So it was bothering me — so I looked (spare photos)

[Spooder]

Okay, I just added a TPMS to the spare and rotated it in. I bought the TPMS from a Ford Dealer, but had Discount Tire do the rotation and balance— I can’t trust the local dealership anymore…

I had the local dealership do my oil change, but the service representative objected to a tire rotation and balance. The service representative became especially annoyed when I requested a five tire rotation. I scheduled this weeks ago with them, and they also didn’t do the recall for Reprogramming Tailer Relay Module — he said 5 hours wasn’t enough time (the whole reason I came in at 7:30 am). Bottom line, it was such an issue, I honestly can’t trust the dealership at this point to actually do the work. So I bought the TPMS and went to Discount Tire. I am changing dealerships…

Discount Tire tested the Ford TPMS with a programming device and found it to be non-responsive (the device lets the technician check/read the TPMS and also is used to assign a TPMS to a tire location in the truck computer). All the other TPMS devices on the truck could be read by the programming device.

I immediately returned the TPMS to the dealership and got a replacement — the replacement was also not readable. I had Discount Tire mount the TPMS into the spare anyway with the assumption it must activate after being driven a distance. Discount Tire technicians were skeptical. I drive home and did the reprogramming myself as per the manual — it worked.

I returned to discount tire and they verified the TPMS was functioning with their programming device.

Bottomline, if you buy a TPMS from Ford it will not be activated until you’ve driven a distance with it over 20 MPH. You will then need to assign it to the tire position as per the owners manual.

Do you have the part number for the correct TPMS sensor? I plan to install one in my spare and do 5 tire rotations.

 

[nitewolfgtr]

Do you have the part number for the correct TPMS sensor? I plan to install one in my spare and do 5 tire rotations.

@Spooder -

did you ever figure out the correct TPMS sensor part number? Thanks.

 

[Miker]

I was told by my dealership that the spare did not have the tpms due to the truck computer only being able to recognize four of them and that a fifth would make things cattywaumpus and not work?… what I was told anyway

 

[Yeti]

I was told by my dealership that the spare did not have the tpms due to the truck computer only being able to recognize four of them and that a fifth would make things cattywaumpus and not work?… what I was told anyway

They're full of it. I've been running 5 tpms on both sets of wheels without issue

 

[Spooder]

Turned out there was a sensor in my spare and the dealer did the 5 tire rotation. Then on the way home one of the sensors went intermittent - front left, not the spare. They told me the spare was balanced with weights but when I checked - no weights so will get balanced at my next pass by the tire shop.

 

[putz173]

The question is do what do I replace that with? Premium wheel or cheapo steel rim? Still need to know if a 35" (34.5") will fit under there.

have a 295/70/18 in my spare holder and it fits fine, and thats a 34.5"

even with the chunky baja boss tire it fits fine, i wont bother with 5 wheel rotation but ill be sticking to the 295/70/18 size so wanted a spare to match the OD

 

[ksheldon63]

How much bigger is the valve stem on the spare? Does it look bad or barely noticeable?

 

[Yeti]

Turned out there was a sensor in my spare and the dealer did the 5 tire rotation. Then on the way home one of the sensors went intermittent - front left, not the spare. They told me the spare was balanced with weights but when I checked - no weights so will get balanced at my next pass by the tire shop.

From the factory, or did you get it used?

 

[Spooder]

From the factory, sensor there, balance weights no. LF sensor, not spare was intermittent. Works for an hour or so, then quits. Went by the dealer to find out about my U-bolts for the rear clunking noise, and thankfully the sensor quit. They said they would re-learn it with the remote, but came back and said the transmitter was dead, so they added it to my parts being ordered. So was lucky there.

 

[Moe7]

Just got a (aftermarket) TPMS put in my spare and balanced at Discount Tire. They had no problem price matching Amazon for the sensor ($22 vs 61) so was just under $50 all in.

Haven't yet rotated it on to make sure it reads ok, but it's warrantied regardless.

 

[ksheldon63]

Just did mine also, took my ford tpms I got from Ford Truck Pros for $50 to Big O Tires and the installed and balanced it for free for whatever reason. I have 3k miles I plan to rotate at 5k with an oil change.

 

[Moe7]

Just got a (aftermarket) TPMS put in my spare and balanced at Discount Tire. They had no problem price matching Amazon for the sensor ($22 vs 61) so was just under $50 all in.

Haven't yet rotated it on to make sure it reads ok, but it's warrantied regardless.

Mine ended up a bit annoying. Being an aftermarket TPMS with a different ID #, the truck wouldn't pick up the sensor after driving for 2 days, nor using the standard Ford re-learn process. The truck also kept picking up the old tire, in the spare tire well, as being mounted in its previous position, but I expected that without running the re-learn.

I had to go back and have the tire shop manually program in the aftermarket sensor; they mentioned I'd have to this every time I rotated the tires, but I got home and the Ford re-learn process picked up the aftermarket TPMS fine.

Lesson learned - After doing some research, an OEM Ford sensor with the same ID # probably wouldn't have had this additional step.

 

[ksheldon63]

Did you try the hazard lights plus releasing air from each tire until the horn honks? Is this what we have to do if we rotate outside of the dealership service.

 

[Moe7]

Did you try the hazard lights plus releasing air from each tire until the horn honks? Is this what we have to do if we rotate outside of the dealership service.

Yep, I even got the Ford/Motorcraft TPMS fob to try and activate the new sensor during the process. Regardless, at least now I know that I need to re-learn the new tire positions after rotating; I had assumed it was automatic like our other cars.