Sigh, TPMS...

I wouldn't bother with electrical tape. The warning's not in-your-face, the tape could leave residue, and with dumb luck you'll forget to peel it off when your reg tires are reinstalled, with their functioning TPMS.

 

You are right, the tape will leave a residue.

 

I was thinking along those lines. I've never installed a valve myself, but would think it has to be pushed in past some shoulder, to be solidly locked in there. This situation is really weird though, the nonsense you have to endure to circumvent this regulation.

It wouldn't be so bad if Toyota came up with an inexpensive system, designed so you could DIY swap your snows for all seasons without a laptop and a cable and pirated software and deep wallets.

For now doing an end-run around the whole mess seems the best tactic, and tire shops should be allowed to let you do this, not be forced into this nudge-nudge, wink-wink nonsense.

If the original intent of the system is completely lost in the implementation, something 's wrong.

 

Ashlem, it is possible that the air valve inside the stem was not tightened, causing it to be loose and spew air. The trick to this is having a tool to tighten the valve with. A lot of the stem caps ''back in the day'' had a notch in them to do this with--- ain't seen one in years though. The problem obviously is a loose-- or defective-- air valve in the stem. Aggravating... yep.

 

Just bought x-ice3 with steel wheels from tirerack. Mounted them myself this morning. Great shopping experience. For $200 something plus getting them programmed I never considered buying the TPMS. A flat is a flat... I can deal with it without the advanced warning.

 

Probably going to do the same thing before the rebate runs out. No need got TPMS. I didn't have it in a car until last year.

 

Just pray you're able to opt out. Sounds like TPMS is becoming mandatory, in the States.

I've got nothing against the concept; it's a great idea. But Toyota's implementation is a mess.

 

Just read through this thread to learn what I would need to put my winter tires on set of steel rims with another set of TPMS on my 2015 Prius. $420 for TPMS and $100 for calibrating them each time tire swaps. Add to that the cost of steel rims $80/each will come to be grand total of $840, and that does not include the actual price of tires. Wow, that's expensive.

After driving two winters with all-season tires, I just put winter tires on original alloy wheels with original TPMS. Luckily, my local tire shop offers free winter change-over for tires purchased from them, so I can have them swapped free in future. But I didn't want to keep using the alloy wheels during winter, so, having a set of winter tires on steels rims sounded a good idea. Only thing is that I have to have working TPMS on those winter tires in order to pass our state inspection which happens to be in Jan for my car. Learning the cost involved with having two set of wheels with working two sets of TPMS, I think I am going to keep a single set of rims and TPMS.

Incidentally, even if I have to pay for the swap on single set of rims and same TPMS, local tire shop including Walmart will do this service for about $50. So even if you can't find local shop that does winter change-over for free, the cost would be $100 each year. No initial investment other than tire purchase cost. That's far better than $840 upfront and $200/year for recalibration at dealer.

 

The 180, in Canada. where foregoing tpms is still legal:

Corolla rims and plain lug nuts set up, sans tpms:

Rims: 4x$70(Can)= $280
Nuts: $31 (total)

No ongoing expenses, DIY swaps. Note also, swapping snow tires and all-seasons on the OEM rims twice yearly is rough on the rims, not to mention your wallet.

Something has got to give, loosen up the legislation in the name of safety, lol.

 

Shop around some more. Unless you are in a very remote area, others should be willing to do it much cheaper.

When I put new TPMS on a second set of rims, I thought it was 60-ish per wheel, or 260-ish for the set.

TPMS reprogramming (not re-calibration, it is just a matter of fetching the serial numbers and downloading them into the OBDII port) was normally $20 for the whole set at the local Les Schwab. They refused my 2014 Forester when it was not in their database, so I had to go back to the Subaru dealership and pay $70, just once.

After that, and with two TPMS cars in the household fleet, I bought the ATEQ tools to do it myself. Any single-TPMS households that has to pay more than $20 per swap should be able to justify the cost of the OBDII programmer, if they already know the sensor serial numbers. The expensive RF serial number reader is harder to justify, and is unnecessary if one knows those numbers.

The tire shop should be able to give you the new serial numbers of the sensors they just sold to you. The OBDII device can read the factory sensor codes out of the car's computers. And if you plan better, you can buy clone-able sensors so that the second wheel set has the same codes as the factory set, so programming for wheel swaps becomes unnecessary.

 

Before November, I would have said to move to Florida. But now, moving to Canada is my goal. LOL

 

Thanks. but it won't be cheaper than FREE winter change-over set up I have now. I will endure some cosmetic damages on the alloy wheels.

 

Check back to my updated reply. It is possible to get clone-able sensors for a second wheel set so that reprogramming becomes unnecessary,

 

So you can swap wheels and the car sees the "same" sensor, is none the wiser?

 

DIY much cheaper.
Gen2 you can buy $35 OEM Denso TPMS off Amazon.
If you have those inserted when the tires are put on, I assume small extra cost.
Then you can use TechStream or other device to set the codes.

Yes but shops can be expensive. My tire place wants $30 to install a new one, if I supply the new TPMS (which they said I can get cheaper than they can). But easy to get quotes over $500 for replace all four.

I am approaching 11 years and just one went bad so far.

 

Thanks for the update. We have three cars with TPMS, but one car we have never changed tires in winter so that cost is not an issue. Our other car is Civic Hybrid my son drives. Both my Prius and the Civic have tires from our local shops that offers free tire change, so our 4 tire change-over each year are totally free. If they stop the free service in future, I may look into clonable TPMS at that point. I still think it's too much up front investment for all the rims and TPMS.

 

I haven't had TPMS replaced on my 2015 Prius yet. But for 2008 Civic Hybrid my son drives now, all four TPMS have been replaced during past three years span. I think I had them replaced at dealer for around $100 each. I hope I don't have to replace them again before the end of car's life, but if I do I may try it DIY. I wonder if Honda's version of knockoff TechStream is available cheap on ebay?

 

Just now checking with my local Discount Tire location, new TPMS is $60 per wheel, or $240 for the full set.