How Much Does It Cost To Replace a TPMS Sensor?
Tire pressure monitoring systems, a.k.a. TPMS, are a hassle. But let’s not kid ourselves. They serve a very important purpose. The sensors sometimes give us bad information, and sensor warning light false positives are pretty common. Yet, without these sensors, we’d be down on our knees wearing holes in our jeans, checking tire pressure all the time, or ignoring the pressure in our tires like we did in the old days. We don't know which was worse.
Most vehicles today use in-tire sensors to monitor for leaks. These in-tire pressure sensors, we are going to call them TPMS sensors from here on out, have a lifespan shorter than that of our car. So for that reason, you will likely end up replacing them if you keep a car longer than about ten years.
The good news is that any competent local repair shop can help you, all respectable tire retailers can help you, and if worse comes to worst, you can always head over to the dealer and hand them your wallet in exchange for their services.
We know you are presently staring at a TPMS warning light on your dash, and you want to know right now how much one of these sensors costs, so here's the scoop. To have the sensor replaced in a single tire, the price is usually between $50 and $350. The cost of the sensor itself cost roughly $40 to $200. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Wait, before we get started!
If your car is showing you a low tire icon on the dash display, pull to the nearest safe area and check all four tires for proper inflation. It is very likely the sensor is not defective and that you do actually have a low tire.
What is a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) and why do cars have them?
About fifteen years ago, a certain tire on a certain type of vehicle had some problems. The failures of the tires on these vehicles were causing the vehicles to flip and roll down the highway. We don't mean to make light of this. People were dying. The government got involved, and a circular firing squad was organized to deal with the issue. One of the things that came out of this fiasco was that legislators decided that cars should tell drivers when they have a flat tire before the car starts doing cartwheels down the highway. A law aptly named the TREAD Act was written, and TPMS monitoring was mandated.
Do all cars have TPMS sensors?
The law the legislators wrote didn’t mandate exactly what technology would be used. So automakers went down two different paths to alert drivers to the low pressure condition. Some used an indirect measurement system that relied on the vehicle’s ABS sensors to tell you if one tire was low on air and thus rotating at a different rate than the other three. Simple, effective, no special parts, no consumable parts, and of course, not the one most automakers ended up adopting. The first-generation Toyota Highlander used this system, just as an example. Not a single owner of a vehicle equipped with this tire pressure monitoring system has ever replaced a TPMS sensor since none are used in the system.
The second system used a sensor in each wheel that actually measured the pressure in the tire. It relays that information to a wireless receiver connected to the car’s computer. If the pressure is outside of a setpoint range, the sensor alerts the driver via a warning light or message that a tire has low pressure. Some systems tell drivers the pressure in a dash display and also tell you which tire is going flat. Others just say, “You have a low tire somewhere on your car.”
The TPMS sensors are part of the valve stem assembly, and they have non-serviceable batteries. The batteries can wear out. The valve stem assembly can also suffer damage from flat tire leak-stop products or other ways. So, replacing sensors should be expected.
Do I have to replace all four of my TPMS sensors?
If the sensors in your vehicle are less than ten years old and one quits, your mechanic can replace just one. However, if the vehicle is older than ten years, it may be wise to replace all of the sensors in the vehicle, be it four or five if the spare also has a sensor.
How do mechanics diagnose a TPMS sensor failure, and how are sensors replaced?
Tire pressure monitoring systems are relatively easy for mechanics to deal with. If your car is displaying a low tire warning, but all the tires (including the spare) are properly inflated, the chances are you have a defective TPMS sensor.
The mechanic will read the information stored in the vehicle’s computer to see which sensor is reporting the false positive alert. She will then replace that sensor and reprogram it to be accepted by the vehicle. The labor involved includes having a tire mounted and balanced on a rim since that has to occur as part of the work.
Jay Condrick of Boston Mobile Tire, our go-to source for up-to-date tire technology, explained how a sensor is then synched to the car.
“We use a handheld device to scan the sensors and, if needed, plug into the on-board diagnostics system to facilitate a relearn.” Jay went on to add, “Each car has its own unique frequency, which we can clone from ‘good’ sensors (like when we are adding another set of wheels), or if we’re replacing a dead sensor, we can pull info from OBD port or write new code and update the OBD.”
Can I just switch to nitrogen to solve this problem?
There are a lot of shops that want to sell you nitrogen. They will try to use nitrogen to solve problems it cannot solve. Nitrogen in passenger vehicles instead of air (which is about 78% nitrogen) has no meaningful benefit. Nitrogen cannot solve a TPMS sensor failure because the failure is almost always mechanical or related to a depleted battery. Hence, swapping to nitrogen instead of air has no benefits when it comes to solving TPMS failures.
Who can replace my TPMS sensor?
Any qualified mechanic in a fully-equipped shop can deal with a TPMS sensor issue. Any respectable tire retailer can also help you with a TPMS sensor failure and replacement. Your dealer is more than happy to help as well, but based on our experience, the dealer will cost you the most for the same result. There are some special tools used to program the TPMS sensor, so it is worth phoning ahead to the shop you plan to use to ensure they can help you.
How much does it cost to replace a TPMS sensor?
The price of a TPMS sensor replaced at a dealership is usually between $125 and $200 per unit. We phoned a local Subaru dealer who told us the price was $171 for a Forester’s sensor and that the cost to replace the sensor and then remount and balance the wheel brings the total cost to about $210.00. A local Ford dealer we spoke to told us the price of the sensor in a Ford F-150 is $182 and that the mounting and balancing bring the price to just over $200.
By contrast, Jay from Boston Mobile Tire told us, “We charge $40 per sensor, which includes installation and programming during a tire-off service, add $50 labor per tire if we’re just doing a “sensor only” service as we still need to break down the tire and rebalance, etc.” Therefore, Jay illustrates that an independent tire service provider charges roughly 50% less to replace a TPMS sensor than the dealers we contacted.
The best time to do a TPMS sensor replacement is when you are buying new tires since the rubber will be coming on and off anyway.
Read more on the Best Tires in the industry here.
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