Older tire pressure sensors

I'd save the $10 each and buy the Schrader brand. That'll be a $50 savings for you right off the top.

Yes, verify that you have a spare sensor and go ahead and replace all five sensors if applicable. The sensors are already programmed but you're still going to have to pay a shop to install them and then relearn them to your car. This will be a rather expensive repair but you only do it once every ten years.
Many have spoken badly about non-toyota sensors. I do see Schrader to be $10 cheaper than denso. Have you had personal experience with this?

I wonder if Techstream can disable TPMS permanently.
I wish. The system has been nothing but a fake panic attack for my parents. My father ignores the light, my mother thinks the car is completely broken with it on.
 
Schrader is an industry leader in TPMS systems. Pacific was the OEM for your Toyota so buying Denso is no different than buying any other aftermarket product. For aftermarket replacements I have only had experience with the MX sensors from Autel and the Ritesensor from Bartec. Both have been indistinguishable from the factory installed sensors I've changed. They don't necessarily look the same but that has no affect on performance. What I do is ensure that I buy the valve stem that matches my original design. Your OEM may have been a metal stem what is held in with a nut. There are sensors now that look like a regular rubber pull-through stem. They function identically but I like to keep things appearing as they did when new.
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Techstream and similar programs will tell you if your toyota sensors have low batteries-- that is its own flag in the computer.

I use Pacific sensors from eBay on my toyotas with great success-- they are the OE to the OE if that makes sense.

If you're looking to DIY this the bolt-in sensors are easier to handle than the tug-through ones. The nuts do not take very much torque!
 
Many have spoken badly about non-toyota sensors. I do see Schrader to be $10 cheaper than denso. Have you had personal experience with this?
Just has Schrader 28098 (not 100% on the #) put in our '12 Civic but they've only been in for 2 days so I won't comment on how good they are. Only (1) was dead but I replaced all (4). 10 years ain't bad.... I presume they were the originals and the shop gave them back but I didn't look closely at them. Anyway, while the other (3) were still good, the odds of them failing sooner rather than later was more likely.
 
Techstream and similar programs will tell you if your toyota sensors have low batteries-- that is its own flag in the computer.

I use Pacific sensors from eBay on my toyotas with great success-- they are the OE to the OE if that makes sense.

If you're looking to DIY this the bolt-in sensors are easier to handle than the tug-through ones. The nuts do not take very much torque!


We might, waiting on friend now as we speak. Once/if we can determine exactly how many and which one. I see no harm in trying to deflate and trying to unseat the bead. A lot of sketchy stuff on youtube but I've installed sensors before so I know it's very light torque.

Guess I'll give schrader a chance.
 
Consider using some sort of 0.032" safety wire retained to something outside the rim while you fish the new sensor in-- the tire bead will fight you and the reflex is for your fingers to drop the sensor into the tire... then what, LOL.

Once you have the nut on the sensor you can fish the wire out or at worst stuff it all into the tire.
 
This is regularly done on the patrol cars where I work I have seen it in person and thought they were kidding but apparently practice makes perfect. They just empty the tire of air by pulling the valve core out first then the kid sprayed some tire lube on the edge of rim and used a tire lever to pry tire edge down and another guy quickly undid the nut on outside and grabbed the sensor off the inside where the gap was. Installed the reverse way and aired back up. No need for rebalance they claim they have tried to and never seen the machine claim there was an issue unless the tire was very worn.
DIY if it is a pretty wheel place it on cardboard to protect the back side. Remove valve core. Then use your other vehicle to drive over the tire, not the rim. This breaks the bead providing access to the TPMS sensor inside.

Reassembly requires more than a hand pump or 12V inflator. The problem is you have to inflate the tire faster than air leaks until the tire bead pops into place.
 
Reassembly requires more than a hand pump or 12V inflator. The problem is you have to inflate the tire faster than air leaks until the tire bead pops into place.
Luckily the inside bead should remain glued to the rim, so the guy inflating can massage the tire to pop back. Use dish soap mixed with water for lube.
 
Luckily the inside bead should remain glued to the rim, so the guy inflating can massage the tire to pop back. Use dish soap mixed with water for lube.
A tire which was recently mounted will still have the correct shape that it wants to seat its bead. That doesn’t mean it is easy with a low volume inflator or hand pump. Tire still leaks until the bead is seated.

A new tire never before mounted can be a pain to seat the bead. Motorcycle tubeless tires come new in nearly the proper shape so are usually as easy to seat the bead as a used car tire.
 
. @CapriRacer, do you know if all manufacturers pressurize and spin every tire?
No, I don't.

I think that MOST tire manufacturers do every tire, but I do know that some manufacturing PLANTS do NOT conduct uniformity checks on every tire. Most of those use a sampling technique where they continually take samples and using statistics determine if the entire production is within tolerance. There's a whole branch of QA Control Statistics that deal with how to do that properly.

Plus I am sure there are certain plants that don't do any checks at all. Also, I don't think you can divide this by manufacturer. You would have to do by plant.
 
I would hope a legit dealership would fail you though.
Each state is different. NH says nothing in the law about it; I’ve passes inspection a number of times with the light on. I did ask a dealer about it once though; they did say they would fail the vehicle for that. I thought about arguing about it but elected to just go elsewhere—dealer had free inspections for me but it was not worth it to install sensors into my snow tires I thought.
 
I opted for a small piece of cardboard over the dash light in one of our vehicles while I had the cluster out. I have 4 vehicles, three of which have TPMS and all three (two now) have a constant light regardless of pressure. I hate TPMS.
 
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