I have a GMC Yukon XL 2500 with the tpms tire monitoring system. I now must buy new tires. Is any regular tire repair and sales center capable of removing and replacing the tire valve stems, which look like they are specially designed, or must I go to a GM dealer or tell the repair people not to touch the valve stems? In any case the stems apparently must be placed back in the same positions or recalibrated. I feel most tire dealers might not be familiar with this setup.
I have yet to go to a oil and change dealer and have him know how to recalibrate the oil life computer.
When TPMS systems first came out, this was an issue, but it’s not any more. Any decent tire shop should have no problem doing this correctly.
By the way, I hope you’re not referring to a quick-lube place when you say “oil and change dealer”. This message board is full of horror stories about damage done at those places.
Thank you for the advice. I am on the road with my travel trailer and am anticipating needing new tires before I get home. When I find a tire dealer I will quiz him on how he intends to treat these valve stems and how he intends to re-calibrate the tires.
When I referred to quick lube oil change dealers I had no intention of using one of those for the tire change. As I said I occasionally use Walmart while on the road for an oil change and have yet had one of them able to reset the oil change period on the vehicle computer.
Thanks again,
Joe
By now, tire people should be up to speed with being careful to not destroy your tpms senders. It would be prudent, however, to make sure that they know that your vehicle has the senders as they cost around a hundred bucks per each.
I partially opened up one of my tires with tire irons to install a mushroom plug and had no problem with the sender. Whoever removes the tire must be careful to break the bead away from the sender; probably 180 degrees away might be best. A way to remove the tire without ruining the sender that worked for me is to begin by using the drop center portion of the rim about 180 degrees away from the sender and then pry the bead over the rim next to the sender taking care to not touch the sender with the tire iron. The same should apply with professional tire removal equipment
If your Yukon is of a recent vintage, the procedure for matching the senders to agree with the dash readout and the oil life computer reset procedure are in your owner’s manual.