i'm thinking about buying new wheels and tires online. if i do, i'd have to have my sensors moved from my old wheels to the new ones and have them mounted. about how much should this cost? and is it something i'd need the dealer to do. or could any tire store handle it.

thanks

 

could just disconnect TPS

 

any tire store can do. the TPS is not rocket science. but you need to make sure your new wheels are TPS compatible. not all wheels can take TPS the CORRECT way

 

You also have to make sure the sensors are re-installed on the correct wheel. I was told the sensors are wheel specific. I didn't experience this, but I was told it does create a headache if you mis-match the sensors. (i.e. right front sensor put on left front). I had new sensors installed on a new tire/wheel package at a local shop and then took the car to Lexus to have them reset the TPMS system. They wanted to charge me for dismounting the wheels so that they could read the serial numbers off of the sensors. Fortunately I was smart enought to right them down in my owners manual. Time and money saved!

 

i don't think that's true. that would prohibit you from doing tire rotation right?

the lexus TPS system can't tell which sensor is which. it can only tell if the sensors are close to the car or not

 

I think that's correct.

OTOH, if you have a TPMS that displays the pressures as individual tires (LF, RF, LR, RR) like my wife's 2007 Chevy Equinox company car (<groan> at least it's free), then this becomes a real PITA. After is was serviced (the company program ONLY allows Firestone and Goodyear <another groan>), we lent the car to our daughter with a slow leak in one tire - it drove her nuts when she filled the indicated offending tire only to have it go nowhere but have a different tire go up in pressure.

Keith

 

Oh believe me, I am not trying to dispute you as I am a novice to "extremely technical" car stuff. I agree with you 100%. It didn't/doesn't make sense to me either. Tire rotation was the first thing that came to mind. However, when I purchased new sensors, they had to be installed based on a color code on the sensor, which was specific to a wheel based on the wheels location on the car (LR, RR, etc.). That was the first question I was asked when I took my car to Lexus to have the new sensors registered. They asked whether or not I had the sensors on the correct wheel?

You can also see when you look up these parts on lexus-parts.com, there is a blurb about the sensors being wheel specific.

http://www.lexus-parts.com/parts_det...id=90151&all=Y

 

rominl is correct. Even though there are four color-coded sensors, it doesn't matter which wheel they are on. Almost any tire store and most lexus dealers will do the work for you.

I buy tires online all the time and have the dealer put them on.

 

My guess about the different colors would be that they're different frequencies. You need to have one of each so they won't interfere with each other. But, as long as the TPMS antenna (receiver) is somewhat centrally located, it would pick up the signal from anywhere on/near the car. Just my guess though.

 

again, unless someone can tell me my question on tire rotation, i won't believe it. why? coz' wheels on my sc430 (stock) was indeed rotated before, no problem.

moreover, i took off all 4 wheels and 4 yrs later i put them back on randomly, never any issues.

 

i think the reason it matters is each one sends a unique signal telling the computer which tire is which. the battery died in one of my sensors and they were able to tell me which one just by plugging into the computer when i took it in. so if you put them on randomly, they'd still work fine, the computer would just think they were in different positions.

 

The OEM repair manual only says that when replacing the tire pressure monitor valve, replace it with the one which has the same identification paint collar and have it registered.

Unless that oem manual in pdf I have is incomplete, it doesn't say anything about tire sensors when you rotate tires.

I did tire rotation a few times when I had stock wheels. NO issue at all.

Also, there are 4 antenna and 1 receiver plus each tire sensor has its own part number.
I believe they are only color specific, not wheel position specific.