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TPMS and turn indicators/blinkers

7K views 46 replies 17 participants last post by  12wrxphilly 
#1 ·
I mentioned this in my build thread, but in the interest of having this more easily found should anyone have the same issue I'm posting a thread here.

So, a couple weeks ago my TPMS light was flashing at me while I was stopped at a red light. It flashed for about 30 seconds or so and then disappeared. The odd thing was that I noticed my blinker indicator light on the dash was not blinking. I did not have a car in front of me or anything along those lines to see a reflection and determine if the actual blinkers were not blinking as well.

Then this past saturday when I was driving home from work, the TPMS light was going bananas on me. Blinking, staying on, turning off, etc. According to the manual the TPMS light should work in one of two ways. Either it comes on and stays on, indicating a tire out of range, or it blinks for a minute then stays on, indicating a problem with the system itself. The light was not behaving in either of these ways, but more concerning was that again my turn signals were not working whenever the TPMS light was either blinking or on. This time I was able to see reflections of my car and confirmed that the actual lights were not blinking.

I got home and checked tire pressures, and they were high probably due to the warm weather that day. I let a few psi out of all the tires and haven't had the TPMS light reappear since.

I called my local dealership and they say they have never heard of this happening, but that it is not normal operation. I will have to get this fixed as I have a set of winter wheels/tires and was planning on ignoring the TPMS light rather than pay to reset the system twice a year. Obviously if I can't use my turn signals when that light is on, though, that creates a problem.

So where we stand now is that I am going to put on one of the winter wheels after work to see if that replicates the problem (TPMS light on and blinkers not functioning). If so, I'll set up an appointment with the dealership so they can look at the car with the problem successfully replicated.
 
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#34 ·
Quick update, if for no other reason than just so I have this all written down somewhere.

This past weekend I drove out to Ohio. The night before, driving home from work, as soon as I got in the car the hill assist light was on and blinkers were nonfunctional. This went away before I got home. I decided to go ahead with the trip, and there was only one moment on the drive out where the gremlin reared its head. Haven't had it happen since.

I finally called SOA yesterday and laid out the whole story to the customer service rep. He said he is going to gather all info he can from the dealership and the tech dept. and get back to me to tell me what they can do for me. I don't really know what to expect, so I'll be waiting with lots of curiousity.
 
#35 ·
Ok, on Friday night just as I was about home from physical therapy after work, it came back full force. Not only is it on full time but the hill-assist system is offline all the time with the accompanying light. The cruise control light also starts flashing after 30 minutes or so of driving.

I wonder if they should just take a look at the wiring harness. But I'm doing my best not to make any suggestions since I am admittedly no expert on this sort of thing. They are having a different tech take a look, and this is the worst that the problem has been, so hopefully they will be able to narrow something down.

Still waiting to hear from SOA about the whole thing.
 
#36 ·
Ok, just got a call.

Ignition relay number 2...you son of a bitch!

So, apparently this ignition relay is involved in supplying power to, you guessed it, the TPMS system, the turn indicator system, and a switch in the clutch. The switch in the clutch is what informs both the cruise control and hill assist systems of the clutch's position. That switch not getting power = failed hill assist and cruise control.

The dealership checked this relay and found it to be absolutely failed at this point. Replaced it and all the offline systems and christmas tree lights on the dash were corrected.

Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc...
 
#37 ·
Good luck with this! I hope that's it. Please let us know if that's so, in maybe a week or when you feel comfortable that it's fixed (finally). I sure hope this was it. It does seem to make sense.
 
#40 ·
Thanks for the wishes of luck, I'm sure I'll have PTSD for a while, jumping at imagined lights on the dash, but I am somewhat optimistic.



I've been joking the the service manager that Subaru must have hired a former VW worker the day my car was built.
 
#42 ·
Incidentally, the noise I was often hearing in the dash that accompanied the system craziness was right around where they said this relay was. I hope if anyone else has this problem they find this thread.
 
#43 ·
Well, my 2012 impreza is currently in the shop with the same symptoms, although not quite as bad - I've only had the blinking TPMS light with non-functioning blinkers, and only three times so far (although I did get the hill start assist and blinking cruise control light for a couple of days once. So maybe it's related). Still, enough to get me worried, as I don't like driving without blinkers, or the feeling of not knowing if everything will work next time I start my car. I gave them a printout of this thread - hopefully it will help them track it down. Thanks for posting!
 
#46 ·
I saw this thread bumped and was scared and sad that Will's issues might have come back! :(
 
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