Know anything about tire pressure sensors ?

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   2012 Chevy Captiva Sport (Wife's Ride)
The first flat tire fiasco she had, a year ago, thirty miles from home in the pouring rain on the side of the Parkway with truck after truck after truck spraying water plumb over the fencerows.

I am no novice when it comes to anything tires (except pressure sensors).

I loaded everything I possibly thought we could need and headed to her rescue.

When I got there, the first thing I did was to hang my boot in the very dead very rotten soaking wet fur-bearing creature that was laying right where I needed to put my knee and slung it as far down the holler as I could send it; as hard as it was raining and as much water as was coming off that blacktop, within seconds any residue and maggots were washed away.

Hoping that a simple push-through plug would get her up and running and out of the pouring rain, I strung the air-hose up to it and commenced airing it up; --- the air was whistling out quicker that I was putting it in.

So, in the pouring rain, she worked about an hour and tossed two semi loads of women's in-the-car junk from on top of the spare tire cover to over the top of the seats to land wherever it did.

When she got enough junk out of the way, I lifted the cover to find the never-used little temporary tire that I had been harping to her for four years that should be checked was flat as a pancake --- good that I have on-board air and plenty of it.

I removed all the lug-nuts from the flat wheel; I don't know why they even bothered; it didn't need them; John Henry couldn't knock the wheel off with a nine-pound hammer.

Did I say it was raining ?

I laid flat on my back under there with the provided dinky scissor jack and one of my 12-ton bottle jacks holding it off the ground --- three of the lug-nuts screwed back on a couple threads --- just in case --- and commenced to hammering on the back side of the wheel and turning it a few inches every few licks --- I didn't have a nine-pound hammer.

After at least an hours hammering, I saw it move about the thickness of a dollar bill; encouraged, I didn't give up and after another couple hundred licks she give it up and popped loose.

I bolted on the little dinky temporary spare and sent her on her way --- to Harbor Freight --- to get one of those little trolley jacks and the biggest dead-blow hammer they had; I should have gotten one of those trolley jacks years ago --- those little things are extremely handy and will fit down in that spare-tire well right beside the spare and are way ahead of the little death-trap jack that came with it.

I spent the next day, using the new dead-blow hammer to knock loose all the rest of the wheels --- none of them came easy --- I right-angle wire-brushed the hubs and slathered on half-a-bottle of anti-sieze per wheel.

The new dead-blow hammer got placed in the spare well, along with the new trolley jack.

I hand-tightened every lug-nut to torque specifications --- I will shoot-to-kill any fool that touches any lug-nut on anything of mine, big trucks and all, with an impact wrench --- those things should be outlawed and thrown to the bottom of the rock quarry --- and I probably remove more tough nuts than any other man alive.

Then, we got on E-Bay and ordered a real wheel to match the other four --- if you can call a pot-metal alloy wheel "real" --- I would much rather they were genuine steel with some decent wire-basket hub-caps.

Used E-Bay wheel in hand, I bought and installed a brand-new tire and put new tire - wheel and all - in one of those big lawn-and-leaf bags, tied the top to keep dirt-daubers out, and put the whole mess in one of the storage trailers where either I could get it or whoever she was able to get ahold of could get it and take it with us when we ever have to rescue her again.

Here we are nine months later --- pouring the rain --- she comes in complaining that her steering wheel is lurching back and forth and the car is wobbling " from 20-mph to about 40-mph and then it smooths out".

She just described the typical steel-radial tire with a broken belt --- I hate radial tires.....

I went out in the rain, jacked it up, and removed the wheel to where we could actually see the tire; and, sure enough, one side of the tire looked good as new and the other side was all bulged out with a million sharp wires poking out and almost worn plumb through to the air inside --- it wouldn't have went another thirty miles.

I went and got my brand-new tire on my E-Bay wheel and discovered it was flat as a board.

When I aired it up and sprayed a bit of my secret recipe Joy dish-warshing detergent/water mixture around the valve stem, it was foaming like a mad dog.

I let the air out and placed the sidewall under the back of my truck.

I put the base of a 12-ton bottle jack against the rim and commenced putting the pressure on it until the bead finally broke free --- did I say I hate radial tires ?

I had plenty of all variations of stainless bolt-in valve stems and a sack-full of pop-in rubber lawn-mower stems --- but no TPMS stems.

It was dark and raining and I had never before ever messed with a TPMS.

The outer portion is way back in that deep recess where you can't see and can't get a tool.

On the inside, I could see the brass air tube that went from inside to out.

With the tire still on the wheel and it dark and raining, I couldn't see that little torx-headed screw that holds the sensor to the removable brass stem.

I did the next best thing --- I poked the small Harbor Freight bolt-cutters in there and snipped the sensor loose from the stem --- of course the sensor fell down inside the tire and we spent the next two hours fishing it out.

I used my stem puller to pop the leaking stem out and pop the new rubber non-TPMS stem in --- I sprayed plenty of PAM cooking spray on the new stem before popping it in.

I saturated the bead that I had just broken down with the rest of the can of PAM and aired up the tire --- a quick squirt of my secret recipe leak finder showed all was good to go.

I bolted her on and sent her on her way and called and ordered up another brand-new tire to replace the broken-belt tire and put back inside the lawn-and-leaf bag and back inside the storage trailer to be on hand for the next episode.

When I checked on her a while ago, she said the TPMS warnings were about to drive her crazy.

Sooooo, I have no idea whether this sensor that came in the E-Bay wheel is good or bad.

I am confident that nothing I did last night, including whacking it in two with the bolt-cutters has hurt the sensor in any way --- but it may have already been junk.

My question(s) is, will the vehicle read the tire sensors when it is sitting still ?

Can I place this E-Bay wheel's sensor on top of the tire, or on the wheel beside the valve-stem and the vehicle sense it's presence --- showing a flat tire, of course, as it would not be in a wheel ?

If this trick will work, that would tell me whether this sensor is worth getting a new stem for and putting it back in the wheel

A friend put a fancy set of wheels on his truck and moved the truck wheels, sensors and all, to his cattle trailer; he claims the TPMS in the truck will read the trailer tires.

	This site is not affiliated with AGCO Inc., Duluth GA., Allis-Chalmers Co., Milwaukee, WI., or any surviving or related corporate entity. All trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. All information presented herein should be considered the result of an un-moderated public forum with no responsibility for its accuracy or usability assumed by the users and sponsors of this site or any corporate entity.
	The Forum	Parts and Services	Unofficial Allis Store	Tractor Shows	Serial Numbers	History