My Dealer-less TPMS Tire Change Story

[SamirD]

As we approach winter again, I re-read my entire thread to remember what I went through the very first time I had to swap sets. I'll post my experience with this season's swap once it's done. Too bad the vt30 is still buried in boxes from moving or I'd work on that gem too.

[redmed]

I'm about to get another set of tires for winter. My Michelin Defenders have 58,000 miles on them and last winter I
noticed a lack of traction in the snow. I like these Defenders and find as the tires age the gas mileage gets better and
better plus they seem to be smoother and quieter then when new. I plan to keep these for summer driving. I might get another summer or two out of them. I have a spare set of rims that I negotiated from the dealer when I bought my Kiz. I have been planning for this all summer and bought a Autel MaxiTPMS Pad for less than $50 that allows me to clone the TPMS sensors with Autel TPMS MX-Sensors. I had watched a video showing this MaxiTPMS Pad reading the sensor already mounted on the rim. I could not get the sensor to trigger on the rim with the MaxiTPMS Pad so I had to use SamirD's trick to get the sensors to trigger. I let about 5lbs of air out of the wheel to trigger the sensor and the MaxiTPMS pad read the ID of the sensor. Now I'm waiting for the MX-Sensors so I can program (clone) them to the ID's I got from the existing tires.

[SamirD]

I'm about to get another set of tires for winter. My Michelin Defenders have 58,000 miles on them and last winter I
noticed a lack of traction in the snow. I like these Defenders and find as the tires age the gas mileage gets better and
better plus they seem to be smoother and quieter then when new. I plan to keep these for summer driving. I might get another summer or two out of them. I have a spare set of rims that I negotiated from the dealer when I bought my Kiz. I have been planning for this all summer and bought a Autel MaxiTPMS Pad for less than $50 that allows me to clone the TPMS sensors with Autel TPMS MX-Sensors. I had watched a video showing this MaxiTPMS Pad reading the sensor already mounted on the rim. I could not get the sensor to trigger on the rim with the MaxiTPMS Pad so I had to use SamirD's trick to get the sensors to trigger. I let about 5lbs of air out of the wheel to trigger the sensor and the MaxiTPMS pad read the ID of the sensor. Now I'm waiting for the MX-Sensors so I can program (clone) them to the ID's I got from the existing tires.

LOL, that's a unique use of the air sensor trigger trick. I wonder if the replacement sensors will work though because if the tool can't trigger the stock sensors, I don't think the tpms system will read those other sensors, even with the cloned ID.

[redmed]

LOL, that's a unique use of the air sensor trigger trick. I wonder if the replacement sensors will work though because if the tool can't trigger the stock sensors, I don't think the tpms system will read those other sensors, even with the cloned ID.

I hope so. I think the MaxiTPMS Pad is designed to read the sensor out of the tire. Since the TPMS sensors I have been trying to trigger where mounted in the rim it could could not get close enough to trigger them. I have a stock sensor that had the mounting plastic cracked when a sloppy Tire Technician mounted new tires on the rim and I had to replace it. The Pad read the stock sensor that was out of the tire just fine.

[redmed]

It is also possible I did not wait long enough when trying to trigger the sensors in the tires. Or the sensors in the tires are getting old & weak. After all they are eight years old. When I asked a technician at a tire store to read the sensors ID's for me he placed his tire tool next to the stem and we waited probably 60+ seconds and nothing happened. He was just starting to pull the tool away when the sensor info popped on the tool's screen. He then told me it was reading 35lbs. I then told him I wanted the sensor hex ID not the air pressure. He then said this tool does not read that. He was using a Autel TS508. Looked up the manual for the Autel TS508 and it does read the sensor ID. I don't think he wanted to give me that information since it was infringing on his livelihood.

[SamirD]

It is also possible I did not wait long enough when trying to trigger the sensors in the tires. Or the sensors in the tires are getting old & weak. After all they are eight years old. When I asked a technician at a tire store to read the sensors ID's for me he placed his tire tool next to the stem and we waited probably 60+ seconds and nothing happened. He was just starting to pull the tool away when the sensor info popped on the tool's screen. He then told me it was reading 35lbs. I then told him I wanted the sensor hex ID not the air pressure. He then said this tool does not read that. He was using a Autel TS508. Looked up the manual for the Autel TS508 and it does read the sensor ID. I don't think he wanted to give me that information since it was infringing on his livelihood.

My vt30 would read sensor information sometimes instantly, sometimes taking up to 2 minutes, and this was a few years back when the sensors were only about 2-3yrs old, so I think that's normal. Yeah, I highly doubt you'll get the sensor information from someone who you'll take business away from. The other thing is that the sensor info may not have been in hex or the tech doesn't know what hex is.

[redmed]

I have cloned the new TPMS sensors and installed them on the spare rims. I ordered the TPMS sensors with the rubber stems because I have had to replace gaskets on two of the existing metal stems. Hopefully leaking will not be a problem with these rubber stems. I decided to order the Michelin Defenders from Discount Tire Direct late Saturday night. They had a $70 rebate taken directly off the price. I thought that the rebate was good thru Sunday, I must have miss read. Because Sunday morning when I went online to order, the rebate was gone. I'm going to wait for another rebate or hopefully a buy 3 get one tire free. I expect something in November since fall is a busy tire buying time before winter. I hope.

[SamirD]

Thank you for the update. Definitely keep checking for discounts. Sometimes they'll have them just to move inventory so they can come at any time. And it never hurts to check with retailers that may have stock they need to get rid of as they'll sometimes sell you tires at cost just to keep them from sitting there.

[redmed]

I received the Michelin Defenders I ordered from Discount tire direct and mounted, balanced and installed them on my Kiz today. Took me about 3 hours to get them mounted on the rims, they were a tight fit to the rims. I was just about to give up and have them mounted professionally. When I went into the house and watched a couple Youtube videos showing how others mounted tires with the Harbor Freight tire mounting tool. I found a trick of using a C-clamp to keep the tire from creeping around the rim as I was trying to stretch the tire on the rim. That was what I needed (or a third hand) to do the job. I then took the HF bubble balancer to balance the tires and found all the tires balanced. This is the first time using the balancer so I was not sure I was doing it correctly. I had heard before that Michelin's usually don't need balancing. So I took them for a short test ride to 80+ and they where nice and smooth. I also discovered that the new updated Defenders are quieter than the worn Defenders they replaced. Usually new tires are louder than worn tires. I read that Michelin changed the rubber compound so I have high hopes for these new Michelin's. One problem is that the TPMS light on the dash is flashing intermittently. I cloned the sensors on the old set of tires & rims so I'm not sure what to make of the light. Before when one of my sensors failed both the TPMS dash light and the large orange screen came on and said something about a TPMS System Failure. This time only the small TPMS dash symbol is flashing. This is something new and different.

[SamirD]

Interesting. I would try driving for it for the next few days and see if it goes away or changes. I'd also check all the tire pressures and make sure they're at least at 35, and definitely check the load rating of the tire and adjust that as necessary.