Thanks all. I think I'm going to call my local dealer and see what a Road Force balance will run me. They have decent prices on parts, and I need to make a parts run anyway.
Last question - anyone have experience with Walmart doing TPMS replacements? The batteries on the senders have been dead for at least 8 years. If I private sell this thing down the road, I want all the lights off.
Almost all the tire places have generic versions on hand so they can be replaced if needed. Most will install whatever you bring also while tires are being done. You could call the shop you are thinking about and Walmart and ask ahead about price and inventory. Most replace the whole sensor now not batteries, and include the programming if needed. You might get metal valve versions or rubber valve if that matters.
You could check dealers on line and even Amazon (factory Honda ones IMO) if you do.
I don't know about your '09 but daughters '08 only holds 4 sensor ID's in memory. In my case when I swap to winter tires I need to get them programmed each spring/fall. Kind of a PITA but cheaper than buying the unit just for that. Her '08 if the sensors don't register, the TPMS "system" error stays on and will not let you disable VSC/traction control so if you need to spin tires to get unstuck from snow/mud you are out of luck.
Does your '09 have the recall for frame rot? did you have it checked?
OP stated "I dont want to spend Michelin Money"
That is not scimping.
Michelins have gone way up in price. It can be $100 more a tire to get a michelin compared to plenty of legitimate mainstream brands.
No not scrimping, just being price conscious and that's a good thing but need to look at how much actually saved vs frustration. The bitterness of poor experience lasts much longer than the sweet price experience.
Been there done that also. Before my first Michelin for my old Explorer all the tests rated them best except price so I bought the #2 rated Dunlop Radial Rover to save $$. Spent more time at Firestone and even bought lifetime balance because every other month they started to shake. Regretted that and finally gave up and replaced with Michelin LTX M/S and never had to have rebalanced again. Truck got sold a couple years later but never had it redone.
There are many other good less expensive choices definitely and many suggested here in the thread. For my daughters CRV, I wanted the new X-Ice snow or Nokian R3. The Conti VikingContact 7's on sale at DTD made it so I could get 4 new, mounted, with 4 new sensors for the spare rims and still have money for lunch compared to both of the others even on sale. They work great and are still highly rated. I did the same for Sequoia way back, it got Altimax Arctics over Nokian's as they were almost 1/2 price and were the relabeled Gislaved Frost. Got many great years out of those.
I would just hate for the OP to save as little as $200 and get something that is not good rain/snow, and maybe stiff ride, noisy.
Definitely review the TR videos and decide the priorities. Think long term also, would you maybe spend a bit more if you were buying a car and it had name brand, good tread depth, newer date code tires vs these?
