Anyone built a TPMS pipebomb?

That's what I'm wondering, I'm thinking that it would just show the left rear being low instead of the left front when they are rotated and not recalibrated?????
Will look up what it says about rotating tires, I'm mainly interested in doing it only it to run 2 sets of tires and rims, one set for summer and one set for winter, and not have the dash warning icon come on with the rims and tires that don't have the TPMS sensors in them.

 

This really should be stickied. My 06 was bought by me w/o tpms in the aftermarket rims. I've got some used Toyota sensors coming and I'll have the local shop program the new sensors and bomb this. Illnget m the parts for the bomb today while the sensors are on route. I was keen to disable, but don't want to dig into the dash.

 

I'm going this route because the rigid metal TPMS sensors are prone to being sheered off if you hit a rock (picture) while off-roading. Rubber valves or even better Colby permanent valves are better, lower profile, and easily field replaceable without having to unbead the tire. Also on the 2018 Tacoma only 4 tires can be registered to the computer and you can't do that yourself unless you have one of the more expensive programming tools. So your spare even if on the same rim and rotated rim would always be without a sensor. Resetting the TPMS button when you rotate tires is not about tracking tire position as the indicator doesn't tell you position. It is about resetting the baseline air pressure so for instance you set the rear different from the front. You could also reset them when you air down for a trail then reset when you fill the tires back up.
When you make a pipe bomb you have to put working and registered sensors in the pipe. Also the batteries are supposed to work for ~ 10 years and they are not user replaceable so then you just have to buy new sensors if you have the vehicle.

 

A couple notes on Pipe Bombs. I Like them. I have a set of Road wheels that are in use for part of the year. Then I have a set of Wheels that are winter tires or Off Road. I tried having seperate sensors but even then if you air down I'm right back to that silly alarm. Now I have pipe bomb for the non road/ winter set and pressure changes don't set off the alarm. Easy peasy
With that set up it is just a case of take off the city tires/wheels, add the pipe bomb and rough housing wheels. Then do a relearn on the ECU to set the new sensors.

This is basically true. However modern sensors typically do not transmit all the time. They have a motion sensor and once activated they transmit when an internal motion sensor says they are moving. They go back to a low power mode when stationary. If you take your good wheels off and store them on the rack they will go to sleep until you put them back on. The same goes for the other sensors that are in the pipe bomb. You won't get 100% return on the time your not moving but it still dramatically increases battery life.

 

Going to try this today. I have two sets of wheels. Just need to figure out what size hole to drill. Any reason you can’t use one of the censors itself to fill with air instead of buying the valve?

 

Well that was a lot easier than I thought. If I did it again or if anyone is going to do this cut the 3” pipe shorter than I did (like zw470). Fits under the seat right in front of the jack.

 

Why go through all of this trouble when there is a simple one wire bypass method ?

 

I don’t think it could get any more simple. Only took about 10 minutes

 

Interesting work around. Although, you lose the function of the TPMS system.

Wouldn't a path to keep the function and allow a 2nd set of wheels be more desirable?

Get a set of clone sensors. Perform the cloning procedure. Install the clones in the 2nd set of wheels.

Now, you should be able to run either set of wheels while keeping the function of the TPMS.

 

Can’t use rubber stems with the monitors is one reason. I hacked my wiring but perhaps making this contraption easier than the cloning procedure? Speaking of the latter, care to explain what that entails?

 

When I first changed my wheels I wanted to run 2 sets but was told by many here on Tacoma World that won’t work. That was 7 or 8 years ago.

 

Wrong. These report 24/7. My light goes off every time I pull into my spot infront of my garage. And then comes back on with a service message after driving with no reading for about 20miles.

I still have my stock set and they've been sitting on a stack next to some tires for my 944 for about 3.5 months now without being moved.

Edit: misread that as you talking about OEM ones and not aftermarket that the other guy talked about. However I'm leaving this up incase people make that same mistake.

The Denso made OEM ones are constant and cheaper than a bunch of the ones sold by tire shops.

So if you are going pipebomb and don't have your originals. Buy the Denso's and have them programmed and then latter put them into the pipe.

 

It's fine. He gave the feds $200 and wrote his name on it so they won't shoot his dog.

 

not running 5th wheel until swingout later

made one of these but may have messed up and let too much air out of it. Passed a leak test submerged in water.

what is everyone using to inflate them?
I tried an HFT bicycle pump but it’s finicky and $15 for a big ugly pump

rather have a cheap little soccer ball pump or something if that even attaches…

found out unfortunately the self serve pump at Costco doesn’t work for this. I assume it’s too sensitive, small a volume, and machine not able to detect resistance of air like it would in a big tire

I tried to set it cold 29psi but might have dropped the thing below that so will have to try it again. Didn’t know the truck was that sensitive. I’m guessing it’s currently at 28psi and tripping the warning even though door cold spec is 29…