Replacing tire pressure sensors when tires are replaced

[Stephen Tashiro]

Is it economical to have tire pressure sensors replaced when you buy new tires? - or is the cost of the sensors themselves a considerable expense? Could a typical tire store be trusted to install the sensors?

When the battery in a sensor dies, can the battery be replaced ? - or must one replace the whole sensor?

[glenn bradley]

In my experience the valves seem to make it through a couple sets of tires. This will vary a lot with where you live, how you drive, etc. I tend to ignore the valves. I have managed to keep air in my tires without a little light on the dash for half a century but still have them serviced / replaced when it is time.

[Ed Aumiller]

The batteries cannot be replaced. On most cars, the battery lasts about 10 years. They are expensive (in my opinion), from RockAuto they are about $25-30 each.
Any decent tire dealer can put them in properly.

[Frank Pratt]

Are you sure you have sensors in the wheels? My Honda compares the rotation rate of the 4 wheels to determine when a tire gets low. It can't measure actual pressure, but the system seems to work very well & there's nothing to replace. It also means I don't need another set of sensors for the winter wheels/tires.

[Erik Loza]

My gut says probably not a bad idea. We got tires for my wife's Mini Copper a few years back and one of new TPMS sensors was bad right out of the gate. Apparently, not that uncommon.

Erik

[Dwayne Watt]

Not all TPMS sensors are the same. Tire shops tend to use a universal multi-frequency programmable type that may or may not work well with your vehicle. My personal opinion is not to change out the OEM sensors until a problem exists and at that point replace them. That said, I have never had a TPMS sensor fail but tend to not keep vehicles more than 6 or 7 years max.

[Jerome Stanek]

I bought 4 new sensors when one went bad and the tire store told me to just replace the bad one and get my money back for the other three. that was 3 years ago and I still haven't had to replace any more.

[Audrey Hopwood]

Are you sure you have sensors in the wheels?

That has always been my experiecne. The tires are independent of the sensors

[Frank Pratt]

That has always been my experiecne. The tires are independent of the sensors

What I'm saying is that not all systems have pressure sensors.

[Jeff Monson]

What I'm saying is that not all systems have pressure sensors.

Correct, was more common a few years ago to use wheel speed sensors to determine a low tire, but the vast majority use TPMS sensors nowdays.

[Jim Becker]

They don't really need to be replaced unless their internal batteries are winding down to end-of-life. The batteries are typically not replaceable.

[Scott Winners]

I agree with run the OEMs until there is a problem. Like other experienced drivers, I didn't need the fool light on my dashboard for my first several decades of driving. When one of mine goes I will wait until I am replacing the tire anyway.

FWIW my wife is in a 2012 Rav4, I have a 2015 Tacoma, we both park outdoors year round and all 8 OE sensors are still in service.

I did look at getting sensors installed in my other set of rims, right now I have my summer tires on OE rims with the OE sensors, my winter tires on their own rims have no sensor, I spend the winter with the low pressure light lit. When I last enquired, summer 2015, there were no aftermarket TPMS sensors for the 2015 Tacoma. Which make/model/year vehicles have sensors available is likely a moving target. I did read about a European car (maybe an Audi?) that was provided with 4 spare TPMS sensors from the factory so the owner could install those sensors on a second set of rims and then control which 4 sensors the car looked at from the dashboard. Mighta been a BMW, wasn't a small or mid sized truck.

[Lee DeRaud]

They don't really need to be replaced unless their internal batteries are winding down to end-of-life. The batteries are typically not replaceable.
I owned a 2004 Corvette with an early-generation TPMS. As it happens, the batteries in those sensors were typically good for 6-7 years. The real issue is that, when I owned mine (2013-2015), a lot of the "new" sensors on the parts-department shelves were nearly that old. That's not quite as bad as it sounds, since the sensor (in theory) only transmits (i.e. draws battery power) when the wheel is turning. But there was the added gotcha that the TPMS receiver really didn't like the four sensors to have different signal strengths, so one weak one in a set would make putting in a new set a lot harder than it needed to be.

[Jim Becker]

OEM sensors last a long time in my experience. The issue with stuff on retail shelves/tire shop back rooms is as you note...they may have been there for a long time.