Need basic info on TPMS

[PeterGreen]

I own a 2012 Acura which came with a factory TPMS which seems to work great, even I have rotated the tires. The car was off the road for three months due to the Takata air bag recall, and when I started it up again, two of the tires were low. My local Acura dealer diagnosed one of the tires as having a bad washer on the TPMS and replaced it under warranty, although they said nothing about the other tire which was low, and simply filled it up with air. That tire has an extremely slow leak, so slow it has been hard to detect. I finally realized that it is leaking, maybe a pound a week, but thinking that if has a slow leak now, it could develop into a fast leak at some point. I have a job that requires me to get to work on time, so I dropped it off at a tire store, one which seems to know what it is doing. They confirmed that the leak was coming from the TPMS, but did something weird--they removed the TPMS, which on this car seems to be all part of the stem, and replaced it with a conventional stem. They told me to go to a dealer, which I would have done in the first place had I known that a modern tire store was incapable of replacing a TPMS sensor, or better still, just replacing the washer, which is probably all this one needs. Now I have to go to my dealer. so here are my questions:

Will they charge me for programming the system, when rotating the tires did not require reprogramming?
Should I buy a new TPMS stem, or ask them to try just replacing the washer first?
How long do these sensors last? Does it make sense to have one new one and three old ones on the car?
Does the tire need to be rebalanced after the sensor has been worked on, whether replaced or just had a washer replaced?
Could I have avoided all this misery just by taking a 10 mm wrench and torquing the little nut on the valve stem tighter?

 

[tomcat27]

my understanding is that the sensor itself does not go bad; but the rubber parts/seals need to be replaced. your wrench may have stopped the lea; and it may not have. I believe you do need to reprogram the tires after rotation (if you have the active display that shows the actual tire pressure) although the process is not hard.

 

[Carbon]

Originally Posted By: PeterGreen

Will they charge me for programming the system, when rotating the tires did not require reprogramming?
Should I buy a new TPMS stem, or ask them to try just replacing the washer first?
How long do these sensors last? Does it make sense to have one new one and three old ones on the car?
Does the tire need to be rebalanced after the sensor has been worked on, whether replaced or just had a washer replaced?
Could I have avoided all this misery just by taking a 10 mm wrench and torquing the little nut on the valve stem tighter?



Discount tire sells aftermarket TPMS sensors and makes any adjustment to the car. I presumed most places did.

There is no need to worry about having 3 of one make and one of another.

Since removing and re-mounting the tire needs re-balancing, your wheel will need re-balancing.

Don't know about the torque wrench. Normally some seals are changed when they go into a tire. I have been guilty of telling the tire people to not bother with that.

 

[Dan55]

I had a similar situation on my 2010 TL ,slow leak that was fixed by a local tire store using a rebuild kit. Next issue was the battery in the sensor died triggering a TPMS warning on the on the dash. Tire store wanted $100 to replace, Costco changed for a little over $50. Battery life on the units is 5 years, so plan on replacing them soon. The sensors on the my Acura are auto programming so a scan tool is not needed. I tried tightening the nut first, it didn't work.

 

[Sierra048]

Have we become so lazy as a species that we can't take a simple air pressure gauge and check our tires on a routine basis. I had never heard of TPMS until 2005 when our first new vehicle in a while came with it. Never paid attention to it until the low pressure idiot light came on in 2012 from a low battery in one of the tire sensors. I wasn't going to pay to have it fixed (quoted about $70) because I didn't need it. I still do what I was taught before I could drive. I check my tires weekly with a $3 tire gauge i've owned forever. Idiot light was still on when I sold it. Just reassured the purchaser what was going on. Is the added cost of this system to a car's purchase price really necessary? Not to me.

 

[PeterGreen]

thanks to all for the reply

 

[dareo]

No need to re balance the wheel for a regular bolt in sensor. You just deflate, break bead on the face, change sensor, re inflate with the tire in the same position.