any fiesta st owners run their car with aftermarket wheels, sans TPMS? I got problems

Man, this is my weekend.  On Friday I put a set of aftermarket wheels on our fiesta st.  I don't want to buy a set of decent rims for snow tires.  We drove the car all day yesterday.  Today my wife is at the grocery store and the car won't start and the dash lit up like a Christmas tree.  The interned says that this happens to some people and not others.

Anyone here have this experience?

I disconnected the negative terminal, the car still had the same issue.  I then jumped it and it reset and works fine.  I just don't want my wife somewhere and this happen again.

Any help would be appreciated!

That doesnt sound right.  It should just light up the TPMS light.

You can disable TPMS checking with the ForScan app or software, need a bluetooth/wifi OBD adapter to use it.  I've had that setup on mine for awhile with no issues.

I have never heard of that or experienced that happening due to a lack of TPMS.  I used to run my '17 Fiesta ST all winter with no TPMS in the wheels and only ever had the TPMS light come on.

Is it feasible to put your stock rims back on for a week or so, and see if the problem stops for that week, then go back to the aftermarket rims and see if the problem comes back?  The result of that experiment should tell you something.

I am having a very hard time imagining why any engineer would disable the vehicle completely because of a lack of tpms signal.  Limit speed, maybe.

Also, a boost is not going to change the programming.  Check your charging and battery, make sure the lights didn't get left on.

+11ty.  Automakers will never intentionally disable the car.  Even when there are drive by wire faults, the engine will still run and idle.  This is a safety issue, it would be very bad if someone froze to death because the engine wouldn't run because the car had a flat tire or something.

There's another problem and the lack of TPMS is irrelevant.

I have not seen this, but my wife said that she read on the internet that the car will do this thinking that all the tires are flat.   Again, I did not see this. However, the car was acting really odd, not like a dead battery.  I'll let you know, thanks for the advice.

In reply to thedoc :

Given that the tire pressure sensors don't activate until the wheels are spinning a certain speed, the car will expect to read no sensors when you start it.

Second winter on my Fist, did the same on the SE for four.

I just put a tape ove the light.

 remember to check pressures regularly

In reply to thedoc :

Does yours just have a the fob & push-button start, or does it have an actual key to insert & turn to start it?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Fob and push button start

fwiw, our Focus acted weird when the battery reached the end of its life. Transmission warning lights, “hill start not engaged” messages, and that sort of thing when the car wouldn’t start.

engiekev said:

That doesnt sound right.  It should just light up the TPMS light.

You can disable TPMS checking with the ForScan app or software, need a bluetooth/wifi OBD adapter to use it.  I've had that setup on mine for awhile with no issues.

X2. I ran both my winter wheel/tire set and my track set without TPMS and it was just the light (2014 Fiesta ST). I have never heard of a vehicle that won't start due to a lack of TPMS, that's definitely not a thing. 

Sounds like a voltage issue. It doesn't make sense that you drove it before it failed, unless the battery has gone sour. But the rest of it sounds like either a bad connection or a failing battery. Jump it, has enough juice to run on alternator and be fine. 

thedoc said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Fob and push button start

I’m not sure it’s the same problem, but I have a friend who’s fighting a similar problem with his car. It seems the fob isn’t remaining paired to the car. His will occasionally start and run for a few seconds, but the rest of the time it does nothing. Even after replacing the batteries in the fobs. 

I have been running winter tires and track tires without TPMS since 2014 and never had any issue but the light coming on. Something else is going on. I can say that missing shift, say grabbing first instead of third, will over-rev the engine and light up the whole dashboard. Shut down and turn back on will clear it. Might want to ask her if there is anything else she wants to tell you... 

2015 Fiesta w/ 15" winter steelies in the past with zero issues. TPMS light comes on after one drive over 30mph and will stay on. Never once will cut the car off or prevent it from starting.

Sounds more like the battery is on it's way out. Even my '98 Monte Carlo Z34 did that both time the battery got weak. Weird transmission fault codes, shifting horribly, not running well, etc. 

When I had my 135 last year, I preemptively put a new batter in it in November when I realized the '13 MY vehicle was still sitting on the OEM battery

Mine saw 3 winters with no issues but the light. 
 

I will also recommend having the battery checked. They do really wired stuff with low voltage. 

pinchvalve said:

I have been running winter tires and track tires without TPMS since 2014 and never had any issue but the light coming on. Something else is going on. I can say that missing shift, say grabbing first instead of third, will over-rev the engine and light up the whole dashboard. Shut down and turn back on will clear it. Might want to ask her if there is anything else she wants to tell you... 

Same boat with my FiST. Winter tires every year since 2014 with no TPMS. Just get a flashing light and a single beep after 20 minutes of no signal.

I have had an issue with the dash lighting up in relation to my UltraGauge. If I drive the car without letting the Ultragauge do its setup (Only the first time it is plugged in), it will light the dash up and give messages to stop. It even killed my power steering. Do you have anything plugged into the OBDII port?

FWIW, the dash SHOULD light up like a Christmas tree when key on engine off.  So that may be nominal.

I did some quick iATN hunting and saw no easily diagnosed pattern failures to look into.  A few things but you'd need some test equipment to check and rule out.

Another comment to say that when the factory battery went on ours (about 5 yrs old) it was weird in that it worked fine until suddenly it didn't.  My wife inadvertently stalled the car in a parking lot k-turn situation and that was it.  Dash lit up like crazy with lots of stuff that isn't usually, no crank whatsoever, but headlights and such still seemed happy at normal voltage.  Not at all like the way you'd expect a dead battery to manifest itself with some slow cranks after short drives or in cold weather for a little while, or clicking attempts to crank or anything.  Voltage even measured fine so we called AAA to have it hauled home.  Their driver insisted on jumping it and sure enough it ran fine.  Drove home.  Same no-start issue with weird behaviour the next morning.  New battery fixed it.

Hey, to all who chimed in.  The car has been running fine.  No issues whatsoever.  I don't know what all happened.  I have not tested the battery as of yet---life has been happening!  

But whatever my wife saw about the TPMS had to have been bogus.  The car still freaks out about the system, but it has not had any repeat of electrical shenanigans.

Thanks for all your input

I just thought of something. Was her trip tied to a gas fill up? My Fiesta ST (and many others from what I have read) have issues with the evap system after a fill-up. My car has only died once after a fill-up but it is very common for it to stumble and nearly die when I come to a stop after filling up. My problem has been helped a little by leaving the nozzle in for a little while after the pump shuts off and then removing the nozzle slowly.

In reply to karplus2 :

We have def had that happen, but this was after a trip to the grocery store.  I thought maybe she left the lights on, etc but the lights turn off automatically.  The battery is five years old though.