I have the car for 2 years now, rotate the tires according the service books , but my spare is brand new!!! Last time i checked spare should be included in rotation, wright? What should I do?

Your spare is most likely on a steel wheel that doesn't match.

There are people out there that do that and including the spare (5th) tire should result in increased overall tire longevity. Additionally that would also mean that you replace your spare along with the others when it's time so you end up buying 5 tires. I've never done this and probably will not start now. Short of buying a new rim, the steel rim on my TE would require me to remove it and mount on one of the other rims with each rotation. Simply not worth it to me. I do try to check the tire pressure on that spare every so often though and I do realize that over time that spare may get old, crack etc but seriously, I've never had that happen with other vehicles either.

I believe the spare doesn't have the TPMS so the light will always be on if your spare is on.

Well if they are going to swap rims (as i doubt he would run with a mis-matched rim) they will swap the TPMS as well. Now if he has a LE that would be different.

Surely the LE doesnt have a 20" rim for a spare?

Has it been confirmed that the actual tire location matters in regards to TPMS? I'm thinking it does not.

Notwithstanding wheel matching or TPMS issues, it would seem to me that by rotating 5 tires instead of 4, eventually your going to have 2 tires that need replacement and 3 tires that can go another (X) amount of miles before you need a new one. If that is the case, then what are you going to do? Buy 2 new tires? Keep the 3 with x amount of miles left? Buy 5 new ones?

Let's say you have tires that normally would need replacement at about 50K and you rotate (for example only) every 10K miles. I see no benefit by adding the spare into the mix. Radial tires should only be rotated front to back, etc., keeping the drivers side tires on drivers side and the passenger side tires on the passenger side. So where you first put the spare, it will only be rotated on that particular side every 20 miles. So as I understand it, 3 tires on one side of the car should go to 70K miles. The 2 tires on the other side will still need replacement at 50K. I would simply rotate and use the 4 you have on, keeping the spare where it is.

Actually, it does. My LE has a 20" spare rim that matches the other, albeit it appears to be a different color. It also doesn't have the TPMS sensor. So, to rotate it in, I would still have to swap rims and TPMS each time. I just don't rotate the spare.

The non-TPMS spare has nothing to do with "the light".

That's right. It just doesn't have TPMS

No TPMS on the spare?!? That seems incredibly cheap of Toyota. My Infiniti has all 5 monitored and good thing it does. My spare went low and on came the light. Words cannot describe how pissed I would be to need the spare only to discover its flat. Damn.

And my BMW didn't even have a spare, had to buy it seperately for $400 after I went to non run flats.

I noticed that my BMW does not have a spare either and as soon as spring rolls around to these parts I plan on getting rid of those run flats that cause my teeth to rattle and ass to ache. So once you replaced your run flats, did you go with a full size spare? I have the Z4 and there is not much room in the trunk but they make a donut spare that comes with a jack kit etc for about $375 I believe.

Our '07 Tacoma came with TPMS on the spare.