TheNJDevil

Going to be putting new wheels on mine pretty soon and I've been reading all about the TPMS issue and what'll need to be done when putting new wheels on.

I'm not a fan of the PVC solution or ignoring the warning solutions.

I'm trying to understand what experiences others have had when switching or putting on new TPMS with new wheels. Or even having to replace a sensor. Please feel free to chime in with your other car experiences, it doesn't have to be just Mustangs as Ford has used them on other models.

1. Did you go to a national chain, did they do good/bad?
2. Go to a local shop?
3. Do it yourself?
4. Etc etc.

Did you have to go back and get it redone?
Where would you have gone if you can do it again?

Thanks.

o7 tungsten

i had my tpms transferred from my oem set to my new set of wheels. i went to discount tire, i have had my wheels on for about a year now with no problems. my sensor did go off once, but that's because i had low tire pressure at least i know they work now.

TheNJDevil

How much extra did they charge?

o7 tungsten

i paid 60, but that's because i knew someone there. i know dealers charge somewhere in the 200's

cegha

I have just went through this process and help you out greatly.

Firstly are you buying just new tires, or purchasing new tires and wheels?

If your purchasing new tires, there is nothing that needs to be done because the TPMS bands/sensors are connected to the rims and tires just simply need to be CAREFULLY unmounted by a shop so as not to destroy the sensors on the rims. New tires mounted on, your done.

Now if your purchasing new tires and/or wheels, you have a choice to make. If your getting new rims and retaining the same tires, you will at minimum have to get new bands for the sensors ($25 for 2, $50 for all 4), to transfer to new rims.

If your getting new tires AND wheels, you might as well just buy 4 new TPMS sensors, wireless syncer device, and 4 bands. By the time you dismount your old tires and get the sensors out, you still need bands, so thats $50, then cost of remounting old tires to old rims, and most places also have a TPMS transfer service as well on top of unmounting/remounting stock tires/wheels, then transferring TPMS and mounting/balancing of new tires.

American Muscle sells a kit with the wireless syncer device to sync the new sensors to your car, 4 new bands, and 4 sensors, for $150. That way your stock tires can still use sensors if you hit the track/strip with some sticky tires. You also have TPMS completely setup on your new rims, that can later be transferred to a new set of rims if you update again.

The new sensors and bands are not hard to install, AM has a tutorial. Basically wrap a band around the rim, secure, and slide on sensor. Do it before taking to get tires mounted/balanced. The bands can be clipped so that they wont rattle against the rim, or pulled/pushed back incase you move to a larger rim at a later time, you can reuse the band.

Hope this helps with the TPMS woes.

Edit:Tirerack.com offers a thing to locate places that are certified by them to mount/balance tires. Local shop by me, found on TR, says $4 per tire for TPMS transfer service. Not much, but if your getting them transferred to new rims, you need to consider remount/rebalance option for the stock rims/tires. And in that case, that's why i reccommend just upgrading to 4 new sensors. You can view average mounting/balancing prices for different series tires on here as well.

http://www.tirerack.com/installer/In...9&y=11&place=0

Also, If you buy sensors off ebay or what not you do have to have a special device to sync the new ones to your thing it runs through. It's not the PCM, i can't remember the system name the TPMS goes through that we don't have access too.

Edit 2: Also look at the equipment of the shop mounting/balancing your stuff. From the research i did, the equipment the shop uses i am going to is pretty much the best out there. The best type of balancing job from what i understand is a road force balance. The Hunter GSP9700 is suppose to be like really good. Tires/rims getting mounted/balanced for me next wednesday.

Mounting Equipment: Hunter TC3500 rimclamp

Balancing Equipment: Hunter GSP9700 RoadForce balancer

deekum1627

how much pressure in the tires that made it go off

cegha

Mine have went off before, i believe it has to get down to under 15 or 20 PSI before it goes off. I also read that the TPMS system actually reports the specific PSI in EACH tire to our cars, but that the gauge cluster is too stupid to actually display it and all we get is a "Low Tire Pressure" warning.

deekum1627

thanks cause mine light came on and i dont know why got new rims last month the light came on then went away and now a month later the light is on and stayed on so i wanna fix that

Art161

By the time I pulled off the road and measured the pressure, it was 22 psi, courtesy of a puncture.

Nuke

I bought new wheels and tires, then purchased the strap kits from American Muscle. I called around and got the lowest price from my Ford dealer, of all people. They dismounted my old tires from the rims, installed the straps on my new wheels transferred the sensors to the new rims, mounted and balanced my new wheels and tires plus, the next day, troublshot a problem I had which ended up being a defective tire (included checking the tires on their RoadForce balancer) and remounting and balancing the replacement tire PLUS rechecking the balance on the other 3.

Total cost: $60 (including the $20 I gave them to go buy doughnuts)