hmyles1

What' s up guys? I have been visiting this forum for several months, but I just became a registered member. I have gotten a lot of useful information from the members of this forum, and I hoping for some advice on a particular issue. I am the owner of a 2003 black/ecru SC430, and I recently purchased a set of custom wheels for my vehicle (Wald Duchatelet II's 19x8.5 front and 19x9.5 rear). Now I am having difficulty finding anyone to install the wheels, because no one knows what to do about the tire pressure sensing system. The service manager of the Lexus dealership even seemed baffled about what to do.

I know that many of the members of this club have gone to custom wheels and non runflat tires without problems. How do I make the conversion? Do you mount the sensors to the new wheels even though the new tires are not run flats? Or do you have someone disconnect the pressure sensing system all together? If the sensors are simply removed with the old wheels, does that cause the warning light to be constantly displayed? Will I then have to go to the Lexus dealer to have the warning light disabled? Please help!

DeniskaGS4

Take out the speedo and disable the warning light.. would be my only suggestion.. its a 20 min job.

hmyles1

Thanks for your response. I will have to ask you to please excuse my ignorance, but this is the first vehicle I have ever owned with run flats and pressure sensors. What exactly is the "speedo"? Is that the sensor itself? Or is it something else? Is removing the speedo a do-it-yourself project, or is it something that will require a trip to the dealership?

Letsride

When he says "spedo" he's referring to the Instrument cluster that houses the speedometer, tach etc.

Gojirra99

If it's custom order wheels that you bought for the SC430, then they should have no problem working with the tire pressure warning system. The sensors are located in the valve stem & are linked remotely to the detector in the car. My after market wheels aren't custom wheels(BBS) & they have no problems at all working with the tire pressure warning sytem, although one has to check with the manufacturer before purchasing. I'm surprise your Lexus dealer have no knowledge with the tire pressure system because my dealer assure me they will have no have no problem installing the sensors on new wheels. The place where I got my wheels from also have no problem installing the sensors & got them to work perfectly, all you have to do is check around for an experienced wheel shop that can do the job.

It's also my understanding that the warning light will not be in constant display if you choose to not install the sensors onto your new wheels,it just receive no signal. Ask dseag2 & I think he can confirm that for you.

DeniskaGS4

I ran into the same problem when I was running my 20" Lowenharts. They where not made to work with the sensor's (very few wheels are). I'm currently running winter wheels and winter tires that don't have the sensor's also. I'm not sure if the dealer would disable the warning lights but you can do it yourself, this I found on this forum. The spedo cluster is held by clips that can be unlocked with a flat head screw driver or another flat item. You will find some other screws that you will have to remove. You can place black masking tape over the light to cover it. Put everything back together and the light wont be there. I think might be able to remove the bulb but I'm not sure. Everything can be reversed.

stevelaw

Go to the second page of the FAQ for this forum. Gene posted instructions on how to disable the light and the beeping sensor

Doc C

The problem with a lot of custom wheels is that the hole for th valve stem will not accomodate the stem of the RF sensor. On my HRE 540Rs, which are not compatible, HRE removed the valvestem portion from the sensor and put regular valve stems on my non run-flat tires. Then they just banded the sensors to the wheels. They sensors work fine, no light flashing and no problem. Your wheel company should have the bands, if not call Peter at Wheel experts.com and he can probably get you some. It's easy to do yourself. I didn't do it, since I had my sensors off of my crappy L-sportline wheels. It's no a problem at all. If you don't use the sensors hang on to them. They are EXPENSIVE. About $164 each!!! Hope this helps.

Doc C

hmyles1

Thanks for all the helpful responses. My wheels are custom, but the valve stem will not accomodate the sensors. So, I am going to try Doc C's recommendation first. I did order my wheels through Peter at Wheel Experts, and he has been most helpful. I will contact him to see if he is able to get the straps needed to band the sensors to the wheels. If that works then I will not have to worry about disabling the system. If I can not get the straps, then I will try disconnecting the wire to disable the buzzer and removing gauge panel to mask the light as suggested.

dseag2

hmyles1, I had OZ Opera II wheels and non-runflat tires on my SC430. the OZ Operas weren't compatible with the tire sensors. I did a search in the forum under "tire pressure sensors", as Gene recommended, and found complete instructions on how to disconnect the beeper and cover the warning light. (Just go into the "Search" function, enter "tire pressure sensors", and ask for the "SC430 forum".) I printed out the instructions and took them to the Meineke dealer that installed the wheels/tires.

It was a simple matter of disconnecting a plug under the dash to the left of the driver and removing the instrument cluster and placing a piece of black electrical tape over the warning symbol so the light would no longer show through. They tried disconnecting the light first, but there was some reason it wouldn't work. Don't remember exactly.

One more thing... I'm assuming you're replacing the runflat tires and that you don't have a spare tire kit in the trunk. If that's the case, there is one definite advantage to not having the tire pressure sensors... you can use Fix-a-flat if you ever need to and you don't have to worry about it damaging the sensors. (Fix-a-flat shouldn't be used with tire pressure sensors.) Since I didn't have a spare tire kit, I used it once for a huge leak in one of my tires and it really worked. Held the air pressure overnight until I could get the tire replaced.

Good luck with your project, and BTW... the Walds should look great!

DSeag2

dingo

I just had some HRE's put on with the original run flats and now the pressure sensor light is on. Do you have to put the same sensor on the same corner from which it came?

If not then I guess It's either a screwed up sensor or maybe it just needs to be reset??

Doc C

dingo,

I'd try to get it reset first. Or, you could have low pressure in one of your tires. They are quite sensitive and the light comes on with no buzzer first. The buzzer comes on when pressure drops below a certain point. I know you have to have one of each different color sensor, but I don't think they are specific to location. Hope this helps.

Doc C

dingo

You like this one:

I went into my garage to store the old OEM wheels and while rummaging around I found 4 bands in amongst the old lug nuts. Hmmm? Had HRE sent 8 bands with 4 of them as spares? That was really nice of them! Hmmm... but maybe they didn't.... !!

Long story short - the guy (a native of a foreign, Spanish speaking country) that installed the new tires (at a local tire shop - the Lex dealer is an hour away) couldn't find the sensors and didn't bother to tell anyone and just mounted the tires to the new wheels without them. Yep - the sensors are still in the old wheels! What a mess! I had a call in to the Lex dealer to arrange for me to drive over and have them reset the sensors. That would have been the icing on the cake: Trying to reset sensors that aren't even there!

I managed to get the dinger disconnected and a piece of tape over the light so that my wife can drive it until I can get it back over to the tire place and have them re-do it!

Sheesh! Plus the Lex service manager never even called me back.

Been a great couple of days!

Wheel Experts

hey guys,

I see a lot of our customers in this thread

Herbert - did you get the lug nuts?

Dale - Hope everything goes well with the installation. Time to find a new tire shop

Chris - How is everything?

dingo

hey peter!

no kidding! where I live its a no win situation with shops / dealers. just gotta hang in and not give in to them.