I was driving along in my '06 M6 yesterday (Chicago, cold and rainy weather, tires have 11K miles on them) and the red flat tire indicator came on, and the nav screen instructed me to stop, consult my owner's manual and change the tire immediately. Well, I immediately got off the interstate, drove into a gas station (in a questionable area), inspected the tires (couldn't see any flats, didn't know which one was the problem), put some air in each of them and drove about 15 miles to the nearest BMW dealer.
The indicator light subsequently went off while I was on my way to the BMW place, the tech looked at me like I was nuts, they checked the pressure and said all was good and sent me on my way.
Why on earth would this happen? I was about ready to do the whole tire fix procedure in the manual (5 pages long), but I risked it due to my location, the lousey weather, and the fact I couldn't tell which one was "flat" and just crossed my fingers.
Has this happened to anyone out there?
Now I'm worried I have a slow leak and the damn thing will go flat on me when I'm not 15 miles from a BMW place.
The only issue my M6 has had is with the TPM system. When it was brand new before I put 100 miles on it, the TPM Malfunction warning came on and they couldn't figure out why. It was intermittent for the first 1,000 miles, then it went away. It came back about a month or so ago, same thing, the tire pressures were fine but it still displayed TPM Malfunction. I took it to the dealer and its been fine since.
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Pio
2008 AP M6 SMG (19" HRE C20's, Yellow Brembo's w/ Slotted Rotors , ASR exhaust & Intake)
Evosport Pulley & Headers NEXT!
2007 Black 750 Li
Bad tire pressure sensor? (on the assumption that the tire is fine)
Intermittent fault? (I hate those)
Shouldn't the fault be recorded in some detail (at least identifying the sensor that flagged the problem) displayed when the dealer connects the car to the all-powerful diagnostics computer?
This is surely a sensor problem. Usually it happens in colder weather. Has it been cool in Chi-town?
It happened to me last winter and I brought it right in to my dealer. While I was waiting, there were 2
other BMW owners with the same problem. Dealer said they had to change the sensor and that fixed it.
They must have had a bad batch because I found a few postings about this after it happened to me.
This is surely a sensor problem. Usually it happens in colder weather. Has it been cool in Chi-town?
It happened to me last winter and I brought it right in to my dealer. While I was waiting, there were 2
other BMW owners with the same problem. Dealer said they had to change the sensor and that fixed it.
They must have had a bad batch because I found a few postings about this after it happened to me.
Yes, it has gotten cold. The Tech seemed so cavalier about it, and none of the tires looked bad or seemed to have lost any pressure, so you're probably right, however, after they inspected it, he did not suggest doing anything about a faulty sensor.
This chaps my ***** though. These cars have gotten so technologically advanced that little things like a flat tire misread (again this was the FLAT TIRE WARNING, not low pressure) due to a 20 degree drop in temperature can freak us out and make us do all sorts of crazy things, like pull out the tire repair/reinflation system in the rain in a dangerous neighborhood for no reason.
I love the car, but I'd be really ticked off if I had gone through all the trouble and danger to fix something that wasn't broken becasue of a faulty $10.00 pressure sensor. I risked running on the rim to get to the BMW place to avoid the inconvenience and danger, and the whole time I was scared that I was rolling on a flat with limited control.
Sorry for the rant, but sometimes the technology just goes overboard.
If you put air in the tires and it went away a tire was a few pounds low, that's all; you probably have a nail in it. Also I'd recommend everybody to make sure the TPMS nut is tight (on the valve touching the rim) that gave me a nice little headache...
Last edited by MiamiSixer; 8th October 2009 at 18:13.
Ravinespeed, your car has a FTM which is different from the TPM that was put M6 starting with 2007. The FTM does not have pressure sensors, but uses the information from other systems on your M6 including the ABS system looking for rotational speeds vs. possible tire diameter change.
When you use the reset on your Nav screen you can tell. TPM (Tire Pressure Monitor -with pressure sensors inside each tire) says TPM and FTM (Flat tire monitor - no pressure sensors) says FTM .
Snowball, thanks. Even without sensors, the system malfunctioned in some way, which is my point. Since there are no sensors on '06, temperature would be unlikely to have any effect, so I now have no idea why the warning light would go off...
Snowball, thanks. Even without sensors, the system malfunctioned in some way, which is my point. Since there are no sensors on '06, temperature would be unlikely to have any effect, so I now have no idea why the warning light would go off...
You mentioned this happened in rainy weather. If you were driving even a little aggressively (easy for us to do) and spinning tires, it would for sure, fool the system into thinking something was wrong, and a tire was changing diameter based on speed and tire rotation. Thus causing an alert.
You mentioned this happened in rainy weather. If you were driving even a little aggressively (easy for us to do) and spinning tires, it would for sure, fool the system into thinking something was wrong, and a tire was changing diameter based on speed and tire rotation. Thus causing an alert.
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Dan
Supersprint Headers, Tubi Rumore Plus exhaust, Dinan CAI, Defi Heads Up Display, Strong Strut front anti-sway bar, Powerchip 93 S/W, Euro Arm rest, Fikse Profil 5S Rims; Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3, Polk Audio Tweeters, Boston Acoustic Speakers, Integrated 60gig Video Ipod, HiDef DICE Radio iPod interface, Icelink, Rouge Engineering Short shifter, StopTech Big Brake Kit, TC Design rear sway bar brackets, HID 8000k fog lamps, 8000K low beams, Euro clear corner HID headlamps, Mark IV Nav, Lamin X films, Predator ICE LED AE, Valentine 1, M20 Blinder Anti Laser, TEC cup holder, All LED interior lights, LED footwell lights, LED trunk lights, Ultimate Cup Holders, Hella TC-400 Tire Pressure Monitor System, etc.
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