TPMS on Vehicle - Your experience

[VaTom]

We buy new and keep our vehicles long term. Our low mileage 2015 Toyota Sienna Van is the first vehicle we have owned with TPMS. I never had a reason to learn how they work. Warning light came on and all tires at proper psi. Wouldn’t reset. Took to my local trusted tire guy. Didn’t know the unit inside each tire rim had a battery and over time the battery dies. Tire guy calls, tested them and says one is completely dead and other three showing low battery. Recommended replacing all 4. Apparently average battery life is 10 years. If I was only person driving the vehicle I could live with warning light and just keep check on psi but other family members use it and my wife “freaks out” whenever a warning light is on.

Good safety feature I suppose but just another thing to go bad. Oh the good old days when cars didn’t have computers.

 

[BigBoy99]

The problem with replacing the battery is that it requires the tire to be dismounted. When the battery is replaced, tire has to be remounted and balanced before it can be used. A very big expense to just replace a dollar battery!

 

[ggibson511960]

Readout in PSI

I prefer the Toyota/Lexus version that reads out in psi rather than a mysterious idiot light. Reassuring to see pressure vary with ambient temperature or use. Never had one go bad or battery expire. They last longer than host tire.

 

[ladder13]

Spare tires have them too, so check them as your other tires if you get a warning light. I know this.

 

[Beemerguy53]

TPMS is one of those features I didn't appreciate until it warned me as I was driving of a just-occurred puncture with a tire losing air. The warning gave me enough time to exit the highway I was on and look for a safe place to pull over and park, away from the flow of traffic.

 

[67tempest]

TPMS sensor's are sealed, you can't replace the battery, the entire sensor must be replaced. I had one fail on my 2015 Equinox, I worked at a dealership at the time so I only paid for the sensor. My mechanic buddy who replaced it said I should expect the other 3 to fail shortly considering they were all the same age as the first one. Sure enough, within a few month's the other 3 quit and he had to replace them also.

 

[WR Moore]

They're not a bad idea, but poorly executed. VW uses the wheel speed sensors (there for your ABS and traction control) and a few lines of code to do the same thing without creating a parts & labor dependent system. OK, there's parts involved but if they start going bad you definitely need to change them and it's not as idiotic.

 

[Bald1]

I don’t have an opinion on them one way or the other. But once while suiting in a Tim Hortons drive thru I watched the digital display of my 2020 GMC start to free fall. It allowed me to pull into open area of parking lot to change tires rather than doing it 10 min later on the shoulder of a two lane 55 mph rd. My step son is bothered by the light on the dash of his Subaru Outback. His snow tires don’t have sensors on their wheels……. Probably doesn’t even need snow tires. It’s a Subaru.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

2014 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4. All 4 failed about one and a half years ago. On Chevys it is part of the tire stem. My mechanic wants $400 to replace them weather they are already replacing the tires or not!

So, I have a Flat Tire Idiot Light on all the time! In a few years, I spend the $2000 and replace the big off-road tires and who ever does the tires will give me a deal or I'll keep the idiot light!

Ivan

 

[VaTom]

I prefer the Toyota/Lexus version that reads out in psi rather than a mysterious idiot light. Reassuring to see pressure vary with ambient temperature or use. Never had one go bad or battery expire. They last longer than host tire.

Toyota must have upgraded around 2016. The 2015 Toyota van only gives a warning light. My 2016 Toyota Camry gives the warning message and psi on each tire so you know which one is low.

My tire folks (McCarthy Tire) are good people. Decided to have all four replaced as my guy said the others could go anytime. $89 per unit. I didn’t know they could test them and determine baattery charge on each. In my checking before taking it in did find out from owners manual there is a reset button for the system under the dash. Tried it but no go so then decided to take to tire place.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

The problem with replacing the battery is that it requires the tire to be dismounted. When the battery is replaced, tire has to be remounted and balanced before it can be used. A very big expense to just replace a dollar battery!

Doesn't have to be balanced if marked and reinstalled in the same position on the rim..........New tire sensors have to be sinced to the car computer to operated correctly.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

TPMS sensor's are sealed, you can't replace the battery, the entire sensor must be replaced. I had one fail on my 2015 Equinox, I worked at a dealership at the time so I only paid for the sensor. My mechanic buddy who replaced it said I should expect the other 3 to fail shortly considering they were all the same age as the first one. Sure enough, within a few month's the other 3 quit and he had to replace them also.

Apparently LOTS of people don't know that...............

 

[ladder13]

Toyota must have upgraded around 2016. The 2015 Toyota van only gives a warning light. My 2016 Toyota Camry gives the warning message and psi on each tire so you know which one is low.

My tire folks (McCarthy Tire) are good people. Decided to have all four replaced as my guy said the others could go anytime. $89 per unit. I didn’t know they could test them and determine baattery charge on each. In my checking before taking it in did find out from owners manual there is a reset button for the system under the dash. Tried it but no go so then decided to take to tire place.

My old 2012 RAV4 only had a single light. I had to go through each tire, forgot the spare , which was the cause of the light. Drove me nuts until I visited a RAV4 online group.

 

[Jon651]

2014 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4. All 4 failed about one and a half years ago. On Chevys it is part of the tire stem. My mechanic wants $400 to replace them weather they are already replacing the tires or not!

So, I have a Flat Tire Idiot Light on all the time! In a few years, I spend the $2000 and replace the big off-road tires and who ever does the tires will give me a deal or I'll keep the idiot light!

Ivan

You can buy brand new sensors on eBay (you just gotta know which ones you need). I got 4 for my travel trailer and the truck's display has a separate reading for the trailer tire pressure. It even gave instructions on how to set them up in the truck's computer. All 4 cost me $96 and I had them mounted when I replaced the trailer tires so installation was essentially free. They are genuine GM and exactly the same ones as my truck uses.

Ever since I had two blowouts on a single trip on my camper (my trailer tires overheated and I didn't have any warning) I'm completely sold on the need for TPMS. It's quite exciting to have your 8500lb travel trailer blow tires on the interstate at speed! If I had TPMS on them at the time I could have seen the pressures rise as the tires heated up and known to slow down.

 

[AugieTN]

Have a 2018 Ford Fiesta. In the winter the tire pressure light comes on and stays on until spring

Had a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee. One tire pressure gauge would go on and off randomly in the winter.

They are a good idea but we are all being used as guinea pigs to see if they work.

 

[45Smashemflat]

2016 Tundra here. First cold snap of every year, I get a light. I use it as a reminder to check the spare in it, as well as the wife’s car.

 

[67tempest]

Back in the 90's GM used the abs system to monitor wheel speed and trip the tire pressure warning light. When it sensed one wheel was spinning faster than the rest due to it's change in diameter due to a presumed leak it turned on the light. You didn't know what the tire pressure was, only that there was an issue with that tire. GM switched and started installing sensors in each individual tire that monitored the actual tire pressure. All this came about when the govt. got involved after the issue Ford had with the Firestone tires loosing air and coming apart while driving causing numerous crashes. Over the years the system has alerted me to tires that were leaking that I would not have known about until it was too late.

 

[wuluf]

2017 rav4, idiot light only. It lights up when it starts getting cold but also every time we gain elevation which, in northern nevada, is often!

Sent from my SM-S921U using Tapatalk

 

[Rob613]

My Ram gives the PSI. I just get the sensors replaced when I get new tires. I have never had an issue with dead batteries.

 

[GnarlsR2]

Spare tires have them too, so check them as your other tires if you get a warning light. I know this.

Our daughter's new 2023 Chevy Blazer has the read out with the PSI, but it does not read the spare tire.