awdinut

I got a set of 5 TPMS sensors and had them installed in all 5 tires. Clicked 'change wheel' on the MMI and went for a drive to activate and sync the sensors as per Audi manual. The 4 tires on the ground activated, but the spare is not giving a reading. Asked the people who sold me the sensors if I had gotten a bad or improperly programmed sensor and they said I had to put the spare on one of the corners long enough to activate the sensor.

Anyone else have experience with spare tire sensor...will the temporary swap out solve the problem ?

TSHong

Back when I replace all of my sensors on my 05, I don't remember putting the spare into service to get the sensor to read. I remember just doing what you did.

MP4.2+6.0

Yep, spare will just read directly w/ a new sensor.

But, a few oddities I have seen.

1. Get ANY other sensors out of the car. If you drive home with your old worn sensors in th car, it may keep flaking. And if you threw them in the trunk by chance, guess what? I learned to bring an old lead shielded photo film bag with me when carrying sensors to avoid this kind of system confusion.

2. Sometimes a bad spare sensor gets confused by system as a bad rear sensor. And since I ultimately got to the bottom of a bad spare sensor and changed it out, I know I didn't rotate wheel through a driven potion on car first. Obviously if a spare sensor is bad, it won't show in the display. IIRC, if the four road wheels are all good but not the spare, those will show but not the spare. But if any single road wheel sensor is worn out, it takes out the display for all of them.