2003 S211 tyre pressure monitoring system

[Smiley]

I am trying to find out what is wrong with the TPMS on a 2003 S211.
Upon starting the car there is a message saying reactivate TPMS by pushing the R button. In the dash menu where the TPMS would be displayed there is a message saying "monitoring will commence after a few miles driving. Reactivate monitoring by pushing the reset R button" - when I push the reset button (the one in the dash) another message appears asking do you want to monitor current pressure push"-" for no and "+" for yes. Pushing the + button on the wheel just sends the screen back to the previous message saying "monitoring will commence etc etc".
I have tried driving for a few miles and nothing changes. Suspecting the sensors in the wheels I have swapped all the wheels for a set from a later 2007 facelift car with known working sensors and the car is no different, same message and no working TPMS.
I have also had the car on Star and nothing shows up on there.
Does anyone have any ideas please.

 

[whitenemesis]

Suspecting the sensors in the wheels I have swapped all the wheels for a set from a later 2007 facelift car with known working sensors and the car is no different, same message and no working TPMS.

Do you need to register the 'new' sensors with the system before it will work?

 

[badgx]

Is it a non genuine mb tpms? If it is you may need to check with the vendor to see if it has been activated and preprogrammed. Mb run on 433mhz frequency, so in theory a later mb tpms version should not affect it?

 

[rf065]

Do you need to register the 'new' sensors with the system before it will work?

Not with genuine Mercedes ones, I've winter & summer wheels, change twice a year and do nothing, the pressures appear after a few minutes driving.

 

[Spider10]

When i had my new wheel's and tyre's fitted ( non genuine mb tpms) i had the same issue had them reprogrammed and still didn't recognise them so in the end they were replaced with genuine MB tpms no more issue's and i do swop wheel's every now and then

 

[Smiley]

Thanks, they are all genuine MB. Previous experience with a later facelift 211 was that the sensors would be recognised within a mile or so when swapping wheels. Wondering if the system is different on pre and post facelift cars.

 

[badgx]

Between the s211 2007 and w212 2014 the tpms work, have swapped wheels. You might need to double check with the dealer to see if it has been activated. Once transmitting, the signal will be picked up by the transponder. The stem is the antenna, there should be a tiny wire from the tpms that screws on to the stem.

 

[Smiley]

This is between pre facelift and post facelift 211. The car is a 2003 model so must be one of the first with TPMS - the dash menu display looks the same as the later facelift models but not sure if the system is the same and whether the wheel sensors are the same.

 

[Will]

How old are the sensors, don’t the batteries have a limited lifespan?

Can you check if the antennas are all working on STAR and look to see if it sees any of the four sensors that way?

 

[Smiley]

Yes that was my first thought - I am sure that the sensors are the original ones so 20 years old. Star did not find any problems with the TPMS system but could not see the sensors. That all seemed to indicate that the batteries had expired in the 2003 sensors (hardly surprising). I then fitted a set of 2007 facelift 211 wheels and tyres with known working sensors and the car is showing the same fault condition. I would have thought that if the original sensors are the problem then it would start working with the newer wheels on it.

 

[BlackC55]

The live data needs to be looked at to see what the cause is. Early TPMS systems are notoriously unreliable.