Great Toyota & Lexus service experience

[Rover+Runner]

I had a great experience today at both the Toyota and Lexus dealership's service departments and just wanted to share what I learned about our TPMS system as well. This morning I stopped at Toyota to get my TPMS light reset since I had switched from my winter tires/rims to my summer tires/rims about a month ago and I wanted the light to stop blinking. Unfortunately the Toyota dealership had a tire company steal their handheld TPMS sensor reading machine (which apparently costs about $3,000) and they referred me to the Lexus dealership down the street because they had another unit.

The service advisor at Lexus was extremely cool and even lowered my spare for me. He wrote down the individual codes for the 5 sensors on a piece of paper after scanning them and told me that Toyota would have to reset the computer. The codes for the sensors are a 6 digit alphanumeric code and each tire's code is unique. He told me to hang onto the codes and reprogramming the computer would be much cheaper each fall/spring. He didn't charge me anything and neither did the Toyota dealership when they reset the computer.

So, for those of you running two sets of TPMS sensors, ask the dealership to write down the codes for all ten sensors and you can save some money when it comes time to switch summer/winter tires if you're running two sets of TPMS sensors.

I know this was a long post but I thought it was nice to see two dealerships provide such good customer service and thought maybe I could save someone else some cash down the road too.

 

[EH007]

Wow, you actually purchased another set of sensors for your other set of wheels? How much did that cost?

I'm just turing my dashboard light off completely when the batteries die in my sensors. I check my tire pressure regularly, so I don't really find much of a benefit to have the sensors there in the first place. The ironic thing is that if the general public was better at checking their tire pressures, we probably would have never gotten tire pressure moniters in the first place!

BTW, that does seem like some good service from Lexus and Toyota. But it's really too bad that Toyota didn't make the TPMS more user friendly for the do-it-yourselfer in the first place.

 

[Rover+Runner]

Wow, you actually purchased another set of sensors for your other set of wheels?

I bought another set of Toyota rims off eBay (sensors included)

How much did that cost?
4 rims (Sport Edition style) around $400. Then I put on a set of Bridgestone Blizzack's that were $790

I'm just turing my dashboard light off completely when the batteries die in my sensors. I check my tire pressure regularly, so I don't really find much of a benefit to have the sensors there in the first place.

I like having them in winter and with all the potholes in Chicago it's nice to know things are ok since I hit one every once in a while

The ironic thing is that if the general public was better at checking their tire pressures, we probably would have never gotten tire pressure moniters in the first place!
Agreed. But I see them as a nice piece of technology that I paid for so might as well use. I think we have all the Firestone/Ford Explorer rollovers in the late 90's to thank for them.

BTW, that does seem like some good service from Lexus and Toyota. But it's really too bad that Toyota didn't make the TPMS more user friendly for the do-it-yourselfer in the first place.

It was nice to see someone going the extra mile for customer service at a dealership. I've never been to a Lexus service center but I was really impressed with how professional and courteous they were. I know that Land Rover computers can hold two sets of codes for summer and winter tires so maybe that will be something we'll see from Toyota in the future

 

[CdeFabio]

I know that Land Rover computers can hold two sets of codes for summer and winter tires so maybe that will be something we'll see from Toyota in the future

Some of the newer Lexus vehicles have this as well, my GX has this option so Toyota is thinking about it. They probably will have this option in the next generation 4 Runner.

 

[toto]

The only Toyota-branded vehicle that currently supports two sets of wheel sensors is the Land Cruiser.

 

[4boer]

What dealers did you go to?

 

[G.I.G.]

Great info, thanks for sharing!

It's also nice to hear the good stories about dealerships because so often we hear the bad ones. Glad you had a good experience with them!

 

[Rover+Runner]

What dealers did you go to?

The dealership in Westmont:

http://www.oakbrooktoyota.com

And the Lexus dealer is:

http://www.mcgrathlex.com/