TPMS need them or a waste of money?
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      14 years
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I'm 66 years old and have made it pretty far in life without needing my vehicle to tell me my tire air pressure. I check on a regular basis the old fashioned way.
I bought a Jeep Wrangler JKU new in 2013 and it has a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). I've had a few of the TPMS gauges go out over the time I've had it and replaced them without really thinking about it. I was working made decent money so it wasn't a problem.
Cancer sidelined me in 2023 and I had to retire early and as such the money is a lot tighter. A few months ago one of my sensors went out. I asked my machanic if it would matter at inspection time and he said not a requirement so I didn't bother replacing it. It's a tad bit annoying seeing the little icon lit and hearing the alarm when I start the Jeep but otherwise I didn't care.
That was until a cold morning and I went to use my autostart (I get cold easier now) and it wouldn't work because of a "system fault" in other words because of the TPMS warning. So now I am thinking about getting it replaced, and man prices are all over the place for getting this done. So far the most expensive was $155 and the cheapest $75 (these include the part and labor mount and balance). I am in PA but live a mile from DE where there is no sales tax so I am going with the $75 in Delaware.
I did look into buying my own and having a place simply install them but between the cost of the (reputable) part and then the cost of installation it worked out close to the same.
Now I'm wondering if I should just replace all 5, including a real tire spare, or one at a time.
So my question is, who here just lets the TPMS gauges die and who replaces them and why?
You’ve probably considered this…
but what is the condition of the tires? If replacement is just over the horizon maybe hold off.
John from PA
I have
but what is the condition of the tires? If replacement is just over the horizon maybe hold off.
I have looked at the condition and replacing them is still a ways off, thanks for the response.
. 2 Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Nuvi 2689, 2 Nuvi 2460, Zumo 450, Uniden R3 radar detector with GPS built in, includes RLC info. Uconnect 430N Garmin based, built into my Jeep. .
I use all the time
I reset my tire pressures, based on the typical temperatures .
I park unerground and I have a spreadsheet that I use to correct for the temp in garage and the usual temp outside. At this time of year I'm adjusting pressures every few weeks.
I always check my pressures on the TPMS to see that the pressures are about where they should be.
I recently got a warning that one tire was half of what it should be. Can't figure out the problem because they're now all holding pressure.
DriveSmart 65, NUVI2555LMT, (NUVI350 is Now Retired)
was useful to me recently
Last year I was a couple miles from my house on a ten mile drive to a medical appointment with my wife. My Tesla screen popped up an alarm which I think started by asserting that a tire that is normally 42 psi had dropped through 28 or something like that. While that was plainly abnormal, the really concerning thing was that the pressure dropped rapidly in the next mile, which was constantly updated on my screen. So I pulled off the limited access road and found a bit of dirt that felt safe enough to leave the car in.
We used Uber to get to the medical appointment and home. Then used the roadside service from my USAA insurance to get it towed over to Discount tire, which found one of the bolts that my daughter had driven over in a construction area.
The tire still had over 10 psi when I got it to the dirt patch so I don't think I did any sidewall damage driving it there. It was lower when the tow guy had me drive it up onto the truck but that was only a few feet. The tire shop considered it okay to use and I'm still driving on it thousands of miles later.
Without TPMS I think I probably would not have noticed the tire being low until it was out on the interstate and behaving extremely badly. That might have given me control problems in traffic, and quite likely would have damaged the tire.
personal GPS user since 1992
between 0 and 35
I was alerted by TPMS when one of tire pressure went down to 21 PSI.
It happened to my spare tire which I wish I never have to use it. I had it lowered down and inflated.
Edited - It is stock TPMS.
Costco?
If you are a Costco member they supposedly do replacements at 445 to $60 per wheel. The Glen Mills PA location or Newark DE is probably a tossup as far as distance.
John from PA