Living in the north and giving up 4wd for my Prius I'm looking into Winter tires. I'd like to get a set of cheap rims so I can do the swap. The Tire Sensors make this not cheap in having to buy 4. So, I'm curious as to what would happen if I put rims with tires that didn't have the Sensors in them? steve
In the "Believe it or not category"::drama: Getting a second set of sensors would be cheap. The REAL price comes from HAVING to go to the dealer to get the sensors "registered" twice a year (when you shift out the tires). The Prius (and Camry) only retain the registration for four (4) sensors.
Does anyone know the underlying technology of the sensors? RFID? FM? ..etc i.e. to create a Device that would fake out the system and make it think the 4 original sensors were still on the car. Eliminating the need for a 2nd set of Sensors and a trip to the dealership twice a year. Also, I find it hard to believe we couldn't register the 2nd set ourselves. So, using this info, if the battery in one of them needs replacing you have to go to the dealer to have them re register. Nah, I don't buy it. There must be a way to do the registration yourself and be able to fake out the system.
a way to fake out the system is to take out all the tire pressure monitors and stick em inside the car.
According to galaxee, each sensor costs around $105 (so at $416 for four it's not cheap); and registration of the sensors should cost around $50 ($100 a year, also not cheap). Personally, If I were to get winter tires and wheels, I'd just live without the TPMS for those 3 months. No big deal. galaxee's excellent thread on the TPMS is here: http://priuschat.com/forums/care-maintenance-troubleshooting/26135-tpms-summary-thread.html
I have first-hand knowledge of this, having done exactly what you posit: I bought 4 snow tires on non-TPMS rims and installed them. For a number of days nothing happened, which I thought was odd since I figured it would have popped up the 'check tire pressure' icon immediately. One day it took much longer than usual to commute home (1+ hour versus 30 minutes) due to a large traffic jam (but at least I wasn't burning gas while sitting still!), and the tire pressure light did come on near the end. For the next few days the light stayed on, but then (I'm not sure how long it took) it didn't come on again. It stayed off for weeks until I took a long trip (around 1 hour), and then it came on again. Once again it stayed on for a while, but then went off again. I do have the 4 wheels with the sensors in the backyard shed, which is about 75 feet from the car when parked in my driveway - perhaps the sensors are being read at that distance to make the light go out? Or is it another of the 'start the car enough times and the warning light goes out' type of events like I've read other people had? I agree with ignoring it until putting the regular tires back on, since it doesn't beep. If the light was really obnoxious you could always do Click & Clack's favorite fix for idiot lights that don't go off - black tape !
Anyone have a good line (or website) on where to buy some cheaper (steel or alloy rims). I can't seem to find anything in steel rims for it. Although I'm not totally sure of the correct offset either.
i believe you can remove the sensors, and put em on your new rim, it should screw on where the old valve stem was
I would suggest from this discussion, that manually checking the tire pressure on a regular basis is better than relying on the sensors. Just sayin'.
Check Wheelmax.com, and search for Corolla wheels. Some of the Naxo wheels are cheaper than new steel ones.
I bought a set of Blizzak snow tires on relatively inexpensive alloy rims (only because I couldn't find steel ones) for my Infinity G35 coupe, and deliberately did not mount any tire pressure sensors. My experience was much like Martin's, in that most of the time the warning light was not on, and when it was there seemed no rhyme nor reason to it. I just ignored it and checked my tire pressures regularly. My opinion is unless you know you have no intention of checking your tires spend much less money on a nice pressure gauge and forget the pressure sensors.
