What is the expected lifespan of TPM sensors?

No, just that the pressure is low. All tires need to be checked to determine which is low.

 

Which takes what, 2 minutes?

 

Exactly. While I'd like it to just tell me which one is low, I can see why they have it the way it is. Cost, and it makes you check all 4 tires. One might be too high and another is low, etc.

 

Wow, thank you. That is a fantastic idea over ripping out the dash to take out a bulb or add tape. I'm going to do that.

 

You have to purchase the extra sensor, and program it, do you not?

 

There was a range of sensors to pick for my car on Amazon.
Learning the sensor to the car should take only 5 minutes. A decent tire shop or dealer will do it for free.
Or if you stick with one car brand, or have multiple cars from them, the relearning tool might be worth it. The GM one is $70 to $80.
If you are lucky, the car doesn't need a learning tool. Some sensors go into learn mode when exposed to a strong magnet held to the tire stem. It was once possible to relearn sensors on GMs by dropping the psi below 30 and them reinflating.

 

Yes, I think so. Purchasing an extra TPMS and have the car relearn that TPMS, unless you own re-learning TPMS servicing tool which can cost anywhere from $150 to $2K. I think for the cost and trouble of doing that, you can go to a tire shop to install a new TPMS in tire. As I said, it cost me only $48 to replace a TPMS.

 

Yes we had a road debris destroy a tire, so I had bought a new OEM TMPS from Amazon for $35 for the replacement tire on the assumption all of my TPMS were going to fail soon. So that left me with one old but functional TPMS that I played with (with Techstream) and I realized grasping it in my bare hands caused a small pressure reading...not sure this trick works with all TPMS but the OEM 2006 TPMS it seems to work.

I was interested in seeing how long the TPMS/ batteries would last, is part of the reason I did it. I am also interested in ways to hack (turn off) the warning light. Black tape worked for a week until my wife saw what I did.

 

That's great but that is a very favorable price, is the problem. Toyota wants much more, and my auto repair shop wants a lot of money to fix them. The best price I got was my tire place was $30 to install if I supplied the TPMS and did the codes myself which they said my price on Amazon was better than they could do.

 

I recall reading quite some time back now: somebody constructed an airtight cannister, put the four sensors in there and pumped up the pressure. Or is that just an urban legend, lol. It begs a lot of questions, but hey.

 

Yes I think that is true story.
I was trying to do something like that approach when I realized just mechanical pressure worked.

 

If you already own TPMS relearning tool, then I guess it is cheaper, but not much. Aftermarket TPMS or refab OEM TPMS would be about $30. So, installation at local shop would cost only ~$60 total. I was exploring the way to change over to winter tires DIY, and thought about purchasing ATEQ Quickset.
However, after having installed programmable aftermarket TPMS on our other car, I realized that it is much easier and economical to just have them install clonable TPMS on winter tires rims, so I did not get Quickset.

 

Clonable TPMS is newer idea, so I guess you can set your own code on the TPMS to the code your car is expecting. But you still need a tool to clone the TPMS instead of a tool to tell the car the new code. I see that helps in some cases, such as putting on winter tires without having to reprogram the car. I am a little surprised they allow non-unique codes for each sensor sold, but I guess that is OK. In your garage the car might get confused about the true reading if 2 sensors are sending pressure readings on the same sensor code.

 

Most of newer programmable TPMS can have it's own unique code or you can re-program it with whatever the code you like to use. In a case of winter set of tires on a car like Toyota or Honda which requires re-learning new set of TPMS code via OBDII if you switch, you can just program the clonable TPMS with codes from current set of tires. When you swap the tires, car doesn't know it has different TPMS on it, so there is no re-learning process. Most tire shops are equipped with reprogramming those type of TPMS, so you can just ask them to clone the codes off of current set of tires. Yes, if you want to DIY, then you will have to purchase TPMS programming tool, which is usually capable of doing OBDII relearning as well, but cost anywhere from $500 and up.