TPMS nonsense

O.K., I search my butt off for weeks until I find a local tire shop with used factory alloy wheels for my new rig. They are installed with the purchase price and since my old TPMS sensors don't fit, the shop gives me another set that does.

Now the damned warning light won't go out, and can't be reset because the new sensors aren't recognized by my truck's computer even though they too are factory OEM's. So I either pay the dealership a ridiculous price to reset the system to recognize them, or get the old sensors back from the shop and build some kind of pipe bomb gadget to fool them into thinking they are on my wheels. Or of course ignore the light or cover it or rip the dash apart to disconnect it, etc, until I go in for my first oil change and routine maintenance, at which time the service department will burst into flames at the fact that my sensors aren't working and I need them because I am too stupid to keep my tires properly inflated.

Even this is better than having to buy new sensors for another small fortune. And I could have avoided this altogether by buying the damned wheels when I bought my truck.

Does anyone know of an easy solution to this ridiculous waste of my time?

Gracias, snudley

 

The old TPMS would have fit. I had the same issue. They just need to install them upside down.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself Snudley. But with the sensors upside down, don't you run the risk of having someone slightly smarter than a trained monkey breaking them next time you have the wheels dis-mounted? Then you're back to square one. And if you put them in your spare, you can't use the spare or they'll most likely break.

As ghetto as the "pipe bomb gadget" sounds, it seems pretty viable for keeping the sensors in use and in tact. I was going to explore the possibility of finding a small tubeless tire (wheel barrow, lawn mower), packing them in there, and hiding it somewhere in/on the vehicle. Anyone done this?

Also, has anyone had any experience with the dealer refusing to rotate the tires without the sensors because the "a safety feature has been disabled and it's against the law"?

 

Well, the installer at the shop did his own research and concluded that it was indeed a risk to install the sensors upside down in case another person ever messed with mounting the tires again. At a hundred bucks a pop to replace them, that sounded good to me.

I kept the sensors on the wheels, he pulled the tires and got the numbers off the sensors, then called his friend who is a factory trained tech, who then brought over is programming gizmo and plugged into my system and set my trucks computer to read the sensors. Voila, no more dash light. Cost me 65 buck vs. about 100 for the dealer.

Apparently Toyota is the only brand that doesn't automatically read the sensors' numbers without manually programming. Go figure.