mistatran

So I was getting new tires put on and they come in and tell me that the worker broke one of my TPMS (front right). They agreed to order a replacement, but said it would take a few days. So I've been driving for a couple days. Couple questions:
1) Since 1 sensor broke, would that make all sensors not be able to read tire pressure? On the display, all my numbers are blank.
2) I demanded that they order OEM TPMS sensor from Lexus/Toyota. Not sure if they will or not til I get back there. Would a non-OEM one make any difference? Thanks in advance.

dchar

TPMS requires all 4 sensors to work correctly. It compares the pressures of each tire with each other.

To make sure they use OEM TPMS, you should inform the tire shop that you'll buy it, bring the receipt, and have them pay you back.

mistatran

Good info! Thanks, dchar!

vinnier6

There is no need for an oem part....you should have just let them rebuild/install a new one at the time you were getting tires

mistatran

So this incompetent tire shop hasn't fixed my problem yet. Since 1 sensor broke, do I need to replace with a entire set of 4 sensors? Or can I just get 1 new sensor to replace the broken one? Afterwards, I'll need to get the sensors reprogrammed into my car computer, right? TPMS are more complicated than needed. Thanks for any further help!

99alta

No you only need the one that is broken.
Any decent tire shop should be able to program the new sensor into your car for you as well. My tire shop claims the hardware to be able to program the car cost them around $3k.

bclexus

Any reputable tire shop is capable of providing TPMS Rebuild Kits from their stock, and to reprogram them. Clearly, you elected to deal with a tire shop that is not only untrustworthy, but also as you stated 'incompetent' too... Why?

Igor911

all 4 sensors are NOT required for the system to work. The issue is that they cleared your TPMS codes in the ECU, thus making your readout display "---" for all tires.

I had the same issue happen, took my car to the dealer and paid $400. Then, took that invoice back to the shop for them to reimburse me.

MEAHT

iTrader: (1)

to program your TMPS the dealer charged you $400?

tacksharp

This happened to me. The tire shop installed a generic TPMS without telling me and it was displaying -- for all the tires. They couldn't figure it out so I bought an OEM sensor and had them reimburse and then had them install the OEM sensor and reprogram. It worked perfectly after the OEM was back in.

dangtheheo

not sure if this is accurate.... i had one tpms sensor broke when replacing a punctured tire. the shop broke the sensor and had to order me a new one --- i drove around with the missing sensor and having nothing on the ecu touched (i upload the IDs myself) --- and had to stare at "--" and a tpms sensor light the whole time until the new sensor was installed.

puffdaddy

Had the exact thing happen to me at Discount Tire. One sensor was bad and replaced it with an "off the shelf" sensor of the same frequency. Tried to log the IDs with the scan tool and it didn't work. Thought their scan tool was messed up, so they sent me to another DT shop across town. They had the same results. Ordered OEM sensor from the dealer and it worked perfect. Had all 4 showing by the time I backed out of the bay (after a week of -- showing at all corners).

Igor911

Correct, but the --- would only display for the one wheel that was missing the sensor. All other wheels should display normally.

puffdaddy

Have you actually seen that? I had one bad sensor and NONE of them displayed a pressure reading.

marjenmill

I had a flat tire recently on my 2015, and when I put the spare tire on the car NONE of the tire readings would display on the dash. Once I had my tire fixed and reinstalled, the sensors all worked again.