[Tiny-car-guy]

I purchased a 2015 fortwo pure that had only 9k miles and it looked like it had just been driven off the showroom. Because it had the steel rims and hubcaps i immediately wanted to upgrade to mag wheels. It seems like every Mercedes dealership is discounting smart car parts and I bougot four new OEM rims for less then remanufactured. Because the smart doesn’t have a big trunk,I took the rims down and had them mounted with new tires and new tpms sensors installed, then just drove the car down to discount tire and had them switch out all four wheels and trash the steel wheels but kept the hubcaps. i took the car to Mercedes for an oil change and the dealership says my tpms light is on and that the tpms that they put in at discount for $60 each do not work with Mercedes-Benz and it would cost $1,100 for them to install and reprogram the sensors. The service manager suggested I check to see if discount still had my old tires and put the old mercades tpms sensors on my new tires, since the tpms worked fine before I switched out the tires, i guess the moral of my story is I learned what everyone already knew in this forum, and that you need to do your due diligence and research a project and before discarding anything that you might have to buy back or have reinstalled by Mercede, since it wont be cheap

 

[Bob Ricewasser]

I purchased a 2015 fortwo pure that had only 9k miles and it looked like it had just been driven off the showroom. Because it had the steel rims and hubcaps i immediately wanted to upgrade to mag wheels. It seems like every Mercedes dealership is discounting smart car parts and I bougot four new OEM rims for less then remanufactured. Because the smart doesn’t have a big trunk,I took the rims down and had them mounted with new tires and new tpms sensors installed, then just drove the car down to discount tire and had them switch out all four wheels and trash the steel wheels but kept the hubcaps. i took the car to Mercedes for an oil change and the dealership says my tpms light is on and that the tpms that they put in at discount for $60 each do not work with Mercedes-Benz and it would cost $1,100 for them to install and reprogram the sensors. The service manager suggested I check to see if discount still had my old tires and put the old mercades tpms sensors on my new tires, since the tpms worked fine before I switched out the tires, i guess the moral of my story is I learned what everyone already knew in this forum, and that you need to do your due diligence and research a project and before discarding anything that you might have to buy back or have reinstalled by Mercede, since it wont be cheap

Always save usable old parts just in case, however, storage can be an issue. Your old rims and tires can probably be sold to another smart owner even if they are steelies.

 

[Jo e Lefors]

Always save usable old parts just in case, however, storage can be an issue. Your old rims and tires can probably be sold to another smart owner even if they are steelies.

Yep, I would interested in a front rim depending on cost

 

[sokoloff]

TPMS is an option I am in no hurry to fix. I've got one bad sensor and will not get it replaced now and maybe not even when I buy new tires which won't be for five years or more. It's not needed to pass inspection here. It's just one of those add on electronic gadgets that you pay for, but things that a conscientious driver doesn't need. I check the air in the tires of my cars like I have been doing for fifty years.

Len

 

[MB DNA]

I purchased a 2015 fortwo pure that had only 9k miles and it looked like it had just been driven off the showroom.

i took the car to Mercedes for an oil change and the dealership says my tpms light is on and that the tpms that they put in at discount for $60 each do not work with Mercedes-Benz and it would cost $1,100 for them to install and reprogram the sensors. The service manager suggested I check to see if discount still had my old tires and put the old mercades tpms sensors on my new tires, since the tpms worked fine before I switched out the tires.

Welcome to SCoA!

Did your dash show the TPMS warning light?

That should have been obvious to you without dealer assistance UNLESS Discount (for lack of seeing the old sensors?) installed monitors that are seeking the wrong frequency thus are not connecting to your smart? BUT even then, I’d have expected a “fault” on the dash?

My friendly advice - be at Discount Tire MONDAY MORNING, they will make it right!

 

[jzchen]

It sounds like the tires and TPMS sensors were bought at an undisclosed location, mounted onto loose wheels, then driven to Discount Tire who did the swap. That "undisclosed location" needs to provide replacement sensors that work. As far as I know they do not require any type of programming the smart ECU is smart and reads them if they are the proper frequency and functional.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

 

[Tiny-car-guy]

Welcome to SCoA!

Did your dash show the TPMS warning light?

That should have been obvious to you without dealer assistance UNLESS Discount (for lack of seeing the old sensors?) installed monitors that are seeking the wrong frequency thus are not connecting to your smart? BUT even then, I’d have expected a “fault” on the dash?

My friendly advice - be at Discount Tire MONDAY MORNING, they will make it right!

You are absolutely right, it was my bad for not bringing the car in to have the tires changed on the car. My car didn’t have the TPMS ligh come on when I purchased it, but in Colorado it is taking over 30 business days to get title and plates and I didn‘t want to drive the car around without a temporary tag or plates. I purchased the car from a private party and they took the plates and the DMV is not giving out temporary tags. So I was running the hubs down to discount and having them mounted & balanced. The sales guy suggested new TPMS sensors since the battery life is only 10 years and the car is almost 7 years old. They said they could program new TPMS sensors they carry for a smart. I put them on and Mercedes came and picked up the car for the oil change and noticed the warning light. Luckily I was able to get my old TPMS sensors back and then spent two days running the tires back and forth to Discount tires to have the sensors switched back. Son of a gun it worked !!! I was worried I would be resetting them every time I switched back and forth the summer tires with the winter tires, but the warning light recognized both sets of rear tires. I just wanted to let Smart car owners know that something as simple as buying new tires can turn into a nightmare If you change out Non OEM sensors. In Discount Tires defense they would have caught the warning light, but would have said you have to drive the car a coupe miles after you reset the TPMS For it to go off (which I had to do after switching back the old sensors) and as you mentioned we should all be checking the warning lights after having any work done. However discount tires seemEd sure that they could program their TPMS for a smart car, which according to the Mercedes service manager the Smart TPMS system will only recognize OEM Mercedes sensor’s. I don’t know if that is true, but my warning light is off.

 

[Miss Mercedes]

I don't blame you for tossing parts! I somewhat regularly build cheap rally cars. My former policy was to keep everything I could reuse or sell. Then I began figuring out that a lot of the parts I sat on were worthless and I never needed again. So now I only keep stuff of real value.

Aftermarket sensors can work with these cars provided they are the correct specs. You can get new TPMS for them from Tire Rack or Amazon for a hilariously steep discount over the dealership.

Unfortunately, as I've personally witnessed over the past 12 years or so the dealerships don't always tell the truth. And some are way worse than others.

I hope you're able to get that tire shop to reimburse you for their incompetence!

 

[Janko]

Great input Tiny-car-guy on TPMS! Going to switch tires from Run Flats to normal tires on 2013 Mini Cooper S, as it rides like a go-cart. Will keep my old TPMS sensors... intact. Be glad that Smart Cars do not use run flat tires... big BS idea from BMW & big money maker for Continental tire CO & other brads making such run flats. These tires give poor ride quality & cost ~ 40% more.

 

[Tiny-car-guy]

I think it really bothered me when the Mercedes service manager seemed a bit judgmental that I was not anxious to spend $1,100 to remove and replace the TPMS sensors that Discount had only changed me $56 to do (although they programmed them incorrectly, they probably would have done it right had I brought the car in and not just the rims). Just a heads up to everyone Discount Tires quotes $60 for programming their TPMS sensors, but they will price match. When I told the service guy I had paid $14 for each TPMS sensor off eBay he Price matched it. But in all seriousness this TPMS Tester I purchased off eBay for $150 was worth it so I can test the TPMS batteries and can even clone new TPMS sensors myself when the current ones start to fail in a couple years when the batteries die,

TPMS SMART SENSOR PRO+ TOOL WITH OBDII | eBay

Only compatible with smart sensors. Scan, copy, clone, and program new TPMS sensor with smart sensor tool. Good for protection and storage.

www.ebay.com

 

[sokoloff]

When/why do you ever need to program/clone a TPMS sensor for our Smarts? AFAIK you buy the right unit (Schrader 2814) and it's plug and play isn't it?

Len

 

[jzchen]

Mercedes guys work on commission. Probably trying to buy him/herself a Benz. Local MB labor was $175/hr and that was a few years ago when we bumped into a SA at a local restaurant and I asked.... The one here also never even dealt with smart in the first place. I was happy getting away with $90 some dollar charge when I brought our W204 in for recall work!

Unfortunately I believe Len is correct that tool to clone and program is unnecessary for a smart. They have multifrequency sensors that Discount Tire may have accidentally programmed to the wrong frequency. My local America's Tire which is sister company to it charges $60/sensor to replace with a new one...

EDIT-. Whenever there's a Best Offer option on eBay they'll usually go for about a 10% discount for future reference.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

 

[smark]

I bought my sensors, at the tire rack. Along with the new Continental tires. The sensors, are good for at least 5 year battery life. The smart cars pick up module Recognize the new sensors right away. No problems At all, as long as there the right frequency.

Tire Rack - Search Results for tpms sensors

tires.tirerack.com

 

[Shalmaneser64]

When/why do you ever need to program/clone a TPMS sensor for our Smarts? AFAIK you buy the right unit (Schrader 2814) and it's plug and play isn't it?

Len

The Schrader unit works fine, right out of the box. There is no programming, other than pressing the TPMS sensor button to reset the system. The smart doesn't care which sensor is on which tire. Which is fine. Get a pressure gage. Should be doing a visual on your tires every so often anyway.

 

[smark]

Wow $$$$$.........

 

[Shalmaneser64]

This has some info on the construction of the TPMS units:

schrader tpms repair kit - Bing video

www.bing.com

I had two on rims that had sized up. Had to destroy them to remove them. Highly recommend replacing the replaceable components whenever you've got a tire off. a cheap fix. The rubber gaskets on the stems tend to liquify. I've got five units that all show the same deterioration, not counting the two I destroyed. Have four more I need to look at.

 

[Shalmaneser64]

So I took my old TPMS units over to the NTB that I use to see if they could check them to see if they were still good. Unfortunately, one can't just pop them open and replace the coin cell in them. Well, NTB had a reader, but it was dead, and they couldn't find their second one. So the next day I went over to the other NTB nearby. The one I usually avoid, because they suck. And I wasn't disappointed. The idiot that was at the counter tells me that the units need to be installed in a tire in order to read them. I said no, they don't. So he gets their tester, but doesn't know how to use it. So I gave up and just ordered an Autel tester off of amazon. To think that such morons are mounting tires is pretty scary. I'll be sending a complaint to NTB. This is the same place that wanted to charge me $80 to mount a spare tire on a smart rim. Seriously?

 

[Shalmaneser64]

Got my Autel TPMS tester in. The 5 spare Schrader/MB TPMS units that I have are ALL good. So much for the idiot at NTB. Sending a complaint this evening. Used the unit to check the neighbor's Ford Fusion. Low on all 4 tires. Thing works like a charm. Select, point, click - done. Pressure, temp, serial number, model. Even has other features, not that the smart needs them.

 

[smark]

I thought they had to be inside a tire too. With air pressure Applied, inside that tire. How would the TPMS then know you had low tire pressure.

We have a couple other cars, the TPMS, tell the Computer the tire actual pressure. Gives you a read out, on the dash board. So how could that work outside of the car and not inside the tire. It would read zero pressure. The batteries on the sensors are good for at least 5 years.

When a sensor is dead, on one my other vehicle. A message appears on the Instrument cluster. Saying Tire pressure monitor, is not availabl. The smart car system, is very crude on the 451 ones.

I‘m not sure I’d spend $135-$350 bucks, on a Autel TPMS meter. Off Amazon. That’s expensive. Especially for a smart car.

 

[Shalmaneser64]

My understanding is that when you hit the TPMS button, it checks to see what the tire pressures are, and uses those as a baseline. If they drop below a certain threshold level, the warning light goes on. I can tell you that the reader does in fact read the TPMS units off the tire, and shows the pressure as 0, and gives the temperature as well.