Chrysler: Tire pressure sensor system

I have a 2002 T&C (all wheel drive) with a tire pressure monitoring system.
The vehicle has about 45K miles. At about 25K miles, I began getting
annoying messages on the message board telling me to "Service tire system
soon" or asking me "Spare tire in use?"

These messages are followed by "See owners manual". Unfortunately, there's
nothing in the service manual.

Recently, after about the third or fourth trip to the dealer's service
department, the service manager told me that I should have received a little
magnetic "doughnut" to retrain the sensors, which are located just under the
valve stems, and that I should follow the procedure in the manual. No
doughnutand (again) no info in manual. He then told me that he had tried to
reset/retrain the sensors, but only made it to the third wheel in the
specified sequence (apparently LR, LF, RF, LR and finally, spare).
Something, he said, is wrong with the system but he doesn't know what.

Well, I suggested, could we just disable the thing to do away with the
annoyance. After all, it's not that much trouble to occasionally check the
tire pressure... just like changing oil, checking air filters and all those
other little pesky things that about 10 or 20 per cent of us do. That would
be OK, he said, but he doesn't know how to disable the thing, either.

Does anyone have experience with this system and advice to offer, apart from
trading the vehicle?

I want to confirm Mr. Seldin's information. The internet description of the
Jeep system at
http://www.wjjeeps.com/rus/tpms.htm
is very thorough and full of technical information about what is going on
with the slightly different (and apparently better) Jeep system.

I purchased the donut-shaped magnet from my local Chrysler dealer some time
ago, but didn't know what to do with it. I retrained the sensors in my 2002
T&C Limited yesterday, and, thanks to Harold, it all went like clockwork.

Ignition on. Repeatedly press the Menu key until it says "RETRAIN TIRE
SENSORS? NO." Press the Step key once to change the NO to YES. Press the
Menu key again and the screen prompts you to "TRAIN LEFT FRONT TIRE." Put
the magnet around the valve stem on the left front tire and hold it for
several seconds. Just when you are about to wonder what's happening (if
anything), the horn will honk. Then the screen prompts for the RF tire and
so on through RR and LR. After a honk for each of the four wheels, you are
done. The spare, under the rear is a steel wheel without any sensor.
Before you lie down under the rear bumper to confirm this, grab your tire
gage--this is a good time to check your spare!

Apparently, when you rotate tires, you need to retrain them so the EVIC
knows which tire is where. Also, if you remove a flat tire and swap in the
non-sensored spare, the EVIC will ask if the spare is in use. By answering
yes, I assume the system will stop monitoring that tire position.

Don't try for the tire pressure system test described for the Jeep. There
really is no "blank display." If you try anyway, you are likely to end up
on a screen that says "VARIANCE=11," or something like that. This is a
normal Chrysler screen for the compass' magnetic variance. Do not change it
without reading all about your compass in the owner's manual. If you
persist with holding the RESET button, you may end up needlessly (but
harmlessly) recalibrating your compass.

Enjoy!