NEW TIRE TIME - Should I replace my TPMS

My car is 4 yr old tires are done. I understand the TPS can last 4 years. Not sure it is worth the gamble? Comments, should I replace the TPMS?


BTW I got 4yrs and 41,000 miles out of Michelin MXM Primacy's 224/45R17's. They still have 4/32 in most places, some locations a little less than 4/32. Frankly I don't like getting to the 2/32 wear bars, especially with all the plugs. I could have got another 8K out of them, almost 50K miles out of them. However at 2/32" the wet rain performance I think is scary. Besides the holes there is some edge wear, in part driving short distance at very low pressure when I get the first holes in this tire. This one tire has 5 plugs in it now. Two internal patches that happened when the tire was almost new... Now these three screws I "plugged". This one tire is a nail/screw magnet. Of the other 3 tires, only one has an internal patch. There is a big construction going on down the street, and think this is the source of the nails?

THREE SHEET METAL SCREWS last week. Two were full in, one half and broke off. Tire shop would not fix it; one screw was near sidewall (#1). I plugged the three punctures myself. I only need a week out of it. BTW I used a cheap Harbor Freight 9 piece kit on sale for $3.00! You can buy the ropes in black. I am sure these brown guys will turn black over time.

I found the source of my slow leak (#2 & #5) in this tire. It was getting low every month. A tiny nail was removed. Both holes were leaking so little, with soap-water, bubbles were tiny and very slow to form. I elected not to fix the small punctures. Losing 0.3 psi loss a day. Again I order some new Michelin Pilot A/S Plus, will arrive mid late week.

Never changed any in the three cars that have them (2010 Ford, 2013 Hyundai, 2014 Passat. Discount Tire tried to sell me "TPMS rebuild kits" for the Ford when we put new tires on it @70,000 but I declined.

in my 2009,

the owners manual says replace at six years.

I had two of them die,

and had two seals fail after tire replacement.

seals are a couple bucks from e-bay, much more from a dealer.

(one seal failed after I let a dealer replace the tires, and it leaked a month later, they charged me for the part, but not for mounting and reballancing)

the catch seems to be that a tire place will not install your TPMS sensor,

you can buy one at NAPA for $50 or so, but the tire place will want to charge $150 or so.

you might be able to turn on ABS ring based TPMS, but if you prefer the individual tire sensor, I would consider new ones in the new tires.

aja8888 said:

Never changed any in the three cars that have them (2010 Ford, 2013 Hyundai, 2014 Passat. Discount Tire tried to sell me "TPMS rebuild kits" for the Ford when we put new tires on it @70,000 but I declined.

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Good thing you didn't change any on the Passat, cause it doesn't have any, ha!

Still on OEM units for the Jetta, one change of tires where they possibly changed out the seals.

Thats crazy amount of plugs, I'd be looking for a new rout to travel.

I have 3 TPMS sensors that I took off a set of used rims, since my car
does not have the monitor.

I will let them go for very little and priority shipping.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=458865

I have a 2010 with 139K miles, purchased in April of 2010. I'm on my third set of tires and I also replaced the wheels before I got the second set of tires. I have the original TPMS sensors. I think they did put in a rebuild kit last time, whatever that is. It was just a few dollars. Is that just the seal?

Maybe I should take the buyback since I need new TPMS sensors, ha, ha, ha....

Yanked my TPMS sensors out a couple years ago and switched the system over to the ABS sensor set up with VCDS. So much easier...

Yeah, thankfully at least for Volkswagen the whole sensor nonsense was a short lived thing. Seems like we had a newer Acura in here recently that didn't use them either.

You can check battery life with a scan tool (or a generic TPMS reader) and get a reasonably decent idea of their remaining life. It goes by months.

I would ditch the active system on the 2010 and go to the passive though, when the time came that you had a bad sensor.

oilhammer said:

Yeah, thankfully at least for Volkswagen the whole sensor nonsense was a short lived thing. Seems like we had a newer Acura in here recently that didn't use them either.

You can check battery life with a scan tool (or a generic TPMS reader) and get a reasonably decent idea of their remaining life. It goes by months.

I would ditch the active system on the 2010 and go to the passive though, when the time came that you had a bad sensor.

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Thanks I will try and read the battery level with my CANBUS Ross Tech cable..... I agree TPMS transducers are more complicated, need replacement. However I have to say the low pressure light has gone on a few times over the years... it is nice piece of mind... I believe (no proof) that the active pressure senders are more accurate than the tire rotation concept.

The sensors in general are more accurate, or at the very least, faster to respond, as they can notify the driver of a low tire right away even before moving. So if you have a tire go low (or flat) after the car is parked and has been sitting and you do not notice, within seconds of starting the car, the warning will go on. The tire may be able to be repaired. But on the rotational direction variety, that will not happen. You'd have to drive down the street with a flat tire before the warning comes on. And in that time, the tire has been driven flat, and thus ruined.

Personally, having put over a million miles of driving under my belt without a flat tire, I can go on living without any TPMS of any kind. But, I take notice of my cars when I walk up to them, take notice of how my cars handle and drive, routinely check air pressures and take action if one tire is suddenly losing pressure abnormally, and never drive my tires so thin they become more likely to suffer a puncture.

My snow tire rims do not have sensors so I switched mine over to the ABS. problem with it is when the light does come on you can only reset it with VCDS unless you wire in a reset button. I had a flat during a drive several years ago. I was beside a semi at the time and thought the noise I heard was him until my tire started shredding. my light came on after I put on the spare and drove another half mile. So the ABS passive system isn't that good if the car was not originally designed to use it. I just live with the tpms light on all the time.

Another option is to just turn the system off all together and put some personal responsibility back on the driver. I have thought about doing this many times because I regularly check my tires before driving and I can tell if I have a tire going low by how the car handles. I never liked being forced to have TPMS in any of my vehicles

I was surprised to have my first flat in years on the Passat.

I've always felt too that I was alert enough to not need the sensor but the sensor is what let me know I had a problem. I visually checked each tire and couldn't tell which one was the problem. Checked each tire with my gauge and the last tire (RR) had only 18 lbs of pressure. I was quite surprised. Pulled out the screw that was in there and plugged it.
I am now in favor of the TPS system but ONLY through the ABS. The other is too expensive and high maintenance.

Side note: My neighbor had a noise in his Jeep that was driving him nuts. I heard it and told him there was something inside the the tire and I explained exactly how I thought the sound was happening only at one speed. He didn't believe me. Multiple trips to suspension shops and mechanics later he decided to trust me. It was the TPMS that came loose and was bouncing around inside. Sometimes I get inspired

I would never waste my money on that. If they went out I would go in vag com and disable it

oilhammer said:

You can check battery life with a scan tool (or a generic TPMS reader) and get a reasonably decent idea
of their remaining life. It goes by months.

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How Oilhammer... Checked the internet and did not see the info.

With that said I had discount tires install my new Michelin Pilot Sport A/3+ 94Y's.... 225/45ZR17.

I am rocking the old TPMS with new tires. I really do like the sensors. The light was on when I drove
away and it took two blocks to reset. The young tech guy was trying to reset it with the MFD. I told
him to not worry about it. It self-reset as I though in a few blocks away.

A plug (no pun intended) for Discount Tire. They rock. Highly recommend. They did try and sell me
on new seal kit for the TPMS, only $4 each. I told him not to bother. They were going to put it on for
free. I told them no thanks. They of course tried to sell me road hazard warranty as well. However
I declined. I ended up all out the door with rebates paying $560, plus $68 mount balance. Total down
the road $630, or about $158 each. That is cheap for a Michelin top model in this size. If I went with
summer only I could have saved more. I live below the snow belt, but occasionally we get snow. The
new Michelins are 4 season and have good snow performance. However they have rave reviews for
handling dry/wet. I was considering putting on my stock 16" rims. Those tires are much cheaper.

gmcjetpilot said:

How Oilhammer... Checked the internet and did not see the info.

.

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The internet won't help. You need a scan tool or a dedicated TPMS tool such as those made by Wheelrite, Ateq, or OTC.

oilhammer said:

The internet won't help. You need a scan tool or a dedicated TPMS tool such as those made by Wheelrite, Ateq, or OTC.

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Oh roger that. Tires are changed, so we are committed for as long as they last. If they fail I'll turn TPMS off.

Mine are disabled too due to having steel wheels.

jahlov420 said:

I would never waste my money on that. If they went out I would go in vag com and disable it

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