tpms compatibility?

[CTScott]

I now have three sets of wheels - OEM steelies, Mini Cooper 5 spoke, and Toyota TTE Pittlane. I personally left my TPWS sensors on the steelies (which I will probably never use again). The sensors would work on the Mini wheels, but not on the Pittlanes.

You can definitely grab a set of 08 sensors and use them. Any decent tire shop (and of course the dealerships) can do the reprogramming when you switch between tires. My local dealership charges $90 to do the reprogramming, but I would bet that tire shops charge way less.

The primary purpose of the system is not safety, but rather environmental. I heard a statistic at an RFID conference that if every car in the world was running at proper inflation (rather than some percentage being low) CO2 emissions would be reduced by (if memory serves me correct) 50 million tons per year.

I have been doing some reverse engineering on the TPWS ECU, and have a solution (not yet implemented) to the multiple sets of wheels, choosing to run at higher pressure, using different sized rims, etc. issues.

I believe that I can intercept the data between the sensors and the module and relay massaged data. By doing this I can have my module memorize multiple sets of sensors and allow calibration of the data from those sensors (i.e. adjust for running at higher pressure, etc.) The data that my module would pass, would be repackaged with the ID of the original sensors and with the pressure normalized to what the OEM system was calibrated to.

This would also allow for a more realtime display of the tire data (either a simple display with 4 bicolor LEDs, or a more elaborate LCD display showing pressure and temp for each of the 4 tires.