Winter Tires & Rims

[Rolling Hill NB]

I'm starting to shop for the first set of winter tires for my 2010 Highlander. I had a seemingly knowledgeable gentleman at a Canadian Tire parts counter helping me look at a few options and I began asking about winter rims. He cautioned me that buying winter rims for my winter tires is complicated by the Tire Pressure Monitoring (TPM) in the vehicle. He said most reputable tire installers will not disengage the TPM system so either I would have to live with my warning light being on all winter or I will need to purchase 4 new sensors for my winter rims and have them programmed into my TPM by my Toyota dealership.
Does anyone have any recent experience on this issue? If so what kind of extra costs are we looking at for all this, is it worth it or should I just use my alloy rims in the winter and just use the savings to replace my alloys every few years because of the abuse they take in tire changes and salt and grime, etc?

[jimmied]

i would just deal with the light if that is the case. but i also believe you can program the sensors easily on your own if you go that route.

My question is this....

If someone were to replace the four wheels on the vehicle with no tpms but leave the spare on the vehicle with the tpms, would the light stay off since there would be no descrepancy(sp) in pressures between tires. I know this holds true for some makes but am unsure of our vehicle.

[jimmied]

Also, WELCOME!!!!

[Dman1]

Welcome to TN. You're actually not too far from me in Fredericton...just an hour and a half up the road (Moncton).

As for your question, just buy a set of steel 17" rims for your winter tires and don't worry about the TPMS sensors. The light really isn't that big a deal, and it stayed off for the most part for me because whenever I parked my HL in the garage, the summer tires were close enough so that the system picked up the signal from these TPMSs.

And Jimmie D, no, the TPMS on the spare is not enough to keep the light off.

[Shawster]

Hey there. I had the same question a few years ago. I have the 19 in wheels so I had a real dilema. I decided to just by tires from Tiretrends.ca. I have my local dealer flip the tires on the rims. Believe it or not this is cheaper than to have the sensors reprogrammed. Plus you save the cost of buying rims.

And contrary to popular belief, you can change tires a number of times without damaging the tires.

[GlenGreco]

I bought a set of Bridgestone DVM-1's mounted on 17" steelies from the dealer. I paid a hundred or so more than the cheapest quote I could find but they offer free lifetime changeovers - usually $60. So that "saves" me $120 annually.

The salt and sand can be pretty hard on with aluminum wheels so steel rims were my choice.

[JMSinMD]

Too bad you guys aren't closer. I have a set of 17" Highlander Limited wheels from a 2007 HL for $400 including lugnuts.

[Dman1]

Originally Posted by Shawster

Hey there. I had the same question a few years ago. I have the 19 in wheels so I had a real dilema. I decided to just by tires from Tiretrends.ca. I have my local dealer flip the tires on the rims. Believe it or not this is cheaper than to have the sensors reprogrammed. Plus you save the cost of buying rims.

And contrary to popular belief, you can change tires a number of times without damaging the tires.

I did look into that as well, but opted for the steel wheels mainly to avoid having my alloys being pitted with salt over the years. Not only that, the cost to do a tire changeover on the rims was $1 per inch of tire size per wheel (at least at my old tire place). So, at 19" x $1 x 4 tires x 2 changeovers per year = $152 per year. I may have been able to get a better deal on the tire switchover, but even at $60 a swap, that's $120 a year, and the rims cost me $300, meaning the rims will be paid for in less than three years (not factoring in the labor on my part to do the wheel change myself twice a year, which would probably cost me $20 a swap, or $40 a year).

Food for thought anyway.