Steel wheels & Snow tires

Well, here's a newbie question:

I'm taking delivery on my 06 after the first of the year and live here in the Midwest snow belt. I've switched between winter/summer tires on my VW Passat for the last 15 years. I'd like to get some steel rims and winter tires but find the price of the tire pressure sensors pretty outrageous. Do you have to have the sensors installed on the winter rims? I've checked my own tire pressures for 35 years and for $400+ I could do it a lot longer! Your thoughts?

 

You do not have to use the sensors... use regular valve stems instead. However, I think that you will see the warning light all of the time... and I think that is annoying.

A second option is to move the sensors from wheel to wheel twice/season... but that kind of defeats part of the purpose of having two sets of wheels. At least you will not have to mount/dismout the tires several times/year which is not good for the tires.

For now, my two wheels will share the same set of tire pressure sensors... but I plan to buy 8 new sensors (one for each Prii) once they are in stock.

/Jim

 

Thanks for the quick reply Flynz4! I assumed as much. Its probably something I could live with.....I've had a flashing light on my Passat for the last 5 years. Its a redundant idiot light for the the coolant temp. There's a gauge there too. Would have cost $400 to jerk the dash, replace everything and I just put black electrical tape over it :-p

Course, spending the big bucks on a Option #8 package I might not be satisfied with this fix!!

 

As of today, TireRack now has the Sport Edition D3 15x6.5 5-100 alloy wheels back in stock. This is the $69 wheel that some folks here have been using for winter wheels. They've been out of stock for a couple of weeks, but appeared back in the system this morning.

Merry Christmas.

-Jim

 

My question is has anyone mounted snow tires and wheels without buying separate tire pressure monitoring sensors for the snows..according to parts dept. at dealer they cost105 -120 dollars apiece..Tire rack has them for 89 apiece i f you did not buy these would tir e pressure warning light stay on and would that harm the car if you chose to leave it on all winter,,,Dealer parts guy said some people do this and they have not had any problems but he is not certain about the 2010 models

 

eBay has used ones for about $30 each. The batteries on them may be up to 3 years old, so they'll only have maybe 7 years left on them.

 

I have an '09 and did the steel rims/snow tires/cheap plastic wheel discs thing this past winter. I went to a dollar store and got a sheet of happy face stickers and put one over the tpms light on the dash for the winter. No problem and lots of stickers left for future winters. The system worked fine when I switched back to the (lack of) integrities on the stock rims 10 days ago.

 

I got the TPMS sensors with my set of wheels/snow tires. Unfortunately, I found out later that only the dealer (or if you know someone that happens to have the TIS Techstream software and the $500 Mongoose cable) can update the TPMS IDs in the ECU. Once I had my "summer" tires put back on the car, the TPMS light came on and has stayed on the past week or so. Don't notice any harm done, and don't really think anything will happen either. The light flashes for about 60 seconds, then stays on solid the rest of the time. I will probably have the dealer update the TPMS IDs once I get the brake recall update done. Then, when the winter tires are on, I will just tolerate the light for those 4 months or so.

 

I went with steel tires mounted with my winter tires....and surprise!

Better mileage than the stock alum with the exact same winter tire.

I think it's because the winter snow/slush/ice accumulates inside the alum wheel well. I've had to stop on the side of the highway and clean them out, because the car would hobble at highway speeds.

I think the wheels are standard Corolla. My garage had no difficulty getting them, 50$ per wheel, well worth it.

No sensor though - had to live with the yellow telltale always on.

 

for what it is worth....picked up a set of corrolla 15" steel w/TMPS off CL for $150 including trim rings....Haq snows tearing through...dealer even reset dash when in for other service...guess I'll have to post on the rims chat...works great

 

I also got a set of steelies off of a Celica that I found CL a few weekends ago for $120. Looking forward to putting some Nokian LRR snow tires on em!