[Leon Braginski]

I want to get set of cheap winter wheels for winter tiers (since I go skiing a few times a week). Since Ascent will have TMPS, does the tire place (say Discount Tires) knows how to get OEM’s TMPS sensors and program it in?

or do I need to buy an OEM sensor set from the dealer and have dealer program it on each set change?
Thanks!

 

[Burutoo]

From my experience discount tire won’t source OEM sensors for you but will gladly sell you aftermarket sensors. I’m sure some DTs would install OEM sensors if you purchased and provided them however.

 

[Sparkland]

The easiest and least expensive thing to do, is forget about the sensors and live with the TPMS light being lit for the winter. That is what both of my sons do on their WRX's. It won't hurt your car. You will have to pay attention to the tire pressure a little more closely. How did we ever live without TMPS for so long?

 

[Nemesis099]

The easiest and least expensive thing to do, is forget about the sensors and live with the TPMS light being lit for the winter. That is what both of my sons do on their WRX's. It won't hurt your car. You will have to pay attention to the tire pressure a little more closely. How did we ever live without TMPS for so long?

Well I think the TMPS became more relevant when low profile tires became popular. My wife used to get flat tires all the time in her Mazda 6 without TMPS and she had no idea and you couldn't tell by looking at the tire. Typically I would notice because of the way it drove.

Saying that winter tires should NOT be low profile and should be easy to visually see it is flat which helps a lot. Or do what people should be doing and checking tires at least once a month to every two weeks when the winter tires are on.

 

[packout]

From my experience discount tire won’t source OEM sensors for you but will gladly sell you aftermarket sensors. I’m sure some DTs would install OEM sensors if you purchased and provided them however.

Discount tire will install and balance your winter tires on your existing rims for free. The tpms remain on the exiting rims so this should not be an issue. They will at the end of the season change out your tires again.

 

[Dandy]

I am not sure about Subaru, but on my Ford Flex, I have a dedicated set of winter Rims/Tires. It was the same cost to get 18" Rims and Tires as 20" Tires alone. Now I just swap them myself. My local mechanic mounted the rims/tires and installed aftermarket TPMS sensors. When I switched back to my Spring-Fall wheels, the vehicle recognized the TPMS sensors from that set. It appears that my vehicle may be able to retain programming on multiple (at least 2) sets of TPMS sensors.

Maybe Subaru does the same. I like having the other set, last April, we had a warm up, the snow melted, I changed tires. Then we got in a cool stretch and had cold/snow into the beginning of May. I had a 12 hour round trip scheduled. I took about an hour and put my winter back on...easy peasy.

 

[Robert.Mauro]

What someone else suggested a while back are to get programmable ones that are guaranteed to work on the Ascent, and then clone them from the originals. One original set of tires and TPMS, one new set of tires with cloned TPMS.

 

[tdelker]

Agree - Discount tire can install cloned TPMS in the winter wheels. This is what I had on our Tribeca. I saw to the winter set, and the light never comes on.

When I got tires for my Legacy GT, I didn't know to ask, and now I have to stop by Discount Spring and Fall to get them to reprogram the car. Takes about 10 mins, and they don't make me wait. I just pull up at the air fill station and the reprogram. Depending on the skill of the tech, they don't always get it right. If they do, the light will go off immediately. Don't let them tell you to drive away saying it will turn off shortly. It won't.

 

[Percy Garris]

I just commented in the other thread, I have a set of 18 " Winter wheels and tires, because it was cheaper to buy that, than it was to buy 20" winter tires and install them on the factory wheels. Plus it saves me the risk of damage to my factory 20in wheels twice a year when they mount and dismount them, and put my summer tires on. in addition to eliminating risk of damage to the factory wheels, they don't charge me $75 every season for the tire swap over/rebalance etc, they just pop the new wheels and rims on for me every season for free.

I learned this the hard way when I had a tire shop mount nokian hakkapeliittas on The factory 21 inch wheels on my GLS 450, and they would regularly nick/scuff a wheel. I paid 75 bucks twice a year to swap the tires around, and ended up with marks on the rims.

By the way if you want a truly incredible snow driving experience, try the hakkapeliitta (what is also incredible is that my phone converts the word hakkapeliitta from speech-to-text properly).

as I mentioned in the other thread if you're in the Northeast, Town Fair will match any legitimate published price, and then they will swap the wheels and tires for free every season. They also have the proper tools to flash the TPMS, although I don't know what brand TPMS is used in my winter wheels.