I have my tire presure checked once a month. The tire warning light (blinking then solid) just came on yesterday. I don't feel like sinking another few hundred bucks into getting this fixed. Do I really need to? Gen II 176,000k miles Have winter tires put on every December, then swap out to all-season in spring
No, not at all. The only weird bit is that you can't hire a pro to help you not fix it. If you don't want to look at the warning light, cover it with tape.
my 2008 had the sensors wear out. I bought a 4 pack on Amazon and had them installed for free at Wal mart the next time I bought tires. There is a way to pull the tire and let the air out and force the side down and then install a new one. yooou toob has videos. Or put black electrical tape over the indicator light on the dash. Any tire show should scan the tires with a tool for free to find out which ones have dead batteries.
Or snip out that LED. Or replace it with an infra-red one. Or cut out the symbol stencil, and replace the tire ! icon with a smiley face.
The problem with ignoring it is if you get a flat tire at high speed on the freeway it will take way longer to realize it, especially if its the rear tire. That's dangerous, could get you killed. Of course lots of things could get us killed everyday... So... Maybe no big deal... And yes I fully agree a problem like this is something most shops will massively over charge to fix. They probably double or triple the price of the $15 TPMS sensor and then insist on replacing all of them and then charge for mounting and balancing, which is needed if the sensors are identical in weight. On here and elsewhere, there's details on DIY way to fix this. First step is to use Toyota Techstream or something similar to find out which of the 4 TPMS sensors is triggering the warning light. Then once you know that you simply deflate the tire and use some big tire irons to get in their to replace the TPMS sensor. If you aren't DIY maybe you can get a friend or family member to help? If not that, first focus on paying as little as possible to have someone identify which tire it is... Then buy your own TPMS sensor online for cheap, then find some low budget mom and pop tire shop and put on your spare tire and bring just the wheel in and ask them to swap the sensor and they'll probably do it for a $20 bill under the table.
Depending on where you live ("USA" is overly broad), some states won't let you pass a safety inspection if the TPMS light is on.
