Originally Posted By: Traction
Originally Posted By: mehullica
To prevent breaking the sensor, you're supposed to unbolt it & drop it into the tire. That way the bead won't break the sensor when pulling it over the wheel edge. This breaks the seal of the small rubber sealing washer & it's cheap insurance to replace the kit with the tire off. If your tire shop leaves the sensors installed while installing tires, that's asking for trouble. I work at a dealership & have seen hundreds of sensors come in failed after recent tire replacement. Almost every time the bead contacted the sensor & made hairline cracks on the sensor causing it to fail soon after
I have Installed thousands of tires without dropping the sensor, and have never broke one yet. You can not drop the sensor if it is attached to a rubber valve stem. You can easily destroy a sensor just trying to take the nut off, especially if it is corroded. The only time I would replace a seal is if it is leaking. If it isn't leaking it is better left alone. My wife's car at 190kmi, and several sets of tires, in the salt belt do not leak yet. The rubber seal can easily, but not always of course, outlast the sensor. The sensors get broke by tire techs from not indexing the tire to the correct position when dismounting, or mounting the tire. Rubber valve stems can be cut for the same reason.
100% agree. That was the same exact thing I did. Most new tpms aren't as easy as just unbolting them from the outside. I know Ford and GM look like just a rubber valve stem from the outside. You can't just unbolt that. All you need is a tech that has half a mind on how to do his job correctly.. I never broke a censor taking a tire off. I've broken them because they are corroded to [censored] and back and the customer had a leak and wanted them replaced/rebuilt.