Hey all, I was wondering if anyone else had to change out a TPMS sensor not from breaking but just stopped working. The front left one on our fit just stopped working and had my friend pull the tire off to inspect it and it was fine but just didnt work anymore. Has this happened to anyone before?

 

Apparently the sensors have batteries in them, which eventually run down. What year and mileage is your car? I'm curious as to when I can expect to have to replace mine. I have an '09 with about 90k on it, and so far all sensors are working just fine.

 

Mine is a 2010 purchased in Sept 09 and it has 52xxx miles

 

Then it sounds to me as though you have a defective sensor. It might be worth a trip to the dealership to see if they'll replace it under warranty.

 

my warranty is done i already got a new one installed for $60

 

From what I've read on other sites regarding TPMS; battery life should be between 4-7 years... But it also depends on mileage since the TPMS sensor only sends out a signal(s) over 28mpg.

 

ohh well the new one will keep the wife from asking me whats wrong with the car lol

 

My Ridgeline is on the original sensors and we've had it since 2005 without any issues. Has 70K+ on the odometer too.

~SB

 

Thanks—that’s helpful.

A slight hijack: am I correct in thinking that there’s no need to remove the TPMS sensors when replacing tires on the rims? I ask because when I last had tires installed two different garages told me that they wanted to remove and then reinstall the sensors, and that in the course of doing so they had to replace the rubber washers that made the airtight seal—at a cost of $10 per wheel. Am I correct that this is simply a way for them to make money? Or is there some advantage to removing and then reinstalling the sensors?

 

^^^ Yeah you're correct.
I've had a tire replaced (within warranty), and just recently replaced all 4 tires last year, neither time did they have to mess with the sensors, just swapped out the tires. Afaik, if they do have to remove the sensor, the rubber washer(s) should be replaced, but I don't know why they'd do that... maybe as a preventative measure, but in the process of removing & re-installing the sensors they could possible break one (seen quite a few threads with that problem).

Damn, that's pretty good.

 

I guess mine was just a defective one in a batch i hope

 

Did your TPMS light come on when the sensor battery died?

_

 

Some people believe that the proper way to dismount a tire with TPMS is to remove the valve to let all the air out, then remove the outside nut holding the TPMS valve assembly and sensor on, then push the sensor into the tire so that there is no way that the tire removal tool can break the sensor. If so, then the rubber seals would need replacing.

 

Yes thats what triggered the light to come on

 

I recently had to replace a TPMS on one of my winter wheels that had an intermittent sensor. The wheels and sensors came from Tirerack, were purchased Nov 2009 and probably have 20,000 - 25,000 miles on them. The tire was never flat and never removed from the wheel. Tirerack was nice to replace it free even though they only have a one year warranty on them. The battery was reported "OK" when the sensor did send and that was around half the time. Cost me $25 to have new sensor installed with balancing, mounting, etc. I relearned the system myself with my ATEQ Quickset. They would have added $10 for programming otherwise for a $35 total.

 

Just as much chance to damage the TPMS during install as there is on dismount. So how do those same people accomplish that? Impossible to install using the reverse of above procedure.

_