Break out the scanner
Speaking of things a customer will notice: remember when you started forgetting to reset oil change minder lights, and customers would call and return to the shop upset, wondering if you even changed the oil at all? Well, TPMS is similar. Indirect TPMS systems that calculate pressure from ABS sensors usually need to be reset using a button or menu in the car’s on-board computer. Direct systems that measure air in each tire without calculating or comparing to other tires may require calibration after new tires or even after a rotation to ascertain the new positions.
If your scanner is a higher-end unit, it may also give you information about the sensor’s battery level, which you can pass along to your customer (and maybe use to fatten up a lean ticket, since you’re doing tire work). Checking the function of each sensor before you begin service can help keep you from finding a bad TPMS sensor while the tires are still on—if the tire light was on for that but you mistakenly thought it was a flat, guess who’s buying that sensor?
And be aware that a steering angle fault can turn on a TPMS light, so if something just came off the alignment rack, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a new light on the dash could be shinin’. So maybe you got something out of this article that’s not strictly about tire work.