DJWLDW

Thinking about getting some winter wheels to mount snow tires on and just leave them mounted. Does the system need to be programed for different sensors? Could I just buy 2 new TPMS sensors and install them in the snow tire wheels and then when I switch out the rear tires for the snow tires have them show up on the screen? How far away would I need to store the all weather tires that I had removed from the car so the system would not pick them up?

Dennis

caha14

Hi Dennis,

A couple of things...

The short answer is that the LS can only hold one set (i.e., 4 tires plus 1 spare) of TPMS sensor codes in its computer, unlike other Lexus models that can store two sets and allow you to toggle from one to the other. Thus, in theory, you would need to reprogram the TPMS computer every time new sensors come into the mix.

Now, here's where things get interesting. There are a few companies out there offering clone-able TPMS sensors. What this means is that you can teach these sensors to pretend to be your existing ones. Put differently, the codes for the new sensors are defined to match the codes that are stored in your LS's TPMS computer, so the swap becomes seamless.

Lastly, some thoughts you didn't ask for... If you are going the snow tire route in an LS, I would change all four tires, not just two. Yes, you do have RWD, but equivalent rotational speed across all four tires is critical for all stability systems, traction control, yaw sensors, ABS, etc. (in essence, the full VDIM system), and thus you'll want to keep the same tire dimensions. Also, the snow tires will grip better anyway, even if just for steering.

DJWLDW

caha14

Just to make sure. You are in the North East not Nebraska right? I think I will just buy a used 4 wheel drive and leave the LS parked when the weather is not good. I need a 2nd car anyway.

Dennis

caha14

Fixed! You are, indeed, correct.

Nospinzone

Dennis since you are getting a second car this won't matter to you, but in case someone else is planning on getting a second set of tires.

DO NOT store the second set in the same garage as the car. It confuses the heck out of the car because it will try to read 8 (9 with spare) TPMS sensors.

DJWLDW

caha14

That is what I was thinking. That is another good reason to buy a 2nd car. The DW no longer allows tires in the house. When they get old they loose their since of hummer.

Dennis

roadfrog

As Caha14 stated, you can buy a second set of sensors and have them cloned to the ones already on the system of your car. That's what I did. It cost me about 200 bucks. I can now seamlessly install my four winter tires and back to my summers anytime without issue. FWIW, I store my winters or Summers about 30 ft from my car and the car does not get confused on what's what. It's been two seasonal changes back and forth and the setup works perfectly.

Kansas

It takes maybe five minutes per vehicle to program in the TPM sensors for winter or summer tires/wheels using my ATEQ Quickset - about $150 on Amazon.com. The ATEQ Quickset paid for itself the first day I used it.

twentyone

i'm going to post in this thread because the problem I am running into may have been answered, but, i just want to clarify: I had purchased a set of 20" wheels for my LS460L. I had noted that CJTTY had posted (a while ago):
OEM TPMS SENSOR INFO:

The TPMS OEM part # that I can verify works because I bought a set is part # PMV-107J and Amazon has a set of 4 with rebuild kits for $95...a fraction of dealer prices for same part!! Don't pay full price!!! Simply search that part number on Amazon or EBay..cheaper on Amazon as of this post..you're welcome

based off of this I bought a set of TPMS off of ebay, and had them installed with my new tires/wheels on Thursday. everything was fine Thursday night but, today as I was driving I got the "check TPMS system" message on the dash. at first i was wondering if I should bring it back to Tires Plus (where I had the install done), thinking that maybe they did something wrong. Or maybe there is something wrong with the TPMS that I purchased off Ebay. However, after reading this post, it may be that I need to have something cloned/reprogrammed.

So, i'm wondering:
a) if maybe I am just better off taking my 18"s back to the shop, and have them swap out the TPMS on the 18"s for the TPMS that are currently in the 20"s? Or,

b) based on this thread, maybe it is pointless to have two sets of TPMS, and I should just sell mine?

feedback is appreciated. thank you.

Kansas

Did Tire Plus program the codes for the new TPM sensors into your car's ECU when they installed your new tires and wheels? It is not uncommon for a TPMS error message to not show up until the vehicle has been driven some distance.

Cloning TPM sensors doesn't seem very practical if doing that doesn't allow storing other sets of tires/wheels where the vehicle is parked. It's no big deal to plug an inexpensive programming tool like the Quickset into the vehicle diagnostic port to program in TPMS ID codes. I just now saw the forum thread about the Carista app beta having TPMS ECU programming capability - that would be very nice.

Do you have the TPMS ID codes for all your sensors including the new ones? It's easy to pull existing TPMS ID codes from the vehicle ECU with a Quickset or similar tool before loading new codes in and overwriting the old ones. If you don't have the codes for the old sensors and they did not get them pulled before they were overwritten, you will have to have the codes pulled directly from the sensors with an appropriate tool - I don't have one of those due to their cost.

TPMS ID codes are usually shown on the boxes the sensors came in and some sellers put the ID codes on the invoice.

For reliability, your new TPM sensors should be from TRW or Pacific. Maybe other brands will work but these two brands are the only ones Toyota/Lexus documents to work if I remember correctly. The TPMS sensors I bought last year at Costco were around $40 each - pretty sure they are Pacific.

DiggerJim

I got Densos from RockAuto which work fine. They had the ID codes on the box and on a label on the TPMS unit. I thought Toyota was using Densos as OEM. Regardless, no issues. I reprogram using the TIS app & cable off eBay although I also have Carista & their OBDII port connector.