[Richard Carnes]

A few weeks ago I had Karma down in Denver while I was out of town. The day I drove home (from 5300 feet, over two mountain passes of 11,000 feet to about 8000 feet at the house) coincided with the first snow of the season, and thus the first real cold temps, down in the 20's. The next morning I had my first ever 'low tire pressure warning,' and it said (very quickly as the screen disappears in a millisecond) my left front was 46psi and the right front was 45psi, while both rear tires were at 41psi. So, for the first time ever, I actually looked at the sticker on the door and it recommended 40psi for the front and 36 for the back!

My question is: What psi is everyone else using?

Yes, I have adjusted the front tires to equal amounts (46psi), but the warning will not go away. If 46 is too low, yet the sticker says 40 is correct, what's a clueless Karma owner to do?

 

[dennis]

Is it possible that you are getting the warning because the tire pressure is too HIGH? I know it says "low tire pressure", but that may be the message that is displayed when the pressure is detected to be out of range either direction. Try setting the pressure to match the spec and see what happens.

 

[Weird Fishes]

I think the suggestion from dennis is a good one. I haven't had a low tire pressure warning in my Karma yet, but my BMW gives me a low tire pressure warning whenever one or more tires is 10 psi lower OR higher than the other tires. It may be that your Karma's front tire pressure is too high .

I have also experienced low tire pressure warnings in my BMW when traveling from one extreme temperature to another in a short period of time. My dealer explained that condensation can develop in the tire and cause the tire pressure monitor to give a false report of low tire pressure. I don't know if that is particular to BMW's low tire pressure warning system, or if it might happen to those of other manufacturers as well.

In any case, I would adjust the tire pressure to reflect what is recommended by Fisker Automotive.

 

[EVer1]

If 46 is too low, yet the sticker says 40 is correct, what's a clueless Karma owner to do?

I'm glad I'm not the only one that was confused by this. I, too, had the "low" light go on, and so filled the highlighted tire up to 46, which is what the other tires read on the screen. The tire pressure light was gone, so I happily drove on my way. My dealer, the next time he saw my car reported the "weird" situation of having a tire way over filled.

 

[drliu]

The TPMS sensors and/or the Karma's processing of the sensor information is faulty. The sensors+command center read much higher than the actual psi in the tire. When the command center shows ~50 psi front and ~45 psi rear, the actual pressure is about 40 psi front and ~36 psi rear (i.e., perfect) on my car at least. I took my Karma in to the dealer to have the TPMS sensors recalibrated, which they did, but the "bug" persists with no detectable difference.

Bottom line: if your TPMS says your tire pressure is low, it probably is low. Break out an old fashioned tire pressure reader and adjust pressure accordingly until it's within spec. Scale down the command center's reported tire pressure numbers by ~9 or 10 psi to get a ROUGH estimate of your actual tire pressures. Unfortunately you cannot read the tire pressures from the command center unless one of them is too low or too high.

 

[Al J]

When I had a TPMS warning a couple of times and checked the tire pressure manually, I found the tires had been Over-Inflated. The Fisker detects both under-and over-inflated conditions . Place the tires are the recommended pressure (Cold, before driving). Then as they heat up, they will remain in the correct range. Once I placed them back to the correct pressure cold, I have had no further warnings in over 5000 miles.

 

[Richard Carnes]

Broke down and bought an old fashioned tire gauge ($2.49 at Wal-Mart), and sure enough, front and back were all a solid 10psi less than the sensors were reading. I thought they were too high, but all four were too low. After adjusting to proper settings (40 front, 36 back), the error sign went away.
Nice job everyone, thanks.

 

[Lormax]

I can confirm seeing the erroneous readings on many other cars as well. Bottom line, don't go by the numbers on the screen (yet). Use a tire gauge.

If the light comes on and your Diagnostics screen isn't showing any problems, then there's an issue with a sensor, or may just need to re-learn the sensors. Bring it in to your Dealer.

 

[Eric Karma]

I have the yellow tire symbol lit up on my dash, but under diagnostics, the tire pressure diagnostic is not flagged as abnormal. Therefore I cannot read the pressures or determine which tire may be at fault. I checked my cold tire pressures and they were 32 rear and 35 front. Why is the yellow light on, but no diagnostic tire pressure fault? Would these pressures trigger the yellow warning light only?

 

[DNAGuy]

I had the experience of the low tire pressure warning coming on and the driver's front tire read with a manual tire guage was low. Reinflated tire, warning went away, but returned 2 weeks later. Took car to tire dealer who remived 2 inch nail from driver's front tire...moral of the story, is that sometimes the TPMS actually works.

Buck

 

[Eric Karma]

I just filled my tires up to recommended 40/36 psi. TPMS light is still on. Does anyone know why or how to correct this? Thanks.

 

[8AVGMPG]

generally if the light is on due to a low tire pressure, even after inflating the tires to spec it'll take about 15 minutes or so of driving to turn off. But based on your earlier post you probably have a bad sensor. Dealer can take care of it.

 

[Sigurd]

Eric, your light might disappear after a couple of starts. Mine did.

 

[Harleyguy]

Just a note it takes about 8 miles of driving to set the TPMS light if their is a TPMS problem with the latest software the light should go out pretty fast as mentioned if the light doesn't go out bring it to the dealer .

 

[ct-fiskerbuzz]

I have a pressure warning now but when I go to System>Diag>Tire Pressure it shows that the passenger side front pressure (which is the one being warned-about) is the same as the driver-side front pressure (which is fine). Seems odd. I'll take it in when I get a chance.

 

[Fabulist]

Our other car, a MB M-Class has a similar problem in that it keeps warning about low tire pressure when the tire gauge says that the pressure is correct. The difference is that I can recalibrate the MB's command center without having to touch the sensors to eliminate the false alert without disabling the system. I don't know if it is possible to do this with the Karma.

 

[DNAGuy]

When I got a low pressure warning and it was real (nail in tire), even after I filled the tires the warning persisted for awhile before going away...it is important to check inflation with a real tire guage rather than rely on the sensors in the Karma...yes I beleive it is possible to get the low pressure warning when the pressure exceeds specification.

Buck