Second set of wheels for snow tires and TPMS Sensors

Not to be the poo poo lawyer here but intentionally tampering with your car to disable a federally mandated safety feature might not be the smartest idea.

Liabilities aside, your own insurance company might--if you found yourself in a sticky situation--use that as grounds to invalidate your coverage and leave you high and dry. Like it or not the insurance rates you're paying are in part determined by the fact that the car has TPMS.

 

I have no problem taking that risk. Ever since the car was invented people had to figure out if they had a tire that was low by noticing the car is leaning, the car does not feel right when you drive or just walking buy and noticing the tire is low.

Firestone had issues that forced us all to have a dummy light on our car. Lawyers are the reason we have to deal with this foolish sensor.

 

We're in a situation where the the tpms is functional, with the OEM tires, 7~8 months of the year, and non-function, with the snows on steel rims without sensors, through the winter.

By not attempting to circumvent the wiring, there's a tiny light on, deep in the dash, for a few months.

It also means last fall, whith the OEM tires still on, I got a real warning about tire pressures getting a little too low. There is no way I would have detected some lean, or someting not feeling right, or other "disturbance in the force", and caught that.

I can't see disabling something just because it's not functional all the time.

Just for comparison: the passenger seat air bag notification light is always on, and no one get's excited about that.

 

Agreed 100%. I don't really mind the light being present the rest of the year. I am not all worked up for or against this "safety feature" and consider it a small convenience. One I do not mind if it's present, but won't pay big money to have it in the 3 or so months of the year my snows are on.


As an aside: this is the first winter for my Prius (just bought it in September) and in addition to the snows I bought and installed a set of Trico ICE one-piece winter blades. These work very, very well, and I like them better than the traditional winter blades (with rubber boots). Drove home yesterday in the blizzard and I had NO issues on my 42-mile commute. Highly recommended if anyone else wants to "winterize" their Prius.

 

Just to clarify: by "present" I meant "functional" in my first paragraph above.

 

From a legal standpoint, the TPMS is akin to the "Do not remove this tag" found on pillows and mattresses. The manufacturer has a legal obligation to put the tag there, but there is no legal penalty for the end user removing it.

 

Not really.

The mattress tag is a disclosure statement. The tag has to be on there to inform you about things in and features of the mattress. The federally mandated window stickers at the car dealership are akin to your mattress sticker example... you can rip those off as soon as you sign to take possession of the car. There's a difference between mandated disclosure docs and mandated safety features required for vehicles to operate on public roads.

To clarify, it's not illegal to drive around with non TPMS valves/tires on a TPMS enabled vehicle (the I'll just live with the light strategy mentioned by some on this thread). In fact the TPMS rule was modified to account for such an action:

"Because a small number of aftermarket and replacement tires have construction characteristics that may prevent the continued proper functioning of the TPMS when the original equipment tires are replaced and because of the difficulty in identifying those problematic tires, NHTSA has decided to require the vehicle to be certified with the tires originally installed on the vehicle at the time of initial vehicle sale. (This reflects a change from the June 2002 final rule, which required vehicle manufacturer to certify continued compliance with any optional or replacement tires of the size(s) recommended by the vehicle manufacturer.)"

What is problematic is physically tampering with the system to disable it (I.e. making it so the light doesn't turn on even when there are no sensors in place or they are malfunctioning). That would be a really bad idea. In the unlikely event that you were in an accident where tire inflation was an issue and the police or insurance investigators found the TPMS system was tampered with you could have a big problem on your hands... your insurance company washing their hands of you probably being the first such headache.

 

Since I cannot see my new wheels while I'm driving, the light on the dash helps remind me they are there.

 

Thread bump!

After spending my first 2 years of Prius C life in Vancouver on all-season tires, I have now moved to Toronto where snow tires will definitely be needed.

Any thoughts on the best deals I can get? This is for the base model with 175/65R15 tires.

And regarding the sensor - suppose I get a second set of wheels - if the installer moves the pressure sensor to the winter wheels when installing, would that cause problems? As it sounds like a second set of sensors would be more expensive because the dealer then needs to get involved in initializing the system.

 

So you want to end up with no sensors on your OEM wheels? Or have a tire installer dismounting your tires every spring and fall, moving the sensors around??

My 2 cents: leave your sensors where they are, get your snows and rims without sensors.

Regarding prices, Costco may be the best option. That's where we typically get tires, good prices. But the trade-off is the annual membership fee. And that place just sucks the money out of you...

 

It would mean that the set kept in storage, that is not on my car, would not have sensors. When the OEM wheels go back on the car, the sensors move again too.

It sounds like the amount installers charge to move TMPS is cheaper than the amount dealers would charge to reprogram the car to accept four new TPMS. So unless the sensors are such delicate tech that I should trust installers with it, would it not make more sense to move the sensors each season?

 

Not to me. You're looking at dismounting/remounting/balancing 16 tires a year, if I'm not mistaken. And the object of an extra set of rims for the snows is typically to avoid having to go to a shop, to make a DIY swap easy.

If you leave the TPMS in the OEM's, get snows on rims without TPMS, it's a lot simpler.

 

As I've posted before in other threads, the simplest work around is to have the TechStream software read the TPMS registration numbers already programmed into the ECU, find a tire dealer who can CLONE the numbers and install them into the second set of wheels.

Mini-Vci mongoose cables and TechStream software is available on Amazon for $25.

The TPMS ecu will recognize whichever set of wheels you have on the car.

 

As I've posted before in other threads, the simplest work around is to have the TechStream software read the TPMS registration numbers already programmed into the ECU, find a tire dealer who can CLONE the numbers and install them into the second set of wheels.

Mini-Vci mongoose cables and TechStream software is available on Amazon for $25.

The TPMS ecu will recognize whichever set of wheels you have on the car.

 

Perhaps a simpler approach is to know the tpms IDs for the other set of tyres and tell TechStream. Admittedly this chat with the software would take place twice a year, but it 'seems' simple enough.

 

Is it so complicated to swap sensors that the tire has to be removed from the wheel to do so?

Nexus 5 ?

 

Yes, the sensor's bulky, the tire has to come off...

Mike's suggestions will allow you to avoid ongoing need for reacquainting the car with sensors. OTOH, you still need to acquire the extra four sensors, and the cable/software, and the know how.

Another factor: the sensors have a battery, lasts maybe 5 years, or a bit more. I'm not sure if the battery's are replaceable. Or by that time a better sensor might be an option?

My approach is to just forget about TPMS.

 

I am not really enough of a car nerd to do that stuff myself. If an installer can clone the sensors for a reasonable price, sure.

Nexus 5 ?

 

When I got our snows, on Corolla rims, the service writer (this was at a Toyota dealership) asked if I'd like TPMS installed on them, while kinda comically shaking his head "no".

He was preaching to the choir tho.

You ARE giving something up, forgoing TPMS, to be sure. We've had one flat on those snows, and I was lucky to spot it in a parking lot, it was drivers side.

But the TPMS is a hassle/expense you CAN live without.

 

I agree, not worth the hassle and expense. OTOH, I check air pressures about once a month and I am very sensitive to drops in fuel economy.