TPMS Options for Multiple Wheel Sets (I.e., Winter/Summer, Street/Off-Road, etc.)

Just do as I did and bite the bullet for the EZ sensors. At least you go into it knowing it will be a problem as opposed to when you throw the winter set back on the taco.

 

Awesome post. +1 OP

 

My invoice says "21620 - Multi Fit Tpms Sensor"

Googling the P/N found this page which shows it to be a Schrader EZ Sensor:
http://www.autoserviceprofessional.com/article/91650/Tire-pressure-monitoring-systems?Page=6

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I want to get the Schrarer TPMS.

 

I have a question. I have a set of original wheels and tires off my 2010 17" trd sport for sale. A member that has stellies wants to buy my wheels and tires and use his tpms. Dealership told him that the tpms that come in the steel wheels won't fit on the TRD 17" wheels.

 

^Correct

 

After dealing with getting a set of EZ Sensors for my new wheels I would say before you get these do some research on which shops locally can program them. I got the wheels mounted and balanced at Firestone where I have a lifetime alignment, but they were unable to program the sensors. After going to the dealership and a few other local places and making some calls I was unable to find a shop with the equipment to clone the stock set. I went on Bartec's website and emailed them, within a day I got a call from Michael, their product manager. After explaining what I was trying to do he told me to go to WhyTPMS to find a local dealer and call him back if I had any more issues. The website led me to a local shop that was able to clone the sensors with no issues.

Bottom Line: If you are going to clone your TPMS with a programmable set, find a local shop that is capable of programming them prior to buying and if possible get the serial numbers of your current sensors prior to purchase and have the sensors programmed by the seller.

 

A few things I'd like to add as an employee of a tire shop in montana. I'd pretty sure it's illegal to tamper with the TPMS system in any way, including removing the TPMS light bulb on the dash, and it just recently became illegal for tire shops (at least here) to mount up a set of tires to wheels without TPMS sensors AND put them on a vehicle that has a TPMS system.

That being said, depending on the OEM wheels and the second set of wheels, we can often swap the TPMS sensors over, and we can certainly reprogram your vehicle's ECU to read new sensors, provided they are compatible. We provide the latter service for free and only takes a couple of minutes.

 

Do the sensors have fit problems with some wheels or valve stems? When I swapped my rims, the guy told me there was a possibility that the sensors might not fit the new wheels. I have the original stems in the new wheels right now.

 

I ordered some new wheels from Discount Tire and while speaking to the service writer, he told me they have a new tool for doing the programmable TPMS sensors in which they dont need to read the codes from the inside of the old rim first, he can read them with the tool. That allows them to reprogram the EZ-Sensors on the fly during the install of my new wheels with my summer tires on them and not have to disrupt the stock set that already has the snow tires.

 

It's been about 5 months since I wrote the original post regarding TPMS sensors and last week I finally got some new summer wheels that needed tires. I ordered tires from Discount Tire Direct, which is about an hour from my house, specifically because I was told they can "clone" sensors. (I was told this by one of their online reps.) Unfortunately, that isn't the case... at least not for the store I visited in Waukesha, WI.

To make a long store short, neither the manager nor the two technicians that installed my tires knew what cloning is. Although everyone was very nice, they seemed to treat me like I was just another customer that read something on the Internet and didn't know what I was talking about.

Instead of the Schrader EZ-Sensors I asked for, they installed VDO Redi-Sensors. The VDO sensors are not programmable. I didn't realize what they had done until after they had already mounted the tires and I asked the technician to show me the tool he used to clone the sensors (at which point he was clearly confused about what I was asking because he didn't understand.) Feeling like I wasn't getting through to them, I pretty much had no choice but to go home with sensors I didn't want and a sensor issue I was trying hard to avoid.

I called Discount Tire's help line a few minutes ago and they're going to have a regional manager call me to discuss the issue. Being late in the day on Saturday, it probably won't be until Monday that I hear from them.

Sensor issue aside, the rest of my experience at the Discount Tire location I went to was good. The shop was very clean, service was fast and friendly, and the prices seem competitive. I'm just miffed that now I still need to figure-out a solution for keeping my TPMS light off when I swap wheels

 

www.whytpms.com will point you towards the shop near you that can clone sensors and discount should be good about fixing the issue

 

diable the whole system. easy and works great. no light, no sensors, no hassle.

 

Toyota/Lexus does have a switch on some higher end models that allows you to change between 2 sets of registered wheel/sensor assemblies.

 

Do you know which models?
If we could figure out the part # for the upgraded modules we could all order them and switch them out and not have nearly as big an issue.

 

Hey Mike,

How do you disable it? That would make the most sense to me...thanks

 

I'm sure it wouldn't be that simple. The ECU (computer) in the Tacoma isn't likely equipped with whatever port or capability that the other models have.

 

An update on my Discount Tire experience...

I was finally able to get back to Discount Tire today to have them swap-out the VDO Redi-Sensors that they incorrectly installed with Schrader EZ-Sensors. Everything went smoothly as far as I can tell and as it turns out, the Schrader sensors are considerably less expensive than the VDO sensors (probably because they don't have metal valve stems). Because of that, I got money back for the sensors and Discount Tire compensated me for my gas because I live pretty far away.

The manager was concerned that my TPMS light might go on during my trip home since I now have two sets of tires with the same sensor IDs, but the light didn't come on.

Despite the original issue, Discount Tire's customer service is top-notch and at least I've finally confirmed that they can clone sensors!

 

Ok, from what I understand, the truck ECU stores 5 codes or numbers only for one set of tires....

The truck only checks every 20 or so min, so it does not help you at all to have them, if you hit a nail the tire will be flat before the ECU tells you something.....

That good are they, Not much....

SO if you run into problems, batteries or anything, maybe change to a different set of tires you are forced to reprogram them or spend money....

So my thinking is, can you program the truck for One TPS only?

Doing so would let you use a smaller pipe for one, also if you need to replace them due to age, you could buy one only and program it.. Less cost, less time and less to worry about. Only one TPS not 5.
When they die (batteries) only forced to get one, less time and money across the board.

Any thought on programing the truck to one and using one inside a pipe?

 

Or does anyone make a program, chip, or programer that you can turn the light off, fool the system or just cut it out as an option.