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2008 RX350. Original TPMS sensors. They still work fine, but I wanted to be proactive, since the battery life on those is about 7-8 years and mine are already 10 years old.
The cheapest quote in a tire shop for replacing all 5 with some aftermarket stuff was $400.96. I bought 5 batteries on ebay with prongs already welded to the batteries for $20. Today I repaired the TPMS in the spare tire, I wanted to try and see it it works. It did, no warning light, nothing. No registration is needed either. Took me about an hour. I will do the rest of them tomorrow.
Finished the rest. Everything works. The first one (spare tire) took about an hour, the other four took just a little under three hours. That included removal and installation the wheels on the car.
Thanks for the write up. Did you have any trouble reseating the tire beads after reinstalling the sensors?
Yes, i did. On the first two wheels I did pushed down enough of the tire, only 20%, and it was a pain to re-seal them. On the remaining three whels I opened about half of the tire, it was not as stressed and went back onto the rim a lot easier. I used a 125 PSI compressor fully pumped up and I did not have the nipple in the valve stem, just like they do in tire shops.
Yes, i did. On the first two wheels I did pushed down enough of the tire, only 20%, and it was a pain to re-seal them. On the remaining three whels I opened about half of the tire, it was not as stressed and went back onto the rim a lot easier. I used a 125 PSI compressor fully pumped up and I did not have the nipple in the valve stem, just like they do in tire shops.
Summer tires the rubber is harder, therefore more difficult to work DIY with. You can always jump on the tire on only one side until it releases all around, that should give enough clearance to work on the TPMS Sensor.
When done, the tire should reseal properly when inflated.