One of my TPMS sensors appears to have given out - the tire is fine, but the reading is "--" which I'm guessing means that the battery probably died. I figure that makes sense since this is a 2013 car, so that's about 6 years of life?
Anyway, I got some quotes from a few sources. My local Town Fair Tire would replace them, but only with aftermarket ones. I've heard the aftermarket ones have issues, is that still true? And they won't let me buy my own and have them install...
My Caddy dealer wants $476 for all 4, claiming that the sensors are $79 each. Obviously, they won't let me bring my own sensors either.
Finally, a local shop in my area quoted $572 for them, even with aftermarket ones. Yeesh. However, they will allow me to bring my own sensors, so that's good... if I bring my own, they'll do it for $156. I found the sensors online at GMPartsDirect, claiming to be OEM parts, for around $40 or less. So I'm thinking that's the way to go.
Has anyone else found reliable sources for the OEM part? Do I need to stick with OEM (again, I've heard aftermarket ones can be finicky or use faster-aging batteries)?
A bit of a rant: I guess I can't complain too much about this, other than the silliness of having this "feature" at all... just because a few morons couldn't handle checking their tires on their Explorers. But it does seem ridiculous that a "safety feature" like this uses a battery that dies so quickly, and isn't covered by the manufacturer (or at least made easier to replace). I mean, we have smoke detectors with 10-year batteries?! Or maybe use the wheel rotation to charge a battery or make that the power source so it doesn't have to be replaced at all. Yes, I know it's because this is in a wheel, has wider temps, etc so a smoke detector may not be a fair comparison... but it's still a dumb design. For example, my wife's Jetta monitors tires by watching the ABS sensor pulses - if one wheel ends up showing a different speed than the others, it throws the warning. No batteries, no crap in the wheel, etc. And it's easily reset by pressing a button in the glovebox. As always, stupid people ruin it for the rest of us.
Rant-over. Please do let me know if others have part numbers or other tips/recommendations!
Anyway, I got some quotes from a few sources. My local Town Fair Tire would replace them, but only with aftermarket ones. I've heard the aftermarket ones have issues, is that still true? And they won't let me buy my own and have them install...
My Caddy dealer wants $476 for all 4, claiming that the sensors are $79 each. Obviously, they won't let me bring my own sensors either.
Finally, a local shop in my area quoted $572 for them, even with aftermarket ones. Yeesh. However, they will allow me to bring my own sensors, so that's good... if I bring my own, they'll do it for $156. I found the sensors online at GMPartsDirect, claiming to be OEM parts, for around $40 or less. So I'm thinking that's the way to go.
Has anyone else found reliable sources for the OEM part? Do I need to stick with OEM (again, I've heard aftermarket ones can be finicky or use faster-aging batteries)?
A bit of a rant: I guess I can't complain too much about this, other than the silliness of having this "feature" at all... just because a few morons couldn't handle checking their tires on their Explorers. But it does seem ridiculous that a "safety feature" like this uses a battery that dies so quickly, and isn't covered by the manufacturer (or at least made easier to replace). I mean, we have smoke detectors with 10-year batteries?! Or maybe use the wheel rotation to charge a battery or make that the power source so it doesn't have to be replaced at all. Yes, I know it's because this is in a wheel, has wider temps, etc so a smoke detector may not be a fair comparison... but it's still a dumb design. For example, my wife's Jetta monitors tires by watching the ABS sensor pulses - if one wheel ends up showing a different speed than the others, it throws the warning. No batteries, no crap in the wheel, etc. And it's easily reset by pressing a button in the glovebox. As always, stupid people ruin it for the rest of us.
Rant-over. Please do let me know if others have part numbers or other tips/recommendations!
