rominl

iTrader: (4)

that's awesome, we all love free mods, hehe

tonydt1g3r

I love my TPS system just saved myself a rim and tire. Had a flat on rear passenger side. Its so hard to notice back there since ur wheel doesnt turn and you dont usually see it since its on the passenger side. Dont give up your TPS guys!

Now should I plug it myself or have someone patch it

Gojirra99

Yes I agree, I would find a way to install the TPS on the wheels(like the band method, which is not perfect, but should work well if done properly) rather than give them up altogether.

I think patching is usually the proper way to mend a tire, although sometimes it may depend on the position of the damage.

JCtx

Hey Henry, what's the deal with the pictures? I can only see the pic on post #20, but the others just show an 'x'. Hopefully you can repost them so we can all see them. Or is it just me? Thanks man.

clubaddict

id like to keep the tpms if i ever went to wheels that arent compatible with them...
do most shops have the bands or is it something you have to special order?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

correct, if they have wheels that take tps by default, then i would love to get it too. but using band? not a chance.... i have seen enough failures. that's why i am giving works big props on the rezax

jc, actually i don't think i posted any pics. i don't have the car AND camera that's why i could only post up the instructions. but i think it should be pretty straight forward

tonydt1g3r

these bands are special order. If you get HRE's they come with them I have some bands at home.

Gojirra99

I have the TPS on the HRE wheels on my G35coupe for 2 1/2 years now with the band method & I haven't encountered any problems, & the sensors work well too, they have correctly detected low pressure a couple of times for me.

Yes even the wheel shop that installed them told me the sensors could possibly fall off , but some adhesive with the band should normally work well.

If the aftermarket wheels are incompatible & you just took out the sensors without utilizing them, they're wasted anyway, so what if by chance your sensor fall off with the band method & you damage one or two sensors during the lifetime of using the wheels, it's not such a big deal, you just replace it with a new sensor. It's no different from the little chances you take doing some other modifications to your car the way I look at it.

Just make sure to find a shop with experience in installing them properly & I would still prefer it over abandoning the TPS altogether.

I do agree it's better if the aftermarket wheels can accommdate the sensors at the valve stems (like those on my SC430), & also the sensor holes that comes with the Rezax wheels are preferable.

tonydt1g3r

I agree with LexArazzo, we paid too much to have this TPS system and not use it. Plus our aftermarket rims are too expensive not to have some type of warning system. Its often very hard to tell when you have a flat tire on a low profile rim and can easily damage both your expensive rim and tire. I also have the bands and watched the installation there is basically no way for the TPS sensor to break unless the band breaks and how often does a metal band break?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

andrew, i will just tell you this. a very reputatable shop here, purely on tire and alignment. they do NOT do any of these tps banding thing. that must be for a reason right? i talked to them, and they said exactly the same reason. no matter how you do it, how well you try to band it down and such, it's not going to be safe so they won't do anything that's against safety.

so one might disgree with what i personally think, but definitely not what a pro shop says. and again they are very reputable here in cali, they tune a lot of race cars, and even manufacturers like lexus they go to this shop to help them diagnose problems.

yes the tps is a waste if you don't use them, but damging them could be as costly. might be even more if that punch through the tires or damage the wheels further. not to mention the money you spend to dismount the tires on the stock wheels just to get the tps out.

personally i don't think you should just look at the price of the tps. our aftermarket wheels are expensive, but keeping the tps MIGHT cause even more costly damage, you can't deny that

and yes i know you guys haven't run into problem for a long time (but hey andrew, youd on't drive your car often ), however it's not about how long you go without problems, it's what if something happens. i have seen at least 2 cases where the car hig a pothole or so, damaged the tps, and in turn damaged the tires very quickly.

tell me, which one is more expensive?

tonydt1g3r

"i have seen at least 2 cases where the car hig a pothole or so, damaged the tps, and in turn damaged the tires very quickly."

Yea but were these TPS's installed correctly. From what you said before they put them through the valve stem even though the TPS was at a 90 degree angle. Which is not what we are advocating. If a reputable rim company like HRE supplies these bands stock with their rims obviously they were made for a good reason and they did some testing before they just threw it out there. A very reputable shop in miami, I believe one of iforged biggest dealers. And the shop iforged refered me to when I contacted them for a dealer uses these bands from HRE and advocate using them. and even if one of these bands somehow broke of your TPS light would go off and I would hope you would stop to check it out before going further.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

nop, both cases it was with the band, sorry.

between professional tire shop and hre, which one would i trust more? tire shop any day. put it this way, if hre is really customizing wheels, why don't they just do what works does with another hole? when hre make their wheels they were not desgined for tps, that's how i see it.

one comparison i see is front license plate. the best and ONLY safe way is to screw it on, no argument. how about using zip ties? yeah it will hold, and yeah i think if you put couple of them it might be ok. but over time, could there be chances that the zip ties will break and the license plate come flying and scratch the hell out of your bumper, then hood, then crack your winshield? i bet.

same scenario the way i see it

tonydt1g3r

Yea I see where your coming from. There is always a chance that something is going to break. I am pretty sure by adding a band and affixing the TPS sensor to that band you are increasing your chances of having a broken TPS sensor exponentially. But you could have a broken TPS riding stock also. If a car hits a pot hole the only way the TPS sensor is going to be damaged is if the rim gets bent to the point where it allows the TPS sensor to hit the road, or by hitting the pot hole it causes the band to break. Both of which should not normally happen but is possible. Different tire shops have different opinions, alot of people who have high end cars and custom rims keep their TPS sensors. The shop I went to had a ton of super expensive cars lined up outside and if its good enough for a 200k car its good enough for me.

Every owner needs to weigh the pros and cons of it, here is a break down of why I did it.

This is my cost here
$200 set of new TPS sensors found the deal on CL
$100 Bands from HRE
free installation since were put on with rims.

Worst case scenario and the band breaks and TPS sensor falls out and breaks also which in turns kills a tire. Cost is going to be

$100 for new sensor from dealer
$250 for new tire
$25 for new band

What I lose from not having TPS
$1000 rim + tire from me not knowing my rear tire is flat (I believe that the rear tires are usually the ones that go flat, from the front tire kicking something back that punctures the rear tire.)

$Priceless peice of mind

Its alot harder to notice a rear flat tire then it is a front tire. Compounded on top of that problem is the fact that a 30 series tire or 25 series is so thin its probally not noticable while driving. If you normally drive the car by yourself and the flat occurs on the rear passenger side like what just happened to me then I would have probally ended up shredding the tire and seriously damaged the rim before I would notice.

Gojirra99

You can't discount the extra protection of the rims with the low pressure warning though. One can always say that " I check the tire pressure regularly with my own gauge anyway ", but it's the UNEXPECTED loss of pressure, you can check them, but what if shortly after you put air into them, you runover some sharp objects & damage your tires & then you hit a big pothole with the pressure very low, that MIGHT happen too

Anyway, I got the bands at no extra cost from HRE with the wheels, & I might have paid only about $50 or so more in labour transferring them from the stock wheels to the HRE's, so I have already got more than my money's worth AFAIC since they have accurately warned me of low pressure a few times already, once with a punctured tire, who knows what might have happened to my rims had I not have the TPS on ?

As I have said, it's not a perfect method, it's kind of Ad Hoc & you have to weigh the pro's & cons, & I prefer the valve stems or the bored holes of the Rezax, but if I decide my next pair of rims will be HRE's again & they come with the bands, I would not hesitate to use them again rather than just abandoning the TPS.

BTW Henry, my G35 coupe with the banded TPS on is my daily driver for 2 1/2 years, & no I don't rack up 35K+ miles per year driving between North & South Cal regularly like you do , & my mileage on the odom is probably a little below average, but the G35c already has more mileage on it's odom than my SC430 although it's one year "younger".

RedRacer

Bump for the great thread. Thanks for the info