Dealing with tpms

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JHZR2

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Wife's car - 08 VW rabbit will probably get tires in the October timeframe. The OEM tires will have 55k, and a little less than 50% tread, but she does all town driving, so winter use with baby in the car, new tires are smart.

But it's the oldest car we have with tpms.

At over five years old, it isn't clear if we should do any service on the tpms. It seems reasonable that the schrader insert should be replaced, and any other rubber components perhaps as well - but even looking online, it seems that this stuff isn't done regularly, or it is really hit or miss. Some folks get taken for $110 a sensor for full replacement, learning processes that the car should really do automatically, etc.

Can someone give a rundown of what the right process is for tire replacement with tpms, with respect to the tpms itself? I doubt that the training processes they try to charge per tire for are even needed... I'm pretty sure if you get a flat, plug and refill the tire, the tpms shuts off and is happy. Not sure what shops seem to be charging for...

Have most shops, large and small, gotten the equipment to do proper services and repair on the services for most/all tpms?

Does anyone know if the vw tpms in the valve is any different from in valve sensors from anyone else?

Thanks!
 
Some shops will replace the stems if they know how to. Others just leave them alone.

Those Li batteries are normally good for about 5-7 years. I would say run them until they stop working. Then when you replace them, opt for ones with steel stems.

A word of caution... Be sure to tell the shop it has TPMS. I've heard of a few places ruining them because they hit it with the tire demounting equipment.
 
Who has a car with TPMS? Between ex-wife and house and toys I have older cars.

My ex-wife did have it and more than once she stuck her head out the window looking at the tire to see if the light was on.
 
The shop I used charges $10/wheel for valve with TMPS during install if you purchase from them.

Tire shops are well versed with TMPS and VW is nothing exotic so that is good.

I think the important thing is to ask for installed price when getting tires. If you are doing tirerack go with their recommended places as normal shop (rightfully so) sometimes have high install fees.
 
I put the service kits on with all new tires. The kids 09 civic had to have 2 sensors replaced the charge for both was $79 and my tire shop got Honda sensors. They were corroded at the stem and the shop was afraid they would fail half way through the tire life. All is good. On some cars you can't use 1/2 oe sensors and 1/2 aftermarket because the car only monitors one frequency (Honda) so be sure to check. But with 3 female drives TPMS is my friend.
 
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Originally Posted By: Nyquist

A word of caution... Be sure to tell the shop it has TPMS. I've heard of a few places ruining them because they hit it with the tire demounting equipment.


If you have to tell them....you should run Forrest run....
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I think most shops have dealt with enough TPMS sensors by now that they're pretty capable of doing a tire install without messing up the operation of the system.
I recently had a set of tires mounted on the Forester at a Walmart TLE and the TPMS light shut off after the first half mile or so, so they apparently did just fine with the install.
The tech doing the work was an older guy who seemed quite competent as I gave him what amounted to an interview before letting him touch the car.
$74.55 OTD with correct tape weights, including sales tax, with lifetime rotation and balancing.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27

$74.55 OTD with correct tape weights, including sales tax, with lifetime rotation and balancing.


What did Walmart charge you for??? I thought mounting was like $5 and lifetime balance and rotation $8.
 
I worked at a tire shop and the rule of TPMS was not to bust 'em.
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But if you put the bead breaker at one spot and the unmount arm at another the bead falls around the big glob thing inside the rim under little or no elastic tension.

I saved the stainless valve cores and reused them; another employee used new brass ones, a no-no from what I've read, due to the corrosion. Training was terrible to nonexistent. I did have to get brainwashed on Exide batteries even though I had no customer contact and the point of the online course was more expensive = better.

By law, 08s all have TPMS and my shop's intake paperwork has a check off box. You still want to go on record as having it and if you have any problems and they tell you to drive around, take names and exactly how many miles they want you to drive before it's guaranteed to "take".
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: fdcg27

$74.55 OTD with correct tape weights, including sales tax, with lifetime rotation and balancing.


What did Walmart charge you for??? I thought mounting was like $5 and lifetime balance and rotation $8.


You think that was excessive for four tires?
The cheapest shop I know of around here charges $17.00 a corner for mount/balance/disposal, without TPMS.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: fdcg27

$74.55 OTD with correct tape weights, including sales tax, with lifetime rotation and balancing.


What did Walmart charge you for??? I thought mounting was like $5 and lifetime balance and rotation $8.


You think that was excessive for four tires?
The cheapest shop I know of around here charges $17.00 a corner for mount/balance/disposal, without TPMS.


No, my question was exactly as I stated. What did they charge you for? Looking online, it is $5+$8=$13. Your basis is $18.63/tire. So I am curious what the difference is that they charged you for. It isnt all tax.
 
Quote:
I saved the stainless valve cores and reused them; another employee used new brass ones, a no-no from what I've read, due to the corrosion.
I think the silvery valve cores are nickel plated brass, not stainless. Yes, yellow (unplated) brass cores must not be used in the aluminum valve stems of TPMS due to galvanic corrosion.
 
I would have the shop install the appropriate TPMS service kits when they do the tires. It used to be that new valve stems were a no-brainer with new tires. Rubber degrades over time, and you want those valve stems to seal well. The same is true of most TPMS sensors...they are sealed to the wheel with small rubber o-rings. I had one leaking on our 2008 Honda and I just lived with it until we got new tires installed. New TPMS sensor seals fixed the leak (and yes, it was at one of the sensors). Though our 2005 Acura's TPMS sensors are original and haven't been re-sealed, I will have those re-sealed when we buy tires for it next spring.

The cost is something like $5/wheel for the kits plus some amount of labor. They have to loosen the sensor nut, take the components out of the wheel, install the new seals, and re-torque. It doesn't take a significant amount of time, but they usually get $5-10 for labor on each wheel. $40-60 for this service when buying new tires is typical from what I've seen.
 
question - not advocating it, but if one wanted to, could they remove a wheel from the car, let the air out to zero, then unscrew the TPMS from the outside, rebuild and reinstall? Assuming the bead isnt broken, the tire could just be refilled and used.

This may be stupid, but kind of interesting as TPMS units get older and may hit a snag with a good tire on the wheel in the middle of its lifecycle...
 
Usually not - there are rubber o-rings on each side of the valve hole which should be replaced, plus it's tough to unscrew the nut and replace rings without dropping the sensor into the tire. Even then the tire should be rebalanced once air goes back in, so you're not saving all that much while [censored] off the tire tech by making them try it.
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I know Discount Tire charges around $7.50 per rebuild kit. I make them price match DTD, which only use to charge $4.00 per kit. Just bargain with them, like everything else when buying tires.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
question - not advocating it, but if one wanted to, could they remove a wheel from the car, let the air out to zero, then unscrew the TPMS from the outside, rebuild and reinstall? Assuming the bead isnt broken, the tire could just be refilled and used.


The TPMS sensor is usually part of the valve itself, and the valve stem that sticks through the wheel is molded as part of the sensor (but the particulars will depend on the exact design on your vehicle). There's usually a nut on the outside of the wheel that draws the valve stem/sensor against the inside of the rim. That's where the seal is...on my vehicles, there's only one o-ring, and it's on the inside of the rim. So dismounting the tire is required.
 
I usually leave the sensor alone, because all to often you try to remove the nut, which has corroded to the sensor, and break the sensor. The sensor will probably wear out before they leak, since the rubber seal is inside the wheel they last a long time.
 
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