Does anyone know if there are options to OE TPMS? Anyone have first hand experience with something other than OE? I have a set of HREs coming and would rather not have to break down the original wheels to get the sensors from them. Would rather buy new sensors but need to know if there are options to the very expensive OE sensors.

 

Do a bit of a search on here and Pistonheads.
I'm sure some one sourced the valves and the sensors direct from the OEM's for ALOT less than Aston charge!

 

Thanks, that was helpful......... uh, did that.

Anyone have something I can use?

 

I've got the Smartire setup in my '06. Does yours have the same? Apparently the company was sold to Bendix & closed up the passenger car side of the business, so you can't go back to them for help.

HWM Aston parts had some on sale a while ago IIRC, but they're still about 100-120GBP per wheel. I've also seen a couple of threads elsewhere (PH or AMOC) about using a BMW part as a replacement; definitely for the valve stem, possibly for the sending/sensor unit. The frequency might be different for EU vs. US/NA though. PH search is chronically down, so I couldn't find it again.

Searched for Smartire here on 6SpeedOnline & found a couple of old threads. Aston.ca posted this link which looks promising: http://www.pyspeed.com/RS-Audi-Tire-...s-007-tpms.htm

I've still got the original sensors & I figure the batteries will die in the next year or 2. Please update if you find an alternative.

 

You can unbolt the factory sensors from the stock wheels. You and I have the next TPMS. from what I understand the computer reads these sensors from each wheel so you may needs those factory sensors on ur aftermarket wheels.

 

In the end I did not pull the trigger on those Pyspeed units bc I could never find any examples of people who had installed them and got them working (or techs who had experience with them). IIRC, the company has basically a non-existent return policy. I did not get a good feeling from the responses I got from the reps when I sent in queries and, while the sensors are much cheaper than OEM, I wasn't too crazy abt the idea of throwing away $300 on a set with no recourse if they didn't work out.

Also it didn't make sense to me that they listed 2006-2011 models as compatible when AFAIU, there were different controllers and systems used in some of those cars with different frequencies.

 

^^^ good info! Thank you. Rep pts coming your way.

Looks like I'm breaking down the orginal wheels to get the sensors out. Sounds like the only option to insure they will work.

 

Thanks for your post. I saw the factory units on Astonmartinbits.com for 100GBP which seems reasonable given the prices I've seen elsewhere for OE TPMS.

Looks like I'm sticking with the factory units from my stock wheels.

 

Stupid question: You don't need to change the TPMS sensors each time you buy new tires, correct?

 

No you can use the same one need any reprogamming.

 

Correct. Just trying to not have to breakdown the original wheels/tires and risk damaging them. Plus, makes the swap back easy as both OE and HRE would have correct TPMS.

 

Gotcha. Glad to know an already expensive proposition (replacing all tires) is not even more expensive than I had thought.

 

Yes, you just have to make very sure that you keep each TPMS sensor with the same tire if you swap from one to another (they have colour coded rings and these correspond with lights you see in the control unit.

For the units on the initial MYs of the Vantage (my apologies I can't remember off hand which year the change over happened), the sensors have an integrated, permanent battery which dies after 4-5 years on average IIRC. So everyone with those MY will be facing a replacement purchase at some point if you don't want the annoying dash light on. It's potentially an expensive fix so we really do need to figure out if there is a cheaper non-OEM option. Flipside is that, if you are buying used OEMs, you have to be aware that the lifespan of those is likely to be quite limited.

LRDog, does Astonbits have 4 sensors? The one displayed on their site at the moment looks like just a single replacement ...

Edit -
You may also find this PH thread useful. They discuss the possibility of seized valve stems (which are not that expensive to replace if with the BMW part number provided). Still does not address a non OEM sensor but useful nonetheless.

 

So does this mean that later units have removable batteries that can be replaced?

 

I know you can even get the stems from LAR, or any other parts depo that carries tpms univeral stuff, had a corroded one, needed one for a car asap, ordering the whole valve/sensor shipped from Aston was going to take way to long ..called a local Goodyear corner garage and they had a universal tpms stem/valve kit for when they break..
Was a pretty big kit, about the size of a medium fishing tackle box..guess they break a lot of valves..lol

When your swapping sensors to another set of wheels, like Aston.ca mentioned, don't mix up the sensors, keep note to it's location on the car(colored rings help)...otherwise your tpms will be detecting the wrong position untill programmed by your dealer.

When you take the sensors off your wheels, just break the outside bead, push the bead down and remove the sensor, this way when you want to swap the sensor back to those wheels, just push the bead back down and refit the sensor..saves the cost on balancing and saves the chance of scratching a mag for you never have to remove the tire..of course though you still need a tire machine to do this, but at least this way even WalMart can do this without screwing up!