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Good source for tire pressure sensor?

irish

irish

Registered Schmoozer
Anyone know a good source for a TPMS/RDC sensor? This is for a 2014 GS rear cross spoked wheel. I was about to order one from eBay last night before I realized that the one I was looking at was for the cast wheels only. Bob’s BMW has them for $222. Other sites have them cheaper but almost everywhere I look seems to be sold out. The best I could find was this one for $140 from Singapore but it has a several week long shipping window:

https://www.ebay.com/p/BMW-36318532731/2038245758

I’ve seen several posts were people have mentioned that they bought them for much cheaper than the dealer price but I’m not clear on where folks are finding these. I was hoping to have one in hand next week so I can install it before a trip on Sept 21.
 
I got mine off of ebay it takes about a month, they are knock offs but have preformed well to date. If you need them in a week I wouldn't trust anything outside a stocking BMW dealership.

Jay
 
I wonder whether there is anything proprietary about a BMW-sourced sensor that warrants the price, e.g. durability, firmware, materials quality, battery longevity, accuracy, etc. Sorta' like the keyless fob, the price for which has returned to around $250 after being briefly available for $100 less. I would be very surprised if either costs more than $50 to manufacture.
 
1957mpd said:
I wonder whether there is anything proprietary about a BMW-sourced sensor that warrants the price, e.g. durability, firmware, materials quality, battery longevity, accuracy, etc. Sorta' like the keyless fob, the price for which has returned to around $250 after being briefly available for $100 less. I would be very surprised if either costs more than $50 to manufacture.
Click to expand...

BMW tire pressure sensors are manufactured by Schrader, who also manufacture automotive sensors (I believe they may have been the first to do so in the automotive market). Schrader's automotive sensors go for under $40, but BMW apparently has an exclusive agreement for the motorcycle sensors. You can't get the Schrader sensors from anyone but BMW, so BMW can charge whatever they want. Time to move on to another brand of motorcycle.
 
That’s frustrating. Maybe anywhere that sells them less expensively quickly sells out but I don’t understand why some dealerships don’t have any.
 
From reading this thread and other sites, it sure does seem like somethings happening to cause a lot of tpms(s), or tire pressure monitors to go bad. I can't help but believe that something is happening in the tire removal-mounting process. It doesn't seem like the batteries should suddenly go bad so often at or near the tire replacement process.

Perhaps the reason BMW doesn't have an adiquate supply is because a new replacement is not yet available. And of course, the Fatherland will not say.

E.
 
Last edited:
Interesting that you mention that. I had a new rear Heidenau K60 spooned on at the national rally. No issues with TPMS while riding back to Madison, WI. The problem with the rear TPMS started a few rides after I got back. It certainly occurred to me that something could have happened while changing the tire, but it seems like if that were the problem it would have happened immediately. It will be interesting to inspect the rear RDC once I have it removed.
 
For those who think the cost of replacement sensors is way outa line, there is a utube video describing a DIY battery swap, I might be studying that closely in the future

Jim
 
I wonder if you could use Garmin TPM sensors and see the readouts in your GPS? You'd probably have to turn off the sensor reading in the bike too so you didn't have a warning light on.

Chris
 
easy said:
From reading this thread and other sites, it sure does seem like somethings happening to cause a lot of tpms(s), or tire pressure monitors to go bad. I can't help but believe that something is happening in the tire removal-mounting process. It doesn't seem like the batteries should suddenly go bad so often at or near the tire replacement process.

E.
Click to expand...

You may have read my post on this but if not this is exactly what happened to my '16 RT: upon taking delivery of the bike after two new Conti RoadAttack3 tires were installed by my local dealer's shop both the front and rear pressures failed to display. This NEVER happened with the 3 other tires (PR4GT & Angel GT) installed by the same shop which has a very small staff. I had the Conti's installed just prior to departing on a trip up into the Canadian Rockies. Pressures eventually displayed, as in after about 3-4 miles of riding, the front well before the rear. This pattern continued the entire trip of 3,300 miles. I had 3 or 4 events occur where the rear tire graphic turned red and the alert came on indicating low pressure, however there was no low pressure, just malfunction of the TPC system. It very slowly improved to the point pressures would start displaying in just a mile or two of riding and function normally. Previously, always pressures displayed w/in just a few seconds of riding. After returning home I parked the bike for about 1 week and upon my first ride, and ever since now which is nearly daily since early July when we got home, it's been completely back to normal both front and rear, lighting up quickly after exceeding the requisite >6mph. I was due for 36K service of plugs/valve check. They looked at fault codes and RF interference was detected. The dealer and their small tech staff who has done zillions of tire changes surmised the culprit was a combination of sensors w/ lots of miles on them w/, they conjecture, perhaps something in the RA3's tire carcass chemistry which lead to the interference. Over that long 3,300 mile of travel enough rubber wore off to allow for less RF-i. That the rear was always way worse than the front for dysfunction is compatible w/ this theory as there is much more rubber mass in the rear. As well, since the sensor batteries do no recharge on their own I have to think miles of use matters more than age of sensors, so even though the RTW was only 27 months off the assembly line it did have nearly 36K miles on it so perhaps the sensor batteries are on the edge of failure. Plausible theory, unfortunately since the system is back to working they won't replace the sensors under warranty, which for me ends in about 250 miles!

I am very thankful for TPC it's saved my bacon a few times, it's useful as well for monitoring slow and rapid leaks, so I'll be replacing them even at the retail cost. I look at it this way: if I get 36K out of them the cost per mile comes down to about $220 + $220 + $140 in labor or $580/36,000 = 1.6 cents/mile, which is worth it to me! As a comparator, fuel is about 7.3/mile, tires 5.6, oil/filters/other service totals another 6-7 cents/mile, and we haven't even considered depreciation etc, so it's all part of the cost of operation. There, how's that for a good rationalization for those overly priced sensors!
 
ncpbmw1953 said:
You may have read my post on this but if not this is exactly what happened to my '16 RT: upon taking delivery of the bike after two new Conti RoadAttack3 tires were installed by my local dealer's shop both the front and rear pressures failed to display. This NEVER happened with the 3 other tires (PR4GT & Angel GT) installed by the same shop which has a very small staff. I had the Conti's installed just prior to departing on a trip up into the Canadian Rockies. Pressures eventually displayed, as in after about 3-4 miles of riding, the front well before the rear. This pattern continued the entire trip of 3,300 miles. I had 3 or 4 events occur where the rear tire graphic turned red and the alert came on indicating low pressure, however there was no low pressure, just malfunction of the TPC system. It very slowly improved to the point pressures would start displaying in just a mile or two of riding and function normally. Previously, always pressures displayed w/in just a few seconds of riding. After returning home I parked the bike for about 1 week and upon my first ride, and ever since now which is nearly daily since early July when we got home, it's been completely back to normal both front and rear, lighting up quickly after exceeding the requisite >6mph. I was due for 36K service of plugs/valve check. They looked at fault codes and RF interference was detected. The dealer and their small tech staff who has done zillions of tire changes surmised the culprit was a combination of sensors w/ lots of miles on them w/, they conjecture, perhaps something in the RA3's tire carcass chemistry which lead to the interference. Over that long 3,300 mile of travel enough rubber wore off to allow for less RF-i. That the rear was always way worse than the front for dysfunction is compatible w/ this theory as there is much more rubber mass in the rear. As well, since the sensor batteries do no recharge on their own I have to think miles of use matters more than age of sensors, so even though the RTW was only 27 months off the assembly line it did have nearly 36K miles on it so perhaps the sensor batteries are on the edge of failure. Plausible theory, unfortunately since the system is back to working they won't replace the sensors under warranty, which for me ends in about 250 miles!

I am very thankful for TPC it's saved my bacon a few times, it's useful as well for monitoring slow and rapid leaks, so I'll be replacing them even at the retail cost. I look at it this way: if I get 36K out of them the cost per mile comes down to about $220 + $220 + $140 in labor or $580/36,000 = 1.6 cents/mile, which is worth it to me! As a comparator, fuel is about 7.3/mile, tires 5.6, oil/filters/other service totals another 6-7 cents/mile, and we haven't even considered depreciation etc, so it's all part of the cost of operation. There, how's that for a good rationalization for those overly priced sensors!
Click to expand...

I got my Conti Road Attack 3 GT tires mounted yesterday. The TPMS works fine. I had a reading on both tires before I left the driveway of the shop where I had them installed... its maybe 200 feet long.
 
Tpms

14 RT. (30000 miles) coming home from yellowstone last month i would get a flashing triangle and no rear tire pressure reading so i would stop and make sure tire was ok. after several days of this happening off and on i took it to shop. spoke with them before hand and they ordered new monitors to replace bad ones. went yesterday to have them changed and stored code was for interference which they said they have seen couple times, they've never replaced any monitors to date. they resynched and ride home was fine all working good! hopefully that was the cure!!! ride safe!!!
 
alegerlotz said:
I got my Conti Road Attack 3 GT tires mounted yesterday. The TPMS works fine. I had a reading on both tires before I left the driveway of the shop where I had them installed... its maybe 200 feet long.
Click to expand...

That's fabulous glad to hear it! How may miles on your '16 now? This explanation, enough rubber came off to allow the transmitters to resume sending signal to the RDC control unit after 3,300 miles of dysfunction is certainly a stretch. I just don't have a better explanation! Best wishes and looking forward to your report after a few hundred miles.
 
davagail said:
14 RT. (30000 miles) coming home from yellowstone last month i would get a flashing triangle and no rear tire pressure reading so i would stop and make sure tire was ok. after several days of this happening off and on i took it to shop. spoke with them before hand and they ordered new monitors to replace bad ones. went yesterday to have them changed and stored code was for interference which they said they have seen couple times, they've never replaced any monitors to date. they resynched and ride home was fine all working good! hopefully that was the cure!!! ride safe!!!
Click to expand...

Dave, this was an out of warranty repair or no? How much $$ if it was out of warranty?
 
ncpbmw1953 said:
That's fabulous glad to hear it! How may miles on your '16 now? This explanation, enough rubber came off to allow the transmitters to resume sending signal to the RDC control unit after 3,300 miles of dysfunction is certainly a stretch. I just don't have a better explanation! Best wishes and looking forward to your report after a few hundred miles.
Click to expand...

Its a 2016 (built in November 2015; in service January 2017) and has 10,200 miles on it now.

I have some family visiting, so it will be a few days until I can get out and get a better feeling for how these ride. I did feel the slower turn in on the ride home from the dealer, but I'm going to try the lower pressures (as recommended by BMW) to see how they wear.
 
alegerlotz said:
Its a 2016 (built in November 2015; in service January 2017) and has 10,200 miles on it now.

I have some family visiting, so it will be a few days until I can get out and get a better feeling for how these ride. I did feel the slower turn in on the ride home from the dealer, but I'm going to try the lower pressures (as recommended by BMW) to see how they wear.
Click to expand...

It took me a few miles to adapt after Angel GT, but since the initial slower turn-in they became just right and continue so now at about 5,800m. I think my sensors are just getting long in the tooth unfortunately. I'm almost at 36K mile now. They are a little different than all of the other tires I tried but they are clearly the best!
 
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