Walmart did mine for $30 per tire when I bought tires. They lasted 10 years. I had one that was in pieces inside the tire.
Proactive replacement of TPMS sensors?
- Thread starter Dave P.
- Start date
At most the sensors have a 10 year battery life. Last time I checked, Discount Tire charged $60 to install and program a new sensor. Its Dill brand sensor worked fine in my Honda and Infiniti. Some brands may claim self-programming. Others not so.
Here are some thoughts as I went through this almost a year ago with my 2015 Sienna. When you get TPMS sensors from any retailer and it says preprogrammed, I believe it means the unique ID code is already flashed in its chip. That doesn’t always mean plug and play. Not many vehicles are self learning and you do some drive cycles and after so much time, it detects the replacement sensor and the dash tire light goes off. There still is programming with this type of sensor where the shop has to program and “tell” the TPMs module in your car to look for the new ID and erase the previous ones stored. To do that, they read all the wheels in relation to the detection sequence and now they have to figure out and match the ones that you want to replace. Now the other aftermarket style are blanks and the person needs to flash a new unique ID or copy the same ID within the TPMs module and flash into new sensors and install accordingly. My money is your 2018 RAV4 is likely the same as my 2015 Sienna and no added benefit to “pre-programmed” aftermarket TPMS. I would get a blank. The reason why for me is that I chose to reuse the same ID in my Sienna to flash to my new TPMS so essentially I cloned new sensors to the ones I tossed.
The name brand I used was Autel. I purchased 8 metal stem blank sensors with the TS508wifi programmer tool from an authorized Autel merchant on eBay for $300 delivered. The biggest issue is because I have my own changing/balancing equipment, I can do this option which may not be suitable for most others. The other issue that I learned is don’t buy any TPMS sensors by yourself and assume the shop has the programming tool to program them. For example, my Autel tool only work with Autel sensors. It can read oem sensors plus Autel but cannot flash any other brand sensor. So if you decide to buy yourself, check the shop to make sure they can do it because I’m sure the shop wants to use their own choice.
Other choice why considering OEM vs aftermarket is how long do you think you’re going to own your vehicle? I got 9 years with OE and if I spent premium replacing with OE, do I really want/see myself going 9 years in same vehicle? Looking at OE vs Autel, the Autel was about 1/3 lighter and no way will last as long even stated as typical 5 years but more than half the cost. If it was me, I would replace TPMS with aftermarket as you replace tires moving forward.
The name brand I used was Autel. I purchased 8 metal stem blank sensors with the TS508wifi programmer tool from an authorized Autel merchant on eBay for $300 delivered. The biggest issue is because I have my own changing/balancing equipment, I can do this option which may not be suitable for most others. The other issue that I learned is don’t buy any TPMS sensors by yourself and assume the shop has the programming tool to program them. For example, my Autel tool only work with Autel sensors. It can read oem sensors plus Autel but cannot flash any other brand sensor. So if you decide to buy yourself, check the shop to make sure they can do it because I’m sure the shop wants to use their own choice.
Other choice why considering OEM vs aftermarket is how long do you think you’re going to own your vehicle? I got 9 years with OE and if I spent premium replacing with OE, do I really want/see myself going 9 years in same vehicle? Looking at OE vs Autel, the Autel was about 1/3 lighter and no way will last as long even stated as typical 5 years but more than half the cost. If it was me, I would replace TPMS with aftermarket as you replace tires moving forward.
