Car Purchased w/ No TPWS

Yes - but good luck. If it's really "noted" on your service records that may be the only way it'll be corrected at no charge to you.

 

You need to determine if this is specifically spelled out in the legaleze of their "Certified Pre-Owned Purchase" program. TPMS is require on all new cars of this class sold in the US after Sept 1, 2007. Not sure how the law effects used car sales.

 

Just for your information, it is TPMS(Tire Pressure Monitoring System), not TPWS whatever they mean by that. If the TPMS light was on when you purchased the car and it was a Certified Pre-Owned sold by a Toyota dealer, then yes, I would press hard for them to correct the issue. If the vehicle did not come from a Toyota dealer, then you may have to look close to your purchase agreement to see if there is any statement regarding to "as is" condition.

In any case, it is not unusual an owner of the car to remove TPMS especially if one needs separate set of rims with winter tires. If you have to pay for the installation of new TPMS sensors, do not take your car to a dealer. They will charge you arms and legs for simple devices and reset. Instead take your car to a local tire shop. They can install them much cheaper, I would say less than $200 installed (parts and labor). To save even more, you could wait until you need a set of new tires, then installation cost is null as any tire shop will include that process with normal tire mounting. If I was in your boat and I can not get the dealer to pay for the installation, I would just buy one of external TPMS for ~$40 on Amazon and forget about dumb internal TPMS that came with the car. Of course, if you are OK, you can just forget about whole system and check the tire pressure yourself more frequently. That would be the cheapest. Good luck, and let us know how it goes with the dealer.

 

Did you not question this at purchase? TPMS light ON is not normal.

I would first take it back the dealer from whom you purchased it as CPO and request/demand that they fix it under their warranty. If they won’t, then advice from Salamander_King is sound. For $200, I would buy a good $30 tire gage, pocket the change and check my tire pressures manually.

 

Someone put on new tires and had the four TPMS sensors in the rims removed, used regular valves. No big deal. Except, assuming the sensors are long gone, you need to pay for new sensors and the install. Or live with it.

Still, since you bought CPO, maybe you can get reimbursed by the dealership. It doesn't say much for CPO if they didn't even notice the light.

FWIW, every winter we drive on alternate snow tires on rims, no sensors.