Yeah, that's way, way too high. The dealer is lying to you - switching TPMS from one wheel to another is in fact trivial. At the very most you might need new valve stems, and the official Porsche valve stems are $25 each from Suncoast.

Here's what the sensor looks like:

It's not complicated. The sensor electronics are in the wing-shaped bit (B), which sits inside the pressurized tire. The valve (C-F) protrudes through a hole in the wheel, and that's what you see from the outside.

Switching existing sensors is just a matter of unscrewing the nut (E) from the valve stem, popping the assembly out, putting the stem and sensor into the hole in the new wheel, and screwing it back on. Trivial. Tell the car you changed tires via PCM, and you're done.

Any tire shop, any tire shop at all can do this if they have the parts. When I bought my winter wheel set, I purchased TPMS sensors and valve stems from Suncoast and brought the sensors and the wheels to NTB. Since they're exactly like valve stems they deal with every day, they had no difficulty.

EDIT: It occurs to me that they may be quoting you the price to switch tires vs. switch wheels. Taking tires off rims is more work than switching wheels with existing mounted tires. However, $400 is far too much for switching tires, I paid $110 to do that at NTB, and $75 is also high just to switch wheels with mounted tires.

 

A further clarification:

You can switch from summer to winter tires on a single set of rims. This is in many ways the least expensive option. The TPMS sensors stay where they are.

You can have a set of winter rims that don't have their own TPMS sensors. This is kind of pointless, since you have to dis-mount the tires from the summer rims in order to remove the TPMS sensors. It's more work and more expense than just switching back and forth on a single set of rims. It only makes any sense if your summer and winter rims are different sizes.

You can have a set of winter rims with their own, separate TPMS sensors. This is what I did. This will run you ~$240 if you buy sensors from OEWheels, or $540 if you buy actual Porsche parts from Suncoast. When I bought mine there weren't any aftermarket TPMS sensors for 2015's yet, but that's fixed now.

If the winter tires have their own sensors and wheels, all you have to do is remove the old wheels and put the new ones on, and tell the car you've switched wheels. That's an option in the PCM menu when the multi-function display is showing tire pressures. This means you're paying for a second set of rims and sensors, but it makes changing very easy from then on.

 

If the OP is talking about actually mounting and dismounting the summer and winter tires from one single set of wheels, then you are going into incur costs for that service, which must include a GOOD balance job. And that will be two time per year, every year.

 

Ace -- that's what I'm doing right now, dealer charged us $200 to swap out tires on our 20" turbo design rims -- a bit steep, but I'd rather be able to deal with them if the wheels are damaged during a tire swap (and they were able to store our summer tires).

Even @ $400 per year for swapping, it would take a LONG time to break even with a second set of wheels. Especially when one factors in the replacement cost for two sets of TPMS when their batteries wear out . . . .

 

That really depends on the cost of the second set of wheels. If you're talking 20" rims or otherwise pricey aftermarket wheels, yeah, definitely. I only paid $600 for my second set, but that's because I was buying 18" OEM take-offs. There's almost no demand for those, which is why I got them so cheap. Add the $500 I paid for TPMS sensors, and I'd make that up in about 3 years if I were paying $400 a year for swaps.

Which I'm not.

I'm not too clear on whether the TPMS sensors will last longer if they're not in use or not. I know the Porsche sensors don't have a sleep mode, like some manufacturers, because I discussed that with an independent Porsche mechanic when I was having trouble with the aftermarket TPMS sensors. However, they still may use less power if they're sitting in a garage rather than in a wheel communicating with the car.

Still, overall I agree. Most of the time you're not really saving money with a second set of wheels, between wheel and TPMS costs. What you're doing is paying for convenience. You also have the option of down-sizing for your winter rims for just a little better snow handling.

 

Gus -- OOPS, I based my calcs on aesthetic issue we had -- only a very few wheels we liked the looks of (and with a GTS can't go below 19") -- decision was kinda made for us when porsche quoted a crazy-high price and 6 month backlog for the 19" wheels we were looking for. Sounds like you got a great deal on your 18" wheels and 19" panamera turbo wheels are readily available for very reasonable prices in the secondary market . ..

TPMS -- went through this issue with our 2004 touareg -- picked up a take-off wheelset with 800 miles on the tires and fresh TPMS for a song and swapped out our original wheel set's tires for winter tires. Both TPMS sets needed to be replaced in 2009 and are probably coming due for replacement again real soon . . . Despite all this, convenience factor of having a second set of wheels can't be beat.

 

TPMS are <$200 for a set of 4 from RockAuto. You can also find them on ebay for <200.

 

For which cars and which model years? I went with a relatively inexpensive set of TPMS sensors initially, and had to return them because they didn't work. Porsche apparently changed them in 2014 for the Panamera. OEWheels has ones that are supposed to work now, but they're more expensive than the ones for 2013 and earlier.

After that, I'd never buy an aftermarket set unless the seller guaranteed they'd take them back if they didn't work. OEWheels did take mine back, but I also saw stores that said "no returns on TPMS." I know I'd be very concerned about this with most eBay sellers.

 

I can understand that. Funny thing is, I never even thought about wheel looks or choices before buying my Panamera. I almost bought a set of black Turbo wheels bundled with snow tires instead of the 18" Panamera S wheels, but couldn't bring myself to spend the extra money.

 

I am actually talking about using my TPMS sensor that is on my current wheels and swap to a wheel that already has tires but no toms. So i guess the job will be expensive because the dealer has to take of my current tires from wheel then take the TPMS and take off the tires from the replacement wheel then install TPMS on replacement wheel before remounting the tires on it. Then put the replacement wheels onto my car. *hopefully my explanation is not confusing*

 

Yeah, that's case 2 I outlined. You don't want to do that unless you're just changing the look of the wheels. It's more work and more expensive than just changing the tires on a single set of rims, and there's no real benefit.

If you're talking about keeping winter and summer wheels, get a second set of TPMS sensors, or there's no point.

 

Sorry i didnt clarify. I am getting rid of my 19 and change to 20. And will have 1 summer set and 1 winter or just have 1 all season. Havent decide. I am only keepin this car until end of 2016. So i dont see a point to invest on dedicated set of tires for winter and summer. Which is why i am leaning towards all seasons.

 

Yeah, that's a significant bit of information. I'm none too clear on why you'd buy 20" wheels if you're seeing this as a temporary car, but I can see why you'd hesitate to buy winter tires.

In your shoes, I'd either buy all-seasons if I didn't expect to deal with snow, ever, or winter tires if I did. Winter tires won't give you top performance in the summer, and they'll wear faster than you want, but you're not keeping the car. The main thing is that giving up some summer performance is worth it for a major boost in safety in the winter, if you absolutely must have one set of tires.

It the roads are plowed, you're fine. But personally I've gone off the road in a 4WD car because I was driving on snow and didn't have snow tires. A serious accident is going to cost more than a set of proper winter tires.

 

The only reason why I want to change my wheel is because I do not like the design on my current ones. My pkace do get a fair bit of snow but i have several friends with cayenne or audi q5 on all season and they plow through winter just fine.

 

I strongly suspect that your panamera's winter performance with all seasons will be on par with that experienced by your q5 and cayenne friends, but will still lag significantly behind that provided by true winter tires. Significantly, its summer performance on all seasons will likely be similarly compromised too.

I view all season tires as kinda being the equivalent of a pair of light hiking shoes -- they'll get you around, but won't give you the same experience as a nice pair of running shoes if you're going for a run and won't work as well as a pair of snow boots if heading out in the white fluffy stuff. Put another way, while our VW Touareg (sister car to the Cayenne) did "just fine" with all seasons on a snowy road, it's confidence-inspiring to drive in the snow with dedicated winter tires and we find ourselves seeking out unplowed alleys, etc.