[Bullitt08]

We occasionally take trips up to the mountains and are far from tires shops when there so I would like to add a full size spare to be safe. I currently have an extra wheel but before I buy a tire for it I am wondering about the TPMS sensor. Since I will only bring the wheel with me when we are on long trips away from home should the spare have a TPMS in it? Will the system throw errors if the car recognizes that I have 5 TPMS in the car? Or would it be best to run it without the sensor? I would most likely fix the flat tire if its repairable and put it back on the car so as to keep all 4 tires with the same miles on them. I wouldn't want to keep the spare on permanently even though it is full size since it will have alot more tread on it than what's on the car. But then on the other hand I would think it would be nice to know if the pressure is low on the spare when driving but like I said not sure if it will freak out the system?

Thanks

 

[RickMachE]

TPMS activates by the rotation of the wheel. You can't read the pressure on the spare.

Also - since you mentioned knowing the pressure on the spare, TPMS is designed for low pressure warnings, so you don't have a blowout. It is not a tire pressure gauge, nor does it replace regular checks of your tires with a tire pressure gauge.

There is no reason to have TPMS in a spare tire that is TEMPORARY, which is your plan.

 

[Bullitt08]

Ok thanks. Just wasn't sure how to proceed since my dad's Avalon came from the factory with a full size spare. We didn't know it had a TPMS in it until one day the car said low tire pressure and all 4 tires were ok then we found out from the dealer that the spare had a TPMS in it. We filled it up and the warning went away thus why I wondered if i should be putting one in mine.