Tyre-pressure light on: check before resetting

Last reviewed · OBDCode UK editorial

Stop first if a tyre looks low or damaged, or if the car pulls or handles differently.

ungraded — treat as general guidance

Can you keep driving?

If all tyres are visibly sound, measure them cold using the vehicle handbook or door-label pressures before driving further. Do not reset the warning to a pressure you have not checked.

Checks you can make without dismantling anything

  • From a safe parked position, look at all tyres for a low sidewall, cut, bulge, exposed cord or foreign object.
  • Use the vehicle’s cold-pressure values, not the maximum moulded on the tyre sidewall.
  • Record whether the lamp is steady or first flashes, and whether it followed tyre work or colder weather.
  • If the lamp returns after correct inflation, arrange a leak and TPMS check rather than repeatedly resetting it.

Stop and arrange recovery when

  • A tyre is visibly low, bulged, cut, losing pressure or has exposed cord.
  • The vehicle pulls, vibrates strongly or handles abnormally.
  • You cannot inflate safely away from live traffic.
  • The warning returns quickly after pressures are correctly set.

What to tell the garage

Give the garage the cold pressures, rate of pressure loss, lamp behaviour and details of recent tyre or wheel work.

UK cost

We don’t have a verified UK price range for this job yet. Ask for a written estimate that separates diagnosis, parts, labour, VAT, fluids and any calibration.

Related guides

Sources

General guidance, not professional advice.

Where does this guidance come from?

This page is written against the UK MOT record and the official guidance that sits behind it, so you can check the underlying material yourself rather than take this page's word for it. The DVSA publishes anonymised MOT test results as open data under the Open Government Licence, and that release is the source this site is built from.