Winter snow tires or not?

Scanning tools are: "Autel MaxiTPMS TS501 TPMS Service Tire Pressure tool Car Diagnostic Tool" for $235 which has OBDII connection to allow registering new TPMS ids to Prius. If all you need to do is scan and clone (no OBDII), then "Autel TS401 MaxiTPMS Activation Tool with MX-sensor Programming Service by Autel" $139 will do the job.

 

I've lived in Northern Virginia for the last 30 years, five years in St. Louis, MO before that. On average, we see snow for several weeks throughout the winter coming at us in a handful of snow events. Sometimes it's only a few inches, and sometimes it's eight or more. And, every few years we have a blizzard. A couple of years ago, 49 inches dropped into my backyard. For 23 of those years, I got along fine on all-season radials with my cars - mostly FWD, but occasionally a 4WD SUV or truck in there. The last 7 years, though, I've lived in a home on the side of a mountain and my 600' driveway slopes up, gaining close to 70 feet. I couldn't get up the hill with my old FWD Civic Hybrid when it was lightly glazed or if snow was on the driveway (though my wife could in her AWD Subaru). But, switching over to snow tires made all the difference in my winter driving for that car. I've read that the material used in snow tires is made to remain more pliable at lower temperatures and the tread is made to work snow out as the tire flexes. Whatever it is, it works in my situation. Twice a year, I swap tires out on our daily drivers: Once before winter and once at the start of spring. I picked up my 2014 Prius late spring and will be outfitting it with snow tires this or next month. Again, my situation with a small mountain at my front door drives me to need snow tires and they do make a difference. But, for 23 years, I got along just fine on mostly-level roads with a few modest inclines here and there using all-season radials.

 

Make sure your tire dealer is capable of programming Autel programmable sensors.

 

I'm sure they will be. I'm not likely to buy tires, wheels & valvestem sensors from someone who can't support what they sell. That means a number of specialty tools, and TPMS is just the newest.

 

I think I remember your comment in other thread that you had problem after cloning. Did you solve the puzzle? It was your comment made me not to outfit my newly purchased snow tires with cloneable TPMS, but rather go without.

 

Yeah my solution was to do nothing; I don't want to gum up the dash window with tape, maybe forget it's on there in the spring.

Our son acquired a Mazda, and I read that their TPMS sensors sell for $35 apiece at the dealership, and new sensors are automatically detected by the car, just by driving around for about 10 minutes.

By far the simplest solution with Toyota is to just fugedaboutit: get snow tires with regular valves. As long as it doesn't trip you (or the tire shop) up with the authorities.

 

There are some wonderful new TPMS systems out there. The very best seem to be the 2nd generation indirect systems. No expensive sensor/transceiver required, the car learns the tire and carefully counts revolutions and compares history over time to reveal inflation pressure problems. I look forward to something like that on a future car, another reason to avoid buying the radio tool.

I think my best strategy here is to pay the $120 for the cloneable sensors, then pay my tire shop $x to do the actual cloning, then hope that the batteries last until we're done with the car.

This way there are NO CHANGES to the car's programming- it thinks it has the same 4 wheels on all the time, and due to the seasonal nature of the tires I would always swap complete sets.

The only other possible problem I can think of is if the offseason tires are stored close enough to the car's parking space, the car may get a confusing readout during parking operations. Fortunately I have storage available that is almost certainly 'far enough' to prevent this problem.

 

The Carista OBD2 Gizmo will register tpms, and do lots of system adjustments, and it works on Toyota, and Volkswagen and other makes.

 

Our 2005 Sienna had indirect TPMS system feeding off from ABS sensors. Those 1st generation indirect TPMS weren't as sensitive as new ones, but Honda, Mazda and other European makers are bringing back indirect TPMS onto newer cars. Honda's new Clarity as well as most of Accord has indirect TPMS. NO RADIO TRANSMITTER.

That function is available only with $40/year subscription, if I may add.

 

No I never solved the problem. I cloned the Autel sensors and for some reason it didn't work so I thought why not reprogram the Autel sensors with a different ID and then use Techstream to register them. I bought Techstream on line and it was missing the part of the program that lets you change the ID's. I contacted the dealer and they said it can't do that. I bought another version of Techstream but had trouble getting the program to load. I never got back to it.

I have been running on my aftermarket wheels with Autel TPMS sensors all summer and the strange thing is the TPMS light is usually off until I drive long enough and then the light will come back on. When I return home and get the car near my old tires the light goes off and stays off until I travel away from home long enough to trigger the light. Short answer is, it's a work in progress.

I will be switching back to my original wheels in November.

I have the equipment to program Autel TPMS sensors.

 

Aha! I think I made a right choice by not installing TPMS on my new set of winter tires and rims. Not for Prius, but TPMS has been nothing but money draining headache to deal with on our old Civic Hybrid. I have spent more money on fixing TPMS (4 times at dealer and the 5th time at local tire shop) than any other repair on this car including the hybrid battery replacement that costed me $0 under warranty. It has TPMS light on now for the 6th time, but I am ignoring it! LOL. Good luck with your TPMS endeavor.

Read the comment above before you forge ahead with cloneable TPMS path. That path may not be as smooth as you think.

 

We're in that situation: in winter the regular tires sit in a stack right by the front right fender in the garage. Doesn't work for ours; lights still on. You don't notice it, very small/discreet.

It's funny, in particular with US-centric snow tire discussions, they often morph into TPMS discussion. Ironic, when the central issue of winter traction is sidelined by the dang pressure warning system. A lot of owners go to incredible lengths, or just walk away from it, make do with their all seasons. Not good.

 

meaning... the offseason tires are messing with the car? or they aren't?

I keep my offseason tires in a shed behind the garage, maybe 2 car lengths away through a wall. I think that will be enough.

If yours are interfering, have you thought about putting them under a space blanket to clear the airwaves?

 

When the snows (without sensors) are on the car the close proximity of the all seasons with their tpms doesn't seem to do anything: the tpms light is still constantly on.

Maybe luddite talk: but if you fugedabout tpms, get your snows (I believe there's a steel rim available for the c), sooner than later, with regular valves, you'll avoid the last minute rush.

Last fall here the snow tires dried up early, Costco Tire shop sorta shut-down to new customers, were fully booked way early.

Addendum:

Maybe I'm in "transference" mode, trying to sell someone on snow tires:

I've been trying to talk my son into acquiring snow tires for his new Mazda CX-5; local dealership is offering package with silver-painted steel rims (genuine Mazda), Michelin X-Ice3 and the sensors (which automatically program themselve with just a bit of driving, as I previously mentioned) for $1600 all-in. But he doesn't like the look of the rims. I offer to go 50/50: he still doesn't like the look of the rims.

 

That's not surprising. You don't have TPMS on your snow set, so TPMS light is "ON". You drive into your garage and the car sees your summer tires with TPMS inside but have no pressure, thus still TPMS light is "ON". Question is, what happens if you had two sets of tires both with TPMS, one on your car with appropriate psi, and other set with IDENTICAL TPMS ids, sitting close by with no air. Would the car sees that to be problem and turn on TPMS lights? If it does, would it turn itself off when you drive away? I don't know the answer to that question, and I will not find out with my set of TPMS-less winter tires just like you.

 

The summer tires in the garage with the sensors do have pressure.

See how snow tires, winter traction and so on, gets further and further from our minds? The TPMS discussion just shoulders it aside, lol.

 

Oh OK, then we know once TPMS light is ON, it stays ON even if it sees normal pressure TPMS. Or do you have to drive a while before it reset ? And in you case, by the time you are too far away from your summer tires.

Going back to original discussion of studded tire. I found an interesting article to mull over. Those studs are killing people in Congo! I will never go back to studded.
Studded winter tires cost more lives than they save | EurekAlert! Science News

 

If you can afford it?
I agree with this:

That would be the safest, best option IMO.

There are many great things about The Prius, but IMO, it was NOT the best winter vehicle. The regenerative brakes, coupled with also a very aggressive traction control system, made it weak on snow and ice.

There are those that will disagree with me, and tell Bard like stories of braving high mountain passes, and driving through storm of the century blizzards, but IMO while The Prius can be driven in in-climate winter conditions, it's not the best vehicle for snow or ice. Of all the vehicles I've owned, I would actually call it the worst.

I guess my warning is, if you are use to the "rabbit" like traction of a "normal" ICE front wheel drive, be aware The Prius handles like a different animal. It may be front wheel drive, but I think also being a hybrid, changes the snow and ice dynamics.

Because I did not think the Prius was particularly good in snow and ice, I also felt having good tires on the vehicle was proportionally more important.

I live in an area where the worst of Winter usually...some exceptions..but usually also is only X number of days of real hardship. My decision with the Prius was simply NOT to drive on those days. Hopefully it was a day off OR I would use public transportation, or simply call up and say...sorry I'm not coming in.
Avoidance of having to use the Prius in the worst of conditions, was actually my approach.

 

^^ good post. I agree with your approach and the logic behind it. More traction is more traction, and it is worth noting the difference between a hybrid traction control system and a conventional one.

 

I don't want to muddy the waters here but I have been in Minnesota my entire life and have never had 'winter tires'. And we all know how bad 'Minnesota winters' can be. Actually not as bad as the media makes them out to be....but certainly not great.

We always go with a decent all season and have had good luck with them ( Michelin Defenders..and tires of that ilk ). We have *never* gotten stuck, etc... You do have to be sensible though but I have been through some pretty sketchy stuff without any problem. However, I will say that Minnesota is pretty much a 'flatland' area and if I were to move to a mountainous area I would certainty reconsider my opinion!