Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems have been phasing in for more than a decade — with some systems dating back to the late 1990s (such as Corvette) — and are now required on all new passenger cars and light trucks. TPMS is a great safety innovation and has likely saved some lives. But TPMS also complicates tire replacement and rotation, and special tools are often required on many applications to reset the system if the tires have been rotated or any of the TPMS sensors have been replaced.

To make matters worse, there’s almost no standardization between the systems, protocols or sensors. A wide variety of different systems and service procedures are used. So if you’re doing tire-related work on late-model vehicles, you need the proper tools for resetting a wide range of tire pressure monitoring systems .

Relearn/Reset Tools
When the tires on a TPMS-equipped vehicle have been rotated from one wheel position to another, the TPMS system has to relearn the new wheel positions. On some applications, the vehicle has an “active drive relearn procedure” that allows the system to figure out which wheel is which automatically. You don’t have to do anything at all and no special tools are required. Unfortunately, these are the exception rather than the rule. The only applications are Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles.

Most vehicles require some type of “stationary” relearn procedure to reset the system....

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