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Abarth Tire Sensors

7050 Views 10 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  RxCritical
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The Classica and Lusso variants of the 124 are different from the Abarth. At least as far as the TPMS system goes. For some reason Fiat decided that the top of the line Abarth should be less equipped than these other models. They get to set and reset their TPMS system while Abarth owners don't. The differences don't end there though. The sensors are different. I live in Colorado, we get snow and cold (I know big surprise). While we may get the most days of sun in the country, I refuse the relagate myself or the gorgeous Spider sitting in my garge to only warm sunny days. I have a set of winter and summer tires for her and thought it would be easy to just order wheels/tires/sensors and have them put in. I used Discount Tires to do this and to be honest they have been great. They ordered the sensors ($50 each) and put them in with the expectation of needing around 20 miles of driving for the car to read the new sensors. Long story short, the sensors were never acknowledged by the car. I then went to the local Fiat dealer (for an oil change) and figured they could also get the sensors working. First, they did not have a scanner that had our 124's as an option (they also stated they had the latest version). Fiat has not put it out yet according to them. They called around and apparently found the guy that writes the software and got a patch/update. That did not work. They then stated that the sensors were the wrong ones, not OEM Fiat, and that the 'real' ones would cost $150 each.... but were not available and there was no date for when they would come in. So, 3X's the cost and not available. I went back to Discount Tire and they found that the sensors had been 'turned' off. They turned them back on and said try the 20 mile drive again. Still no love. With this being a new car it is not in all databases yet, that is understandable (to me at least). They had put in what had been recommended but what we found out is, they were for the Classica and Lusso models. The information on these was:

HUF UV4030 TQ40 RED 433 Mhz InTellisens (the yellow sensor pic)

Point of note: All of our TPMS systems work on 433 Mhz. Last night we finally got this all to work and not for the $150 each cost. They had me bring my original wheels/tires back in. They used their scanner to read the codes from each tire and recorded all 4 of them. They then used these sensors:

SCH 33500 TQ12 T10 DB-EZ Sensor (From Schrader) (the black sensor pic)

The difference is that these sensors do not come with an ID code from the start. They are programmable, which is what they did. Once they used my original sensor IDs/codes as a clone for these new sensors, it just worked. There was no 20 mile read-in time. They work on the 433 Mhz frquency. All was good. I hope this information helps some of you not go through the same hoops I had to jump through.

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Good post. Thanks. Maybe after lunch and a little pasta and some Chianti we can take a look at updating our database. But first we eat! Mongia.
Abarth owners actually have an active system with sensors...the Classica and Lusso have a system without TPMS sensors. It actually looks at the rpms of each wheel to determine if one is running at a different rpm than expected to determine a low pressure. This is why it needs a set and reset function. The active system does not require this.;)
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All I can say is that the first sensor was what was stated for (we later found out) non-Abarth models. They (both the dealer and Discount Tire) thought it would work at first and then found out it didn't. The dealer eventually went to non-oem as the reason. The sensor I now have works. I woud like to understand better why the system you talk about wouldn't be in the Fiat dealers books? They clearly stated that the Classica and Lusso used a sensor but that it was different. I wonder what the deal is?

Abarth owners actually have an active system with sensors...the Classica and Lusso have a system without TPMS sensors. It actually looks at the rpms of each wheel to determine if one is running at a different rpm than expected to determine a low pressure. This is why it needs a set and reset function. The active system does not require this.;)
All I can say is that the first sensor was what was stated for (we later found out) non-Abarth models. They (both the dealer and Discount Tire) thought it would work at first and then found out it didn't. The dealer eventually went to non-oem as the reason. The sensor I now have works. I woud like to understand better why the system you talk about wouldn't be in the Fiat dealers books? They clearly stated that the Classica and Lusso used a sensor but that it was different. I wonder what the deal is?
Not sure why Discount Tire is not on board...I bought a set of rims and tires from Tire Rack and they had the proper information. If you get in your owners manual it even describes the difference and how the Classica and Lusso work off the ABS wheel speed sensors.:)
i double checked with my local Fiat dealer and the Classica/Lusso just uses a valve stem in wheel it does not have a pressure sensor of any type.
i don't know if this is too off topic, but i noted something odd? In many but not all of the systems with an active TPMS you will get a warning when tire pressures are too high or too low. With the Classica/Lusso system i would have expected once the tires are trained at a specific tire pressure any considerable variation would set off the system. However when i parked my car for the winter i had adjusted the tires up to 50psi. Two weekends later the temps were gorgeous and we still did not have any salt on the roads so i pulled it out and did some running around, probably about 40 miles of driving. During that time the tire light never came on which surprised me. The oustide temps were probably about 30 degrees warmer so the tires easily had more than 20 pounds of pressure more than when the sensors were initially trained to normal. Maybe when I initially take it out of storage i will run it w/o adjusting them down for a bit to see if the does come on or not.
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generally speaking a tier pressure sensor is going to notice a variance within the tires themselves. in essence if you have three tires inflated to 35 psi, and the fourth drops to 25 psi, it will trigger the sensor. when I received my Abarth, the tires were inflated to 50 psi. I had driven the car over 250 miles and got around to checking the pressure. I then deflated the tires to 35 psi. having lowered the pressure 15 psi, which is a little under a 30% reduction in pressure, there was no tpms light. so going under the assumption there is an actual monitoring of the tire's pressure is completely false. it does in fact trigger when there is a variance in the tire's pressure. I do not know if it is based upon the synchronization of the amount of turns which the tire spins on comparison to the others on the car or if the sensors squawk a different frequency based on the internal pressure, but it is based upon differences between the tires. perhaps someone who has attempted to use staggered wheels could provide additional input.
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I think it's rubbish. It's given a false warning on me on about 4 occasions. I just get out the car. Have a quick look around. If everything looks okay, I hit the reset button.
Some people make a pressurized chamber out of plumbing bits large enough for sensors, throw them in, pressurize and strap it in the trunk never to be heard from again.
Some people make a pressurized chamber out of plumbing bits large enough for sensors, throw them in, pressurize and strap it in the trunk never to be heard from again.
do you have a parts list for this mod. I would love to be able to have the ability to change tires and wheels without the burden of purchasing new wheel sensors. also the tpms sensors tend to throw off the balance of the wheels requiring huge mass of wheel weights .
Not sure why Discount Tire is not on board...I bought a set of rims and tires from Tire Rack and they had the proper information. If you get in your owners manual it even describes the difference and how the Classica and Lusso work off the ABS wheel speed sensors.:)
I also just got a set of tires and wheels from TireRack and they came with the 315mhz sensors. They work perfectly, I just tested one tire to make sure. Alarm sounded when I lowered pressure to 20 psi and reset when I brought pressure back up to 30 psi.
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