My 2010 Prius (purchased 8/09) will be due for a new set of tires before the coming New England winter. The car is seven years old and I have read that the lithium batteries in the tire pressure monitor sensors have a finite life of five to ten years. My understanding is that there are now quality aftermarket sensors that can be had for around $35.00 each. Has anyone had any experience with replacing sensors when purchasing new tires? Has anyone had a sensor fail from age? Thank you for your help.
I'm mixed. I'm with the "if it ain't broke" crowd, but if they go, you are forced to dismount the tire to replace them (even just to change the battery...if you know how). Might be easier to just replace them. BUT, the Prius OEM tire doesn't tend to last longer than 45K miles. Depending on how much you drive each year, you might get to the second tire change before it'd be more critical to go ahead and change them.
Well, you don't have to "dismount" the tyre to replace the sensor, but you do have to break the bead on one side. I'm pretty sure you can't replace the batteries. They're cast or glued in place. I'd leave them. Pearl is still using the original ones (2007), they still work fine, and anyway, who cares if they fail? You do check your tyre pressures once in a while don't you?
The 2006 sensors are starting to fail (06 was first TPMS year) anywhere from 9 to 10 years old. I am looking at a OEM Denso 550-0103 TPMS just got overnite from Amazon for $32 for a flat tire. Someone said the 17 wheels TPMS may be shorter life do not know. The only downside of a bad TPMS is you gotta drive around with the TPMS light on, and many like me do that. It can be expensive say up to $800 to just drive into a repair shop and say replace all my TPMS. So that's what you want to avoid. Doing with tire change makes sense, for a 2010 it seems a little early, but maybe not. The Amazon site has recently started saying the 550-0103 is not correct for 2006, so that is not helpful. But I think the Amazon's fit guide got messed up. I am a big believer in "if it ain't broke" but this in this case is diffrerent: Congress made us go with button batteries inside our tires, and you know what happens then: can you say dead batts?
Factory sensors do last for about 9-10 years, your Prius is 6 years of age, no need to worry about changing them now, "if it ain't broke" really applies IMO. Once a sensor failed, shops wouldn't charge too much either. The shop did my TMPS sensor swap charged me $10 each, so total $40 with programming. It is very simple, they don't have to remove the tire from the wheel, just break 1 bead to expose the sensor and then can be remove/install. Since no tires were dismounted, there not need to balance the wheels and keeping labor cost low. I did that last month, man I should had taken photos while the tech was doing the swap for me.
That's a great price but I am not sure everyone can match that. Did you supply the TPMS replacement units?
The shop only do the labor there and I was very happy with the price they charged. I bought 4 used factory Prius sensors from a totalled 2014 (same year as my Prius) to put into the Corolla S rims. The set of used sensors cost me $100, somewhat more than a set of used from Ebay, but I know I am getting about 8 years (well, +/- ) of usage from those confirmed 2014 sensors. Most after market generic sensors I have heard last about 3 years, some failed within a couple weeks (reviews from Amazon LOL). Not to discourage everyone getting aftermarket units, but I am just sharing my story with the Prius family.
Nobody's forcing you to replace 'em though. My feeling: just cross bridges as you come to them, in a case like this.
My right rear has failed failed so I was doing some research on this. Seems they have a practical life of 5-10 years but it depends on mileage since the batteries are only active when the car is running and the wheels are spinning. So my 2010 is almost 6 years old and has 107k miles on it. You'll get get many more years with less miles per year. The Toyota dealership wanted to charge me ± $100 PER TIRE to replace, to which I literally, but politely, laughed out loud and said "no thank you." You can buy them online for around $35 each and I figure I'll have my tire place put them on when I swap my snow tires on (I use the same rims year round because I get free tire swaps). Everywhere I've read says tire places do it really cheaply as long as they are pulling tires anyway. I can't pass VT State Inspection with that stupid light lit so I really don't need to do it until my Spring swap back since my inspection isn't up until June. But I'll probably do it when I swap to the snows just because I'm sick of the light. We drive the car less than 10k miles a year now, so I figure the next set of sensors will last as long as we own the car now.
Really? That's draconian. Up here there's a specific note from Transport Canada, that new cars aren't required to have TPMS, let alone maintain it. But they do make a nod to the mandatory use in the States, In a few more years I think something's gotta give: Toyota's iteration in particular is way too costly/complex. Ask TC Motor Vehicle Safety - Transport Canada Then the link saying: Is the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) required on new vehicles sold in Canada?
My 2006 is over 10-years (by door Jam mfg date July_2006) and we now are at 155,000 miles. I had one TPMS go bad at 9.5 years, and the other 3 are still ticking. Of course, YMMV. See my thread below for latest posts and crazy binder clip TPMS-fake-out method. TPMS Management with Techstream | Page 2 | PriusChat My TireRack guy was quoting me $30 per tire if I supplied the TPMS from Amazon (this is for putting in existing tires). So that's about $35+$30 = $75 per tire cheapest I've got for the case when you do not purchase new tires. He said it's easy they usually pop the bead in the one place without taking off the tire. Question- what makes the deflated tire stick to the rim, do they put a glue on or something?
If you toss out words I guess you should look them up. Interesting read: Draco (lawgiver) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The bead not broken is a friction fit, and you won't be able to rotate the tyre on the rim etc. That's what holds it in place. It takes a machine to "break" the bead, though I'm sure some on this forum will consider that a challenge to their manhood and do it manually. I've actually tried, even jumping up and down on the deflated wheel/tyre on the ground. No luck. Guess I'm a wimp. They will eventually come off if you drive on the flat tyre, but by then the tyre (and probably the wheel) is ruined, and smoking.
The tire shop I went to here in Fremont charges $20 a wheel, but they balanced it. Maybe it's cheaper if they do all four at once. I don't think it's worth the expense to buy all new ones and pay all that labor just for a simple "dummy light" that tells you that your tires are flat.
The shop I went to was in San Francisco, the owner wasnt there at the time I went in, the tech himself told me $10 each to replace. Either the shop just charge such a low price per wheel, or the tech charge me lower to pocket himself hahahaa! But again, it didn't involve balancing because the technician only broke 1 end of the bead to remove and replace sensor, not removing the tire itself.
