What is the expected lifespan of TPM sensors?

Just for comparison, my 2010 @ 105,000 miles is still on the original sensors. It's parked in a garage nightly. I probably just doomed them by talking about them.

Discount Tire offered a TPMS rebuild kit on my last set of new tires but I declined.

I'm interested in what others have to say on your other questions.

 

If you've reinitialized the system with that pressure it should be ok, but still: 30 psi is quite low, below spec; you like a cushy ride?

Reading here, second gen owners around '06~'08 are now starting to see failures. A few more years and third gen owners will start having problems, if it's similar sensors and batteries.

Could be a poor batch of sensors/batteries too??

A couple of years back I got a warning, even though the pressures were fine. I raised them, warning went away. Lowered them a few weeks later, back to what I'd had previously, and no return of the warning. So maybe the system can get messed up??

 

FWIW, in Canada maintaining TPMS is not mandatory. If they fail, next time you get new tires or whenever, you're free to get regular valves. There's a small light on the dash is all.

 

Yup, just had one pop up a few weeks ago on the 06. Newish tires have a lot of life left so trying to decide how long to look at the warning light.....

 

From my research, the batteries should be good for 7 to 10 years.

The rebuild kit just replaces washers and stem. Things that could deteriorate over time and lead to leaks. If you were fine in keeping the old stems on during tire changes before TPMS, you should be fine on skipping the rebuild kit.

The pressure limits that lead to the TPMS warning are set at the factory; perhaps the dealer or shop with the right access tools can change it. All the reset button does is allow the procedure for the system to relearn the wheel position after a tire rotation. If you are lucky, you just need a strong magnet or to drop the pressure down real low and reinflate the tire to trigger the system learning that position. Most likely you need an electronic tool to trigger the sensor for this.

It is possible to replace the sensor without actually removing the tire.
How to Replace a Tire Pressure Sensor | DoItYourself.com
The question to whether it is practical comes down to how easy is it the break the tire bead and reseal it. Having an average American stand on the deflated tire's sidewall might be enough to break it for a typical Prius tire. Then I've heard of wrapping a cargo strap around the tire to hold the bead sealed while slowly inflating while also slowly loosening the strap can work.

 

The warning is reputed to go off when pressures drop 25% from what was established with the reset button. Maybe the reset procedure didn't take, and the car still is set at some higher value, say 25% higher than 30 psi.

Yeah, the quick-and-dirty fix is leave everything as-is, and go with a bit higher pressures.

The instruction for reset I find a bit confusing:

For starters, it says the car should be in "ON mode". It's somewhat presumptive of Toyota to assume owners will understand this without further explanation. I believe this means: push start button without foot on brake, what traditionally would be called accessory mode. (I'm sure it's explained somewhere, in the 600 page tome of an Owner's Manual), but these are not traditional terms, and the ignition system is anything but traditional.) The other "mode" is "READY", achieved by push start button with foot on brake, basically the car is fully on, ready to drive.

Also, there's a vague instruction at the end, saying after the reset, to leave the car in "ON" mode for "a few minutes". What constitutes a few minutes? Maybe 5?

 

This is not for Prius, but I have had all four TPMS fail on 2008 Civic Hybrid, which is now driven by my son, during last 3-4 years. As someone said above TPMS's battery should last 7-10 years, so yours being only 5 years old, it seems bit early for battery failure. One thing I advise you is if you need to replace TPMS for any reason and you care to save money, DO NOT TAKE TO DEALER. The Civic was the first car I owned that came equipped with direct TPMS. The manual clearly states that TO TAKE TO DEALER to get TPMS programmed. I fell for that, and for 4 TPMS that had to be replaced, I paid ~$200 per TPMS failure incident. I recently had to replace another TPMS on this car. However, this time it wasn't bad battery, but it was slow leak on one tire. I took the car to a local tire shop, and they found a leak around stem, but the aluminum stem was corroded from road salt that they could not clean and replace with a new bulb and gromet (TPMS service kit which cost only $1.99). This meant the entire TPMS had to be replaced. TOYOTA and HONDA mostly use TPMS which sensor and stem are one piece, so, you can not replace the stem without replacing the entire unit. However what my local tire shop told me was something of surprise to me. They do not stock HONDA OEM TPMS, but they can replace the corroded stem (hence the entire TPMS unit) with after market TPMS. They used Schrader EZ-sensor with the version that comes with rubber stem. After doing bit of research on my own, I realized that Schrader also have aluminum stem option for their TPMS sensor, but with my experience of aluminum stem becoming corroded with road salt, I prefer rubber stem over the looks of aluminum anyway. The aftermarket TPMS are usually made of two pieces, TPMS sensor part and stem part separate, and attached together with a single screw. So, in future if you have any problem with stem, all you have to buy is the replacement stem for a couple of bucks. The best thing was that the local tire shop did the replacement of TPMS, which include dismounting tire and removing old TPMS, programing and installing a new TPMS, mounting tire, balancing tire, installation of tire onto the car, and re-learning new TPMS via OBDII, all of this for total cost of $48. The final step of re-learning new TPMS is the step I was misled to believe that ONLY dealer can perform. That was not the case. I could have saved $150 each time TPMS has failed in last 3-4 years, total of $600 saving if I knew that any tire shops are equipped to deal with TPMS replacement.

 

My tpms usually last 5-7 years, I just ignore the failure since I check tire pressure regularly

 

My 09 Sonata TPMS is still in service as well as my 12 PiP. I plan to use tape to cover the light when they do fail. DW and mom, the drivers, have notified me umpteen times over the last 9 years their tires are low despite no TPMS warning. Apparently the warning system I have in place is more sensitive than TPMS.

 

I wish I could use "tape" method, but I can't. We live in a state that requires inspection. Any warning lights on dashboard is automatic failure.

 

Do they look for lights, or hook up a laptop? Tape method might work, if they just look.

 

It all depends on which inspection station you take the car. I have been taking my Prius to dealer for inspection, and I am pretty sure they will catch the light if its on. That said, I have never brought in a car for inspection with a warning light on to a dealer. On the other hand, I have taken a 15 years old Civic (1998 model) to a inspection station, and he did not even turn on the engine, walked around the car several time, made a comment on rust through on locker panel, which I had to fix with bonding compound before I could get a sticker. If I have to, I can take Prius with TPMS lights on to that inspection station, and I am sure it will pass. Is it legit? Probably not. Overall, state inspection is a big joke.

 

A bigger joke is that a tpms is feature necessary to pass inspection and not easily replaced like a spark plug, talk about cash cow

 

I have 2006 Prius which is the first model year with TPMS.

My Prius now 11-years old and I have lost only one TPMS sensor at 165000 miles.
Lost one at approx. 9.5-years old

My drivers side door Manufacturing date is July_2006.

By the way, I am faking out my system to turn the warning light out. The way I am doing this is I have a spare TPMS in the glove compartment grasped in a binder clip holding the pressure mechanically.

 

Well then again, in our state it cost only $12.50 for annual inspection. I hear most of shops actually lose money performing state inspection on mechanics time alone. That's why many inspection stations are so eager to find something wrong with the car to stick it to the bill. I was once told I had to REPLACE rusted fuel line (not corroded, not leaking, just rusted) in order to pass the inspection. Yeh, right, any car driving in New England winter has rusted fuel line. I took the car with half torn sticker (marking for a failed inspection) to another shop, and he passed the car without hesitation.

 

The stupid thing is we cannot see the TPMS data in a Prius without a special tool.
I can't think of anyone more interested in tire pressures than Prius drivers. Other cars it is shown.

 

Does other Toyota cars, say Camry or Corolla shows TPMS data? Our 2008 Civic Hybrid is the same way, no display of TPMS data.

 

Does it show which tire is low? Mine just alerts to any being low, so learning the sensors to the correct position is only important if you are using OnStar services, then you can get the pressure readings through the site.