TPMS Broken by shop or fatigue?

I brought my truck in to a local shop that I always use to remove a screw from my front driver side and plug / patch. TPMS was working fine. I drove ~80 miles this morning with the screw in it and the sensor just indicated lower pressure 29lbs, the rest were @ 34lbs... I just got a call from them saying that when they removed the tire to repair that the TPMS sensor was cracked and about to fall off and that is what the leak was coming from. I said "no, there is a screw in the tire which is why I brought it in to repair". He just said oh ya that leaked too but he would need to replace it or just put a regular rubber valve stem on it. I told him to put the valve stem on it so I could contact Toyota. I said it was fine this morning why would it just fail. His reply "fatigue"...

The truck is a 2016 with 71k miles...

Would this be covered under warranty if it really was broken due to normal wear and tear?

A friend recommended having only Toyota do the sensor...

 

If the valve stem “was about to fall off” you would’ve dropped a little more than 5 psi I think

 

the slow leak I am sure was from the screw in the tire, not the stem

 

Your shop is hosing you. They screwed up.

Warranty will not cover that.

 

Warranty is long gone . Do you have a picture of the broken TPMS you can post ?

 

I'm 99.9% sure of that too

Wouldn't the sensor indicator on the dash flash if there was an issue prior to?

 

I'm going to get the truck in a few. I told them not to throw it out, so I'll post a pic when I get back

 

When they remove the tires, many people put the duck bill (part of the tire machine) too close to the sensor. The puts a ton of pressure on the sensor and breaks them.

Here is the duck bill, you can see how it will destroy tpm sensors



Here is a video showing the correct way to do it and how doing it wrong will cause the sensor to break.




These sensors dont generally break without outside influence.

 

Thanks for that... He also said that when they remove the tire from the rim, their machine is nowhere near the sensor so there is no way. I'm just going to show him this...

 

I added a video to my post. I worked warranty for VW for 6 years, never had a sensor crack on its own, tons broken from the lube techs doing it wrong though.

 

Here is the sensor

The manager said when his mechanic took the tire off the rim the sensor was floating around in there... I let him know that I was sure the sensor was not broken when I brought it in but he insisted it was and was just flying loose in there for god knows how long. I figured it might be a little marked up if that were the case... He said the sensor would still work if it was loose in there and could have broke off when the tire went down. I told him that tire hasn't been past 27lbs of pressure since I've owned the truck (original tires too)… But he said he would replace it at no charge and I told him that I was informed it needed to be a Toyota OEM and he had no problem with that. So all in all, I'm glad they are doing the right thing. They will continue to get my business and referrals if this turns out..

 

Very good .

 

Lol, yeah, his tech did that and didnt want to fess up to it. Those dont just break like that. Look at the body of the sensor, there are no scuffs, rubs, or anything to show its been bouncing around the tire...

glad they took care of it though

 

Wait, you got 71k miles out of factory tires? How?

 

How much does one of those typically run if you do break one?

 

If you’re smart, $100 or less shipped for all 4.

If you aren’t, 2-3x that.

 

My shop broke one when my truck had only 700 miles on the clock, but they admitted they broke it and paid for a new one ($125.00) even though I insisted to pay half.

 

What do you mean by smart?

 

Yup, no sh*t… Still a lot of tread left too!

I had a nail in the sidewall of my passenger side rear about a month ago that was not repairable. They replaced the tire, and I said "wait, don't you usually have to replace at least 2 at a time if not all 4 since I have 71k on them?" They said typically that's what they do, but these tires still look pretty new so just replacing 1 would be no issue. I told them they were the tires that came with... We were both pretty impressed... I don't know, I have a pretty heavy foot, live in the NOVA / DC area so traffic is always stop and go. I rotate them religiously with every oil change.

 

What tires are they, cause I’m still dumbfounded. I’m lucky to get 30k out of factory tires.