Article: TPMS The End of the Beginning

[TPMBill]

You can view the page at http://www.thetpmsforum.com/content....-the-Beginning

[TPMBill]

Battery Life Issues
The last major problem with first-generation sensors is still somewhat on the horizon, but coming quickly: batteries.

Battery life for TPMS sensors is generally projected to be in the range of six to eight years at best, which means that with major sensor use starting in 2007, you can expect to start seeing substantial battery failures starting about now, with a major wave of failures coming in the next two to three years and continuing into the next decade. Unfortunately, the vast majority of sensors were designed as sealed units and it is impossible to simply replace a battery.

So, in essence, you will need to be ready to replace a whole lot of sensors in the coming years, and, in general, your customers are not going to like hearing that. However, having the proper tools and equipment in place to make the process as easy and economical as possible will go a long way not only toward easing that blow for your customers, but decreasing the head*ache for your shop.

• Possibly the most useful tool you will need for TPMS is a good sensor scan tool. Actually, if you’ve been dealing with TPMS at all over the past six years you probably already have one, but now may be a very good time to look at upgrading to the newest mod*el. Today’s scan tools not only perform the essential “test before touch” job to verify that sensors are working and perform sensor relearn and ODBC programming tasks, but also can print reports that will both show your customers what’s going on with their sensors and provide an audit trail, if necessary, to verify that you are following NHTSA regulations.

• It’s also best to have torque-protected hand tools designed to avoid over-torquing sensitive TPMS components like the nut and the rubber o-rings.

• Finally, of course, you will need to have a good stock of replacement sensors that fit your business and the needs of your customers. Keeping a smaller stock of programmable or multi-vehicle aftermarket sensors does seem to just make more business sense and will probably cost your customers quite a bit less than keeping hundreds of OE sensors to be able to cover every possibility, or having to search for just the right sensor when you need it.

So, in general, the second generation of TPMS seems to be maturing just in time for the first to step aside. It may even be that the automotive aftermarket really can manage to take a catastrophe and reduce it to a mere problem.

As Winston Churchill once said of the Allied invasion of North Africa, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Here’s to the next generation.