Lexus TPMS Advice

One of the sensor's on the wife's IS-F failed. I was really surprised to find that, at least from the dashboard, I can't locate which wheel failed and instead there's a big scarey red alert which makes the wife hesitant to take her own car out.

So the question is, will taking it to Lexus save me a bit of coin as they'll be able to locate and replace just the one bad TPMS? Can a regular tire shop do this? Are both of them going to try and replace all 4 and sell me on a set of new tires while they're at it? 

Have you grabbed a tire pressure gauge and gone to see if one tire is low?  See the recommended psi as listed on the door jamb and verify they all are correct.  

If the light is on because one tire is low then filling that one tire will turn the light off.

If one sensor has failed, yes, the one sensor can be replaced and any high quality tire shop can tell you which one and replace just that one.  

My Prius too just has the simple system where one light comes on if any one tire is low.  I much prefer the better systems like in my Dodge that tells me the psi of each individual wheel. 

$25 to $50 for a new sensor at a shop and then add in the price of mount and balance so this repair could cost $40 to $75

Yup, first thing I did was verify tired pressure. Nothing's leaking. I'll head down to Discount Tire and save myself some money then

what year is the isf?

Keep in mind the spare can also have a TPMS.

If you want to fix it on the cheap any tire shop can do it for around $100.  That will be a generic TPMS cloned to the one they took out.  Should do fine.  

If you want to fix it right you can take it to the stealer - probably gonna be around $200.

Otherwise you can do the following:

• Get a Mini VCI cable and a copy of Techstream.
• Read the values in Techstream of the TMPS and see which one is not reporting.  Easy way to do this is monitor the values while letting air out of the tires and record which ID is where.
• On the wheel that has the dead TMPS, take that wheel off and pop the valve stem core out.  
• Use a floorjack and a ratchet strap to pop one bead off the tire and read the part number on the original TMPS
• Order a new TPMS using that part number - dont use an online reference since TMPS changes were often made mid-year and its tough to figure them out with Toyota.  Safe bet is to read the TPMS part number off the unit.
• Air up the tire and reinstall the wheel
• When your new TPMS shows, dismount the wheel and pop one bead again.
• Take a picture of the TPMS to record the program ID
• Snake the new TPMS into the tire and air it up.
• Remount the wheel on the car.
• Go into techstream and assign the new TPMS ID to the slot where the dead TPMS was
• Validate the new TPMS is reporting.

DIY will cost the same as a local shop but its very satisfying, and the Techstream cable will pay for itself over and over.  

On most cars, If the Tire light comes on and flashes you have a fault (bad sensor/antenna/module). If it stays on steady you have a low tire. Sometimes they have a separate Fault light.

Any decent tire shop will have a TPMS tool to check outputs. I dont think Discount normally charges to check and I want to say last time I checked it was like 79 for a new one installed.