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What do you know about tire pressure sensors?

By all means, do it.

My car was due for new tires and I was thinking of getting some different rims as well. I hit Craigslist and see a guy with rims I like and essentially new tires (bought the car new, took it home, and swapped them). For roughly the same price as new tires on my 18s, I could have new tires and be rolling on dubs (20s yo). I drove out to the guy, deal went great. For all the crap CL gets I've yet to have a bad deal.

I didn't want to swap the tires out myself and wanted to make sure they were balanced so I contacted the dealership near me and asked how much it would be to put on the new tires, balance if necessary, and do an alignment. The price was ok, so I agreed.

I took the car in and they swapped the tires but didn't have time to do the alignment that day. I wasn't happy, but said it was ok. The next day after they did the alignment they called and told me that the car wasn't recognizing the new TPMS on the new tires. They told me I'd either need to buy new TPMS for the new tires, or they could swap the TPMS from the old tires to the new tires. Regardless, the price was something ridiculous to "fix" this. I thought they were insane, so I researched it and sure enough, if you just drive the car for 15-20 minutes the car will "learn" the new sensors and all errors will go away.

I'm 99% sure they knew this and were just trying to scam me. Sure enough, I pickup the car and before I get home the errors clear and my car "learns" the new TPMS. My alignment was completely off and the car was drifting right like crazy. They swear it was in-spec and I had to take it back in a time or two before I just said the hell with it and went with it pulling to the right.

As an aside, after I rotated the tires myself 4-5k miles later the car runs perfectly straight. Long-story short, people don't know how TPMS works or are just liars. Apparently alignment is extremely difficult.

As to you OP, there's no way I'd pay a penny for screwed up/missing TPMS when there were no errors upon arrival (if I understand your story correctly).
 
I have a new set of tires in the barn waiting to be put on. Was going to just pay the local guys to mount and balance them as it is real hard on my back these days. After reading this thread, I will just do it myself tomorrow.

Note: last time I researched TPS, I learned their batteries last about 1 and 1/2 set of tires unless you put a lot of miles on your tires. For someone that does 10,000 miles or less a year, better get all new TPS with every set of tires.

Gov't regulations, gotta love them.
 
Long-story short, people don't know how TPMS works or are just liars.

I just moved, and while I'm happy to be where I am, the one thing I regret is the local mechanic I was using, who is as honest as the day is long, is too far away for me to use anymore.

As to you OP, there's no way I'd pay a penny for screwed up/missing TPMS when there were no errors upon arrival (if I understand your story correctly).

You got it right.
 
its honestly not that untypical for these sensors to die when swapping tires, they are a pretty delicate sensor to begin with, they are also more or less designed to die over time, some have batteries you can swap but some you just have to bite the bullet and more or less plan on replacing them all when you get new tires. Though as mentioned above almost every time you swap tires your light will come on but go off after a bit of driving. you may also notice that you have the light and then it will go away if they only filled your tires to the bare minimum
 
its honestly not that untypical for these sensors to die when swapping tires, they are a pretty delicate sensor to begin with, they are also more or less designed to die over time, some have batteries you can swap but some you just have to bite the bullet and more or less plan on replacing them all when you get new tires. Though as mentioned above almost every time you swap tires your light will come on but go off after a bit of driving. you may also notice that you have the light and then it will go away if they only filled your tires to the bare minimum

This wasn't just the pressure warning light. It was a message in the vehicle's message center "Tire pressure sensor failure." Different than a sensor indicating low tire pressure.
 
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