Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Ford Explorer 2017. One of the wheels is throwing a warning that the tire pressure monitoring system has failed on one wheel. It's definitely not working according to the dashboard. Ford Quicklane quoted me $250 over the phone. I'm completely unfamiliar with these systems. Is $250 reasonable? 

Posted
Just now, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Ford Explorer 2017. One of the wheels is throwing a warning that the tire pressure monitoring system has failed on one wheel. It's definitely not working according to the dashboard. Ford Quicklane quoted me $250 over the phone. I'm completely unfamiliar with these systems. Is $250 reasonable? 

Same thing happened to my 2019 Chevy Suburban. My quote for a fix was $100. I think $250 is a bit high but don't know the particulars. 

There's some kind of $10 tool that allows one to reset/relearn the sensor. That might be worth a try. Just google it and see if it may help. 

Or, you can just ignore it. Which is what I've done before.

Posted
6 minutes ago, Asithappens said:

Same thing happened to my 2019 Chevy Suburban. My quote for a fix was $100. I think $250 is a bit high but don't know the particulars. 

There's some kind of $10 tool that allows one to reset/relearn the sensor. That might be worth a try. Just google it and see if it may help. 

Or, you can just ignore it. Which is what I've done before.

Thanks. 

I will check out the tool, or see if AutoZones offer its usage for free. I'm a fan of seeing the tire pressure on my dashboard so it would eventually bother me not seeing it especially on road trips. 

Posted

I would opt for a tire store to replace as opposed to a mechanic.  I usually wait until getting new tires and have then sensors replaced then.  I've had discount tire to match the price of replacement I found on Amazon before.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

Unfortunately, the light won't tell you which sensor is out - almost like they make more money if you replace all five.  Luckily, its not really that hard to determine if you have a flat tire.

Posted

I've bought a set of 5 sensors for around $50 off amazon and had discount tire install them. I think they charged around $15 to install each one.

They wanted $75 for each one.

Posted
1 hour ago, Jerry Callo said:

Unfortunately, the light won't tell you which sensor is out - almost like they make more money if you replace all five.  Luckily, its not really that hard to determine if you have a flat tire.

The vehicle is telling me it's the right rear tire that has a fault.  No idea if that is right or not.

16 minutes ago, blacklab said:

I've bought a set of 5 sensors for around $50 off amazon and had discount tire install them. I think they charged around $15 to install each one.

They wanted $75 for each one.

Ford is selling the sensor for ~$80 each but I assume that cheaper alternatives are out there. Sucks that I just bought new tires a few months ago and didn't even think of this at the time. This is the first time in my 55 years that I've had a TPMS error. most of me vehicles in those years didn't have TPMS.

Posted
6 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

The vehicle is telling me it's the right rear tire that has a fault.  No idea if that is right or not.

Ford is selling the sensor for ~$80 each but I assume that cheaper alternatives are out there. Sucks that I just bought new tires a few months ago and didn't even think of this at the time. This is the first time in my 55 years that I've had a TPMS error. most of me vehicles in those years didn't have TPMS.

Discount Tire will sell and install a TPMS sensor for ~$62 plus tax.  https://www.discounttire.com/accessories/tpms/tpms-sensors-catalog

 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

All 4 of mine went out within about 3 months of each other last year.  It's a 2016 model, so they had a good run at least.  First one went out and I was told a little over $100 which I thought was ridiculous.  Then a second place told me around $200.  I'm glad I didn't pull the trigger on either because the other 3 started failing soon after.  I just decided to go back to the flintstone days of using a gauge

Posted

Man, those sensors are a money grab.  They alert when a tire is a half psi out of range, and they generally crap out over time anyway.

Build the habit of looking at your tires before you jump in the car.  It's really not that hard to spot one that is struggling.

Posted

Costco replaced each one cheap as they eventually died without trying to upsell me on getting the others changed at the same time.

Posted
3 hours ago, LCHorn said:

True, but they will make a big frowny face if you decline to replace all four sensors just because one is out.  

They have some sort of whiz bang contraption that they can point at each sensor to tell you which one is not working.

Posted
On 7/1/2025 at 4:54 PM, jimmyjazz said:

Man, those sensors are a money grab.  They alert when a tire is a half psi out of range, and they generally crap out over time anyway.

Build the habit of looking at your tires before you jump in the car.  It's really not that hard to spot one that is struggling.

It's hard to not believe that many vehicle accessories don't have planned obsolescence and they are making it more and more difficult to work on cars yourself. Now most DIYers don't have the equipment to remove tires from the wheel to install these devices so the repair shops have a monopoly on these devices. 

I understand the idea of letting a few repairs go unrepaired because of the cost but I also see that going down the road to eventually driving a POS. 

Posted
On 6/30/2025 at 9:55 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Discount Tire will sell and install a TPMS sensor for ~$62 plus tax.  https://www.discounttire.com/accessories/tpms/tpms-sensors-catalog

 

Went this route.

Discount Tire suggested that I fix all 4, I countered to only fix the broken one. They then offered to replace all 4 for the price of 1. Ok, I guess. Odd business model to give away free parts and labor.

They replaced all 4, and showed me that the tire pressure was transmitting to their handheld tool but the Explorer is now throwing errors with all 4 tires. Going back Saturday.

@TwiceHorn you meant well but this didn’t work out for me. I may be back to the Ford dealer and instead of $250 to fix 1 tire valve, I might be looking at $1000 for 4. Why did I let them replace all 4. Fuck. 

Posted

Well, the problem could well be your "receiver" (considering each sensor a sender or transmitter).  

I've only ever had one go out in four vehicles since 1995.  Three of the four American.

Posted
56 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Went this route.

Discount Tire suggested that I fix all 4, I countered to only fix the broken one. They then offered to replace all 4 for the price of 1. Ok, I guess. Odd business model to give away free parts and labor.

They replaced all 4, and showed me that the tire pressure was transmitting to their handheld tool but the Explorer is now throwing errors with all 4 tires. Going back Saturday.

@TwiceHorn you meant well but this didn’t work out for me. I may be back to the Ford dealer and instead of $250 to fix 1 tire valve, I might be looking at $1000 for 4. Why did I let them replace all 4. Fuck. 

But their handheld whiz bang diagnostic tool is pretty cool.  Amirite?

  • Haha 1
Posted

sounds like you should just buy a costco membership and not get fucked over, check out milfs while waiting on the fix eating a $1.50 hotdog and (soon to be) coke.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...