TPMS 'rebuild'

Atlanta_man

Atlanta_man

New member
Bought 4 new tires for the 4R a few months ago at Discount Tire. No surprises.

Took girlfriend's ACURA RL in a couple weeks ago for tires and got hit with a $6 per tire TPMS rebuild charge. I asked for an explanation... but sounded like double talk to me.
 
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That is only on aftermarket wheels. Sounds like they are ripping you off. Rebuilding the TPMS mount means they have to use a strap to attach the TPMS sensor to the new wheel.
 
JayKumar said:
That is only on aftermarket wheels. Sounds like they are ripping you off. Rebuilding the TPMS mount means they have to use a strap to attach the TPMS sensor to the new wheel.
Click to expand...

Rebuilding the mount? That's a new one to me...

You sure he's not referring to replacing the rubber seals? I don't see the harm in that if the car has a lot of miles/years on it.
 
i brought my '09 odyssey in and they charged me $5/wheel.

i was okay with it because i had them price match tirerack.com and was saving quite a bit already.

so, i didn't balk at the $20.

i believe it is rings/seals, etc.

joel
 
Positive it was 6? I know at Discount/America's Tire, MOST vehicles it's 3.50 a wheel. For MOST stem mounted sensors, they replace the rubber grommet, retaining nut, valve core, and if applicable, a metal washer.

Some Fords use banded sensors, meaning the sensor is mounted to a metal band wrapped around the barrel of the wheel inside the tire, and the band and mounting bracket have to be replaced if swapping to aftermarket wheels.

As for "rebuild kits" being for aftermarket only, this is also incorrect. Rebuilding the kits on factory wheels is strongly recommended as well for the very reason someone else mentioned; there's a little rubber grommet, and it can dry, tear, crack, and fail. And since it's holding the air inside your tire, it's importance cannot be discounted.

At 3.50/wheel for the parts, and the labor for someone to remove, "rebuild," and reinstall the sensor, it's cheap protection against the grommet failing and metal parts corroding.

ETA: So, after writing that out, I did a little looking. In Orange County, for a 2009 Acura RL (Going off the OP's information, and just randomly making up a year) the TPMS rebuild kit is 3.50. However, for the same vehicle, and presumably the same rebuild kit, in Georgia and Texas both, the kit is 7.50, and in Colorado, it's 8.00! No idea why the difference, maybe different vendors, maybe supply and demand, who knows. I can't believe I'm saying this, but for once, something's less expensive in Orange County. :p
 
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One local shop was going to charge me $6 per TPMS sensor to "rebuild them" I asked them to explain and basically their rebuild was charging me $6 for an O ring. Forget it!!!
There is no true rebuild of TPMS sensors can only replace them. The only place I found that has new replacements relatively cheap is ebay & JEGS.
toyota+tpms+sensor - JEGS High Performance
 
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This is what's in a rebuild kit:
41Fteyf9CxL._SY100_.jpg


If you're not swapping the tpms sensor to another wheel, there's no reason for the rebuild kit. However, if you are changing the sensor to another wheel, it's a no brainer. For 6 bucks a wheel, that's cheap insurance against ending up with a bad seal at your valve stem. Imo it would be irresponsible for a tire shop to swap a tpms sensor from one wheel to another without replacing those components. I'm on my 3rd set of wheels for the 4Runner and each time I bought the rebuild kits (@ $5.73 each) ahead of time and brought them to the tire shop. So if you paid $6 each you didn't get ripped off. The tire shop probably didn't make much of a profit on that item either. They saved both shop time and your time by preventing a return trip for a slow leak.

If you didn't get new wheels for your girlfriend's Acura and there wasn't any leakage at the valve stems then there was no need.
 
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No, original wheels, just new tires put on them.
I specifically asked them if the rebuild kit included a new valve core and he said no.
Looks like there's one in the rebuild kit.
I'm surprised you can take it that far apart without messing up the sensor/transmitter or the connection to the antenna (valve stem).


That brings up another question about tpms: what happens when the battery dies in the tpms wheel radio transmitter ? If there is a battery it should be part of the rebuild kit.
 
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As far as I know ALL TPMS units are non-servicable (Excluding grommets an valve core) and the battery CANNOT be replace. When the unit dies (I believe Toyota says something like 5-ish years for their units under normal condition) it must be replace with a new TPMS and that FCID must be programmed into the TPMS module (Which can only be done with a TIS TechStream factory scantool.)
 
BlackWorksInc said:
As far as I know ALL TPMS units are non-servicable (Excluding grommets an valve core) and the battery CANNOT be replace. When the unit dies (I believe Toyota says something like 5-ish years for their units under normal condition) it must be replace with a new TPMS and that FCID must be programmed into the TPMS module (Which can only be done with a TIS TechStream factory scantool.)
Click to expand...

I have a TIS Techstream scantool. It works fine with my friends 4runners. But it don't want to work with my 2008 SR5 :)
 
Duke_kz said:
6.01.021. I cant find newer
Everything works, but tpms system breaks with error when communication with it begins. It works fine with tpms on other runners, but not with my 2008 :(
Click to expand...

Huh, that is weird... That's the most current software and I haven't seen that issue listed in known bugs.

:wtf:
 
Well. I checked it with 6.01.023. No changes, same error when communicating with tpms system :(

May be I must try an older version?
 
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Hi. I try my tis techstream lite on friends 2008 4runner. It works!
I have some questions about tmps in tis techstream. I only find how to program main set of tires. I cant find how to program 2nd set of tires and how to change main set to 2nd set. Can you help me, please?
 
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The 4Runner's TPMS ECU can only store 5 sensors, so if you have a second set of wheels, you will have to delete the first set of wheels in order to TPMS monitor the current set of wheels.
 
Thanks.
But why TIS Techstream displays that kind of information in Data List of TMPS section?
1. Main set - 5
2. Second set - 5
3. Active set - Main set (something like this, I forgot exact words)
 
Mavis Tire in my town has a small display on their counter explaining why you need to pay for the TPM "rebuild kit" they offer. It's basically just an o-ring and a new valve stem core.

Personally, I think it's more of a money-making scheme than anything else.
 
Duke_kz said:
Thanks.
But why TIS Techstream displays that kind of information in Data List of TMPS section?
1. Main set - 5
2. Second set - 5
3. Active set - Main set (something like this, I forgot exact words)
Click to expand...

I never seen what it looks like within the Techstream tool. Is the interface or options you see specific to the 4Runner or it's more of a generic screen that display all options for various Toyota models?

Members here who have tried to program a second set of TPMS wheels for their 4Runner reported the info I posted previously. I believe the Land Cruiser has the ability to store two sets of wheels, thus I ask if the interface shows all options.
 
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