TPMS Battery Died After Tire Change? Meineke Screwing Me?

They just don't know what their doing or they done want to pay for a sensor. If you were at my shop I would tell you exactly what was needed at no charge, It's just good business. That's how you know you found a good honest shop, I hope you find someone that can tell you what's wrong.

 

Good luck

 

This is how it should be handled, not giving excuses and just taking care of the customer. (not to say the customer's always right)

 

It's not that hard to break the bead yourself, and inspect the TPMS. There is no dismounting required, that can mess up the balancing.

 

First thing they teach you is to Mark the tire and rim while breaking bead to prevent changing balance

 

The fact that it’s 2 sensors, I think you’re pretty safe. The sensors were fine before the tire swap. The chance of them damaging 2 sensors with no visible signs of damage is winning lottery type of odds.

 

The bigger issue is, if they couldn’t communicate with the TPMS, how do they expect to program the new sensors?

 

They said they can program new ones. Not sure why they couldn’t read the module but they can program new sensors. If they CAN’T program a sensor then back to the dealer I go and they’ll have to reimburse me.

 

doh

 

you're overthinking this, if they aren't visually broken then meineke didn't break them

They're either broken (like cracked or broken off) or the batteries are dead. There really isnt any other way for a sensor to fail.

 

Time is money and for what you may have saved here you have certainly given back and then some with your efforts. I hope this ends well for you but either way, you have had to spent a lot of unnecessary time, thought and energy on this.

 

Oh don’t get me wrong, if I can go back in time I would go to a place that specializes in tires. But this is the situation I put myself in and I am dealing with it without getting charged.

But as far as the effort and time being equal to actual money, for me that doesn’t equate. I also am learning from this mistake so what I’m putting in in effort I’m getting back in knowledge.

 

yea. dont sweat it too much. i ended up letting Costco install five new sensors in my truck..and that place specializes in $1.50 hotdogs, gallon ketchup cans, and flavorless rotisserie chickens. all ended well.

 

Why not replace all 4?

 

The batteries in the sensors only have a 6-10 year life span. And yes, when you deflate the tires it causes the sensor to “activate” and will use up battery life. It is common for something like this to happen. In fact, the very same thing happened to one of my customers with a 2012 Camry just 2 days ago.

-Stephen F.
-Assistant Manager, Discount Tire Company TXA03.

 

Because it’s an unnecessary expense.

 

Interesting that the three dealers I called haven’t heard of this. Hope it’s not the case but we’ll see in a few hours! I can see how this would be possible as it’s constantly sensing psi but only broadcasting the signal when there’s a problem.

edit: let me revise it a bit. I COULD see how this might be possible but I don’t know if these sensors are engineered that way.

 

I had sensor sitting there for couple months and the battery never died...

 

Ok so here it is. Sensors are not damaged. I’m at Meineke now and we just popped open the tires. He was able to get a reading on all 4 sensors now that he can actually touch his snapon tool to the sensors. Weird thing is, the dealer said the front left and right rear were not reading. But now at Meineke it’s saying that both front sensors have low batteries and both rears are fine and communicating normally. It would cost around $500 to replace them all and I’m not going to do it. I’m either going to ignore the light or disable it. Of course Meineke is not responsible for covering any costs.

 

Thanks for all the help guys. Funny thing though, as I left my passenger airbag light came on...haha. Turned out I have my trailer ball under the seat and when they moved the seat back to bring the car in the garage (I’m short) it must have disconnected the plug. I took it off and plugged it back in and we’re good to go.

Done with this for the time being, but now I might make a post about my transmission noise...ugh.