it’ll have the valve based ones, ND1 most likely not (I’ve got a very late ND1 and mine hasn’t got them). So I can’t see why the ND’3’ (if that’s really what it is lol) won’t have them.
Hi Robbie. I have the BBs wheels on a RFlaunch edition and have the metal valves that look just like this pic. Therefore believe they are TPMS valves is this correct?
Yes, they should be.
Thanks so I’m now getting TPMS warning light on dash. It has started to come on randomly after changing tyres ( previous set were original OEMs 8-9 year old Bridgestone ) I’ve monitored pressures and no sign of puncture or leak to new tyres. The warning comes on, I reset the TPMS using the button in car and it goes away before coming back a few days later
is there a way to check which valve / sensors are causing the issue - is there a basic tool I can buy?. I can only assume they were damaged during tyre install or have batteries that are beginning to fail. Unfortunately the fitter was unaware there were TPMS valves on NDs
Ah, If you”ve got the bottom on the dash then it won’t have wheel units. Or at least doesn’t need them. After checking the pressures and pressing the button, take it for a nice steady drive for 15 minutes or so to allow the system to learn the wheel speeds.
I have the button on dash, below and right of steering wheel. I have pushed this button and then driven and all is fine. It first occurred the day after tyres fitted about 40mins into journey on way to geometry set up before the geo was done - TPMS light illuminated - no others. Checked pressures at garage and all seemed fine so after geo was done I Pushed button below steering wheel and drove an hour or so home. The light Stayed off for a while then came back. Reset again similar story. During a 1 week road trip in france it would come on every 2-3 days driving everyday. Since I’ve been back I’ve checked pressure with my digital gauge and no loss of pressure over a week mostly in the garage but including a 1.5 hour round trip. This was never an issue before changing tyres I had never seen the light in 18months of ownership.
I have gone up a width on new tyres to 215/45/R17 Goodyears and had geo done with minor camber and toe in
Pic of the valves below.
I’m confused why I would have TPMS valves and they would not be used
If it’s a Launch edition then the tyre pressure variation is taken from the ABS sensor. Those look like the standard valve stems that I have on my launch edition.
Yes, they don’t look like valves with wheel units.
Ok thanks. So is there anything that could be causing this issue aside from tyres actually losing pressure? I’d really like to solve it or understand the steps I can take to diagnose the cause. I’m Not someone that is happy to drive about with warnings popping up on dash - even if they are erroneous
Did you notice this on your French trip? With all that glorious cooking-hot sunshine?
Did one side of the car (including the tyres) get much hotter than the other? Sun vs Shade,
Black tyres will show an even greater temperature rise from insolation heat soak than the Soul Red painted body.
If you set the pressures when any tyres were noticeably different temperatures from the others, the TPMS is guaranteed to work correctly and complain during driving when tyre temperatures average out and the pressures consequently misalign.
Always set the tyre pressures cold, before any one of them has been cooked by the sun!
If you want to be really pedantic an optical thermometer is a useful tool for checking initial temperatures. But I (carefully, how hot?!) put my hand on the sidewalls; I’ll never be able to tell the exact temperature, but significant differences are usually quite obvious.
Expect tyre pressures to rise normally and evenly during a fast motorway drive, much like on the track.
It happened before I left the U.K. and continued during the trip. Temps were not particularly hot in late October low twenties at most. One day it rained and was cloudy and it still triggered. Also the weather / driving conditions and distances were nothing different to what I would consider the average use case for the car since I’ve owned it and only since tyres have been changed am I experiencing this issue ( literally the day after and then since )
By this logic the TPMS would be tripping all the time with the previous tyres too
as noted I’ve since uniformly inflated and checked pressures with a quality digital gauge in the garage. Driven the car and a week later checked pressures when cold and all around 29 psi so there is no puncture or leak
In which case, I’d look at all the connectors in the wires to each of the ABS pick-ups.
It’s a low level signal and any tarnish of contamination that might have crept in after a disturbance (eg wheel down at full extension during a tyre change?) or a high-pressure jet-wash, or nasty wheel cleaning chemicals, etc, can affect them.
A generous squirt of good old Servisol Super 10 and some exercise cleaning and wiping the contacts a few times (ie unplug/plug-in/unplug/plug-in etc) can often work a miracle and restore full strength to the signal.
More work than checking pressures, but tracing occasionally intermittent or less than optimum signal levels is tricky.
Probably not even worth mentioning, but back in 2021 I had fronts replaced on another car and the ‘fitter’ was looking inside the alloy as he was putting the tyre on. I asked ‘is everything ok’ and he said yes. A couple of days later the TPMS light would flash and then stay solid. Totally random. Sometimes once a week, sometimes each trip. About 6 months later, when having new disks and pads all around , by my now dynamic guy elsewhere (in a dealer of all places), I mentioned it and how there is a metallic sound when going slow and he came back, and asked if I’d had a tyre change? Yes I said, 6 months back, as his hunch was that the sensor ‘bit’ had come off. Low and behold the ‘honest’ tyre ‘fitter’ must have sheered it off and it was rolling around in the alloy. The brakes guy said he didn’t know how it was still registering. Anyway, he mega taped it back up and it lasted fine until he (the brake guy) did my tyres the next time, where I’d got a new sensor which he programmed.
Long story short (sorry lol), could the sensor bit have come off?
One other very remote possibility has worked its way up from old memory; are the manufacturing plant code and date codes the same across all four tyres?
This excellent pic from the Wiki shows the key details
I raise this point because in 1999 our Vextra-B kept on throwing Seat-belt sensor alarms after a single tyre was changed after a puncture. A Goodyear Eagle made in 1999 replaced the OE 1997 Goodyear Eagle with 6k miles and 7mm tread. They looked identical.
There was no separate warning light for ABS or tyre pressures, and the light only showed after about five miles at 70mph. It turned out that the rolling resistance of the later tyre had been “improved” although it looked identical to the others.
The simple solution was to fit the OE virgin 1997 spare wheel and instead keep the 1999 as a get-me-home spare. Twenty years later, and six tyre changes of the usual four-at-a-time, that 1999 had never been used again for more than maybe a few dozen miles. And the warning light never showed unless running that 1999.
