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New owner - TPMS from Tire Rack or Ebay?

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#1
Tire Rack wants something like $180 for a set of sensors, or they can be had on Ebay - from China - for $40 or so.

Have searched and can't find anything on this. Has anybody had good luck with the cheap ones? Or bad luck?

My guess is that the Chinese sensors would work fine but might come with junky batteries that would fail quickly. I've seen this before with the cheap stuff. Are the batteries replaceable in these, or do you have to throw the whole sensor away when it goes bad?
 


CanadianGuy

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#2
I just ordered an ebay set of 4 for $40. Received them and they have the fomoco part number and everything. Will let you know in the next month or so when I put them in my new sets of snows.
 


OP
G
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Thread Starter #4
I just ordered an ebay set of 4 for $40. Received them and they have the fomoco part number and everything. Will let you know in the next month or so when I put them in my new sets of snows.
Where did they come from?
 


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#6
I bought the same sensors off eBay and they didn't work. Requested a refund and the seller approved it with no questions asked and didn't want the product returned.
Had to pay to have the setup broken down to have OEM ones installed.
 


TUX15ST

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#7
Ah this makes sense, probably because like i said they look the same but very different numbers compared to oem ones i have
 


haste

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#8
I just ordered an ebay set of 4 for $40. Received them and they have the fomoco part number and everything. Will let you know in the next month or so when I put them in my new sets of snows.
I did the same thing and everything was fine. One was a dud and the seller sent me another, no questions asked.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #9
Appreciate the replies.

I was looking at this listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-Tire-Pre...ash=item464a7bc955:g:43kAAOSwSWJXQr9S&vxp=mtr

This TPMS is looking like a real hassle. The sensors are only supposed to last around five years? So that's ~$200 per set of sensors x two sets of wheels = ~$400 every five years or so? That's as much as I normally expect to spend on tires, period!

And that's only for one car.

Going Ebay would presumably save over $300 compared to that.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #12
I found a post where somebody was thinking about putting a set of monitors in a sealed length of PVC and pumping it up to tire pressure, then keeping it somewhere in the car to keep the system happy. Then you can go old-school with the tires and wheels themselves.

I'm wondering if anybody has tried this. Seems it might be less trouble; and cheaper.
 


CanadianGuy

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#13
Valves last longer than 5 years typically. You can find one units cheap from the likes of rockauto.com. I just wanted to be much cheaper and get 4 for the price of one. You can also live with the symbol light on the cluster. That's free.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #14
The light wouldn't bother me that much but the constant alerts would. Also I like to get tires through Costco and they won't mount without the sensors.

It did occur to me that you could probably get around Costco's requirement by having old dead sensors permanently on the wheels, then either live with the light and alerts or find a workaround. Unless they check them whenever they mount tires.

Somebody needs to make replacement sensors with replaceable batteries. I bet the profit margin on these is huge, and the OEMs have no real incentive to reduce it.
 


CanadianGuy

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#15
The light wouldn't bother me that much but the constant alerts would. Also I like to get tires through Costco and they won't mount without the sensors.

It did occur to me that you could probably get around Costco's requirement by having old dead sensors permanently on the wheels, then either live with the light and alerts or find a workaround. Unless they check them whenever they mount tires.

Somebody needs to make replacement sensors with replaceable batteries. I bet the profit margin on these is huge, and the OEMs have no real incentive to reduce it.
Costco will check. To be fair the issue is not the sensor/battery. Before there was such sensors the tire shops would replace the valve every time you mount a new tire. The actual valve get quite a bit of abuse (road debris hitting it, direct sun, hitting it when washing, etc..) and it will fail and let air out and can do it catastrophically. They are not that expensive if not going to a dealer. Rockauto.com has them $35-$40 each. True the dealership wants $80 so it pay to shop around. Go to a tire shop they have the generic brands very cheap. or order some from ebay.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #16
True, but two bucks for a new valve doesn't bother me. $200 for a set of sensors does.

Anyway I appreciate all the replies and advice. I'll probably try the Shraders from Amazon and hope they last.
 


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