Mini TPMS Reset- Freezes 49% then Error

[Mefster]

After my previous post about buying non-OEM tyre pressure monitoring sensors for my winter wheels I took the plunge and bought some programmed non-OEM sensors from a UK wheel specialist ((£120 rather then the £360 Mini wanted.

Tyres and sensors fitted to the wheels and put the wheels on the car today. Having never had a car with wheel sensors I took the car for a drive to reset the pressures. The reset keeps getting to 49% before freezing, followed by an error saying Tyre Pressure Monitor (RDC) Failure.

No indication if it’s a sensor issue (irritatingly I didn’t check I’d the OEM wheels and sensors supplied with the car were reading ok before removing them.

Wondering what to do. No indication which (if any) sensors are dud, or could it be an issue with the car? Is there a way of checking sensors without removing the tyre? I’m guessing Mini won’t want to know as I’ve used non OEM sensors...

[Mefster]

[Mefster]

[SAR0890]

When I worked for a MINI main dealer that error was usually a fault with and individual RDC sensor or with the control unit itself.
If you didn’t have that error message before I would hazard a guess if they’re non gen sensors it’s either a faulty sensor or they’re not compatible with the cars control unit.

[Mefster]

That was my worry.

Can I assume that if it get# to 49% that only 2 of the sensors aren’t working or is it not that simple? Is there any way of checking the sensors without removing them from the wheel? I actually have another 4 sensors (again non-OEM) which I ordered from a supplier from Germany. The delivery date was much slower, hence I ordered the others.

I was thinking if I can identify the individual wheel I could just change those sensors...

[Evercross]

Mefster said:

After my previous post about buying non-OEM tyre pressure monitoring sensors for my winter wheels I took the plunge and bought some programmed non-OEM sensors from a UK wheel specialist ((£120 rather then the £360 Mini wanted).

Tip for the future - for £120 you could have purchased a full set of universal programmable sensors and the contactless pad for programming them.

The pad works with any Windows-based PC with a USB port and the software is free (the pads are serialised and the serial number is used to license the software).

You could still purchase the pad separately and use it to check if your sensors have been programmed correctly (there are significant variances even between models of the same car and there's a possibility whoever supplied your sensors got it wrong). This also has the benefit that you can reprogram them or even 'clone' your originals to the replacements. There is no need to remove the sensors from the wheels to read or program them (obviously, as they are radio transceivers), you would just need to be able to get a laptop close enough to your car to be able to hold the pad against the sensor.

You can also get stand-alone devices that can read/test/reprogram sensors but they are a tad more expensive.