NEED HELP TPMS Stem Replacement - Possible?

TB_n00b

Original poster
Member
Dec 19, 2011
121
Queens, NY
Hi all. I recently had some new shoes put on the truck and after many (3) hours of waiting I was told that one of my valve stems is corroded and it was "difficult" to put air back in hence the 3 hours it took to mount 4 new tires. What my mechanic should have said was: "your valve stem is severely corroded and there's actually a hole in the visible part of the stem so it's gonna be impossible to put air in it yourself moving forward".

Rockauto shows "service" kits with and without the stems but I'm not clear on if you need to access the TPMS to change out those parts. Looking at the full replacement TPMS it seems like there's a few parts that thread together. So, is it possible to remove and replace only the stem and valve portion on wheels with the TPMS or am i stuck getting a whole new TPMS and a tire removal/remount?

TIA!
 
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Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
The service kit with stem is what you'll want. Tire will have to be broken back down as they're inserted from the inside and then tightened down with the outer nut. Sometimes rubber stems are available but mostly just with new sensors. How old are your sensors? If they're original it might be worthwhile to replace them as a whole since you'll likely be paying labor anyways.

Also, any reputable tire shop should have an array of these parts in stock, if not they can be sourced from their suppliers like advance, auto zone, oriellys. Source: we do tires at my work, keep rebuilds on hand, as well as universal replacements.
 
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TB_n00b

Original poster
Member
Dec 19, 2011
121
Queens, NY
The service kit with stem is what you'll want. Tire will have to be broken back down as they're inserted from the inside and then tightened down with the outer nut. Sometimes rubber stems are available but mostly just with new sensors. How old are your sensors? If they're original it might be worthwhile to replace them as a whole since you'll likely be paying labor anyways.

Also, any reputable tire shop should have an array of these parts in stock, if not they can be sourced from their suppliers like advance, auto zone, oriellys. Source: we do tires at my work, keep rebuilds on hand, as well as universal replacements.

Thanks. The sensors are original AFAIK (I've never replaced them in 10 years of ownership) so that makes them 12+ years old for my 2007. Well past the expected life. I definitely need a new stem on the one and I guess I should have had to forethought to replace them when I got the new tires earlier this month but hingsight and all. I'm not really on-board with paying them to remove/remount all 4 tires again.

I'm not sure why they didn't actually tell me the stem needed to be replaced before they finished the work. Maybe they didn't have the replacement handy and didn't want to make me wait longer or it got away from them because of how busy it was (apparently no one can be bothered to put air in their own tires when the temps get cold anymore).
 

Mounce

Member
Mar 29, 2014
13,667
Tuscaloosa, AL
Yeah it's not something you'll think of unless mentioned or it's too late like now.

Charges should be cheaper than regular mount and balance prices if they're equipped. Break down outer bead, and access sensor that way until you drop it inside the tire and have to remove to retrieve. Our tire machine has the 'low-profile' arm attachment which is (almost useless) very handy for this as you can apply downward pressure to give you plenty of room to access the sensor.
 
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paul2005tb

Member
Nov 26, 2014
299
Massachusetts
Can some one tell me what is the valve stem hole diameter on our stock rims ? Is it 11.5mm (.453in) ?
 

HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
Its standard size. Are there actually other valve stem sizes? Never once in years of working at a gas station/repair shop that did a ton of tires for AAA right off the interstate nor in ordering all the sets for personal use in the past couple decades have I ever seen irregular vale stem hole diameters for typical car or trucks. Equipment and heavy duty commercial shit can have the larger hole, but never seen it on a regular car/truck.
 
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