I was driving on the freeway a couple days ago and suddenly the "Check System" message and tire warning light come on (see pic below, ignore the battery and engine light).

I checked the tire pressure and filled it with some air. My car is 7 years old, so maybe the TPMS sensor battery died. Can Discount Tire check the sensors if the sensors on the tires are good without major work? And is there TPMS on the spare tire as well? How much does replacing all the sensors these days? Some old thread says it's expensive, but price seems to have come down ...

 

Yes, any tire shop should be able to read the TPMS with a handheld scanner and determine if the sensors are still finctioning. Maybe the battery ran out on one of the sensors? There is no sensor on the spare.
TPMS are pretty cheap now aday. I purchased a used set from ebay and built a canisters for my second set of wheels and they work without any issue.

 

Just want to provide an update. I almost forgot I have the Lexus extended warranty (Platinum VSA), so I decided to take it to the dealer. It turns out to be one of the TPMS sensor has failed, and it was replaced under Lexus warranty.

 

TPMS sensor has saved my *** many times.

 

Good thing u got it fix. It is convienent to have tpsm. i've been driving without tpsm for a few months now and im pretty used to the warning lights haha.

 

well, I got paranoid with the light on all the time, and I started to check my tire pressure weekly. After I got the nail in one of the tires, I would probably check the pressure monthly without TPMS.

They only replaced the one that failed, so I made note of it, and the others might fail soon and I'll replace all the remaining ones at the same time if I'm out of warranty then.

 

You should make a bomb pipe to eliminate the warning and annoying Christmas tree

 

Yeah thats one option but i would go with another one which is adding it in the spare tire haha. Its almost Christmas time lol.

 

I wanted to follow-up on this thread. My warning light and check system come on about once a week. I went to a tire shop and they said two of the four sensors are bad. But then after a couple days the warning goes off. I'm guessing the batteries are starting to fail, but then they put out a signal and the warning goes away.

Three questions:
Is there any advantage to having a dealership replace these over a tire shop? I'm guessing the dealership will be WAY more expensive.
Have others with a 2008 IS350 had to replace theirs yet? Is it about time?
Have you done all four, or just done the ones that fail? The tire place told me driver's side sensors are bad.

Thanks for your help!

 

Supposedly, when the TPMS system was introduced, it was said to last around 10 years. The few advantage of dealership is that the warranty on their work is longer and you got certified mechanics. If I don't have the extended warranty, I would just get Discount Tire do it for me.

Since the warranty only covers 1 that failed, I got 1 replaced, but if I were you I would replace all 4.