Hi., Jerry from South Florida in winter and NJ in summer. Just bought a 2003 50th Anniversary Edition vert, 49,000 mi and in beautiful condition. Hope to meet many members in both locations.
I'm going to be buying new tires soon, ( Goodyear run flats are 13 years old, only have 11,000 miles on them, but are unsafe and horribly noisy.) I'm considering eliminating the TPMS . Does anyone know local S Florida east coast dealers or members with a Tech Two scanner willing to do the removal? I do have a request in with the dealer I bought the car from. No word yet.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

Jerry, I think the TPMS is great to have regardless of whether or not you're running runflats, but anyway... If you do end up going to a dealer, unless they have specific experience with this, make sure you print out the steps you take with the Tech II to change the setup. I remember when I was turning on the TPMS in my Z I asked the dealer to do it. He had no idea this was possible, was skeptical and a bit leery, but I walked him through the procedure and it took all of 2-3 minutes. Good luck and welcome to the fold.

 

Curious your reasoning for wanting it removed. Can’t tell you how many times it alerted me to a nail with a slow leak in psi that I would probably have never even known about otherwise.

 

I'm used to checking my tire pressures frequently. Been doing it for the last 60 years and it only takes a minute. Also, I've always had a compressor and tire plug kit in my garage for repair and refill.
That being said, I agree with with you completely on the usefulness of the system and may just install four new sensors when I replace the tires.

 

How did we ever get by without TPMS? Oh, that's right we used an air pressure gauge!!

 

Here's my TPMS twist. The previous owner of my car did not put the sensors back in when he changed the tires. My guess is that on my '99 they were all bad and probably expensive. I'm OK with not having them. My questions is this... How do I get the idiot message on the dash to go away upon ignition start up? I can push the bottom 'reset' button on the right dash controls and it will go away and allow the odometer to display. That gets to be a pain every time I drive the car...

 

And we also carried a spare. With out a spare the TPMS is your best friend. Especially if you went away from run flats.

 

I mean, yeah, we didn’t have cell phones either, but that doesn’t mean I’m throwing mine out for the rotary.

 

On the 97-00 models you cannot turn off the TPMS, only the 01-04. They changed the firmware beginning with the Z06 and the only other way would be to get a 0411 PCM, rewire to 01+ specs and then upload the 01-04 operating system. Much easier to push the reset button, after many engine starts it becomes second nature.

 

One of my sensors was bad when I got my 01 this past April. This meant clearing the message every time I started the car. About a month later I ended up getting a new battery. After I installed the battery the message no longer shows up. When I check the TPMS on the dash it just shows "-" for all four wheels. I'm aware of the programming procedure with the magnet but until I get that one sensor replaced I'm leaving it... no more warning!

I just picked up a set of C6 wheels and now I'm contemplating not even installing the TPMS sensors (I would buy all four new). As mentioned - we all got by for most of our lives w/o this feature... I just figure it's one less thing to deal with. Call me crazy......

 

My C5 is a 99 and had working factory sensors. They were all replaced when I put new tires on about 3 weeks ago. There are a lot of cars on the market these days with air pressure sensors. The after market sensors are not that expensive so I like having them.
I like the Michelin runflats too. I've had two flats on the runflats since I've owned this car and was able to make it home both times.
I just don't see myself fixing or plugging a tire on the side of the road or waiting for a service call. It may still come to that if I'm in a real fix some day.

 

Your dealer may not be willing to delete the sensor programming from the car, but will be interesting to hear what they say.

You can do what you feel best, but I had a peace of mind with the TPS in place and working on my C5s.

 

I would think it would be hard to find a dealer who would remove any safety system, but it is a wild world out there.

I would think the legal exposure in a fatal accident would be considerable, even if tire pressure was not directly involved, because money is always in play with deep pockets. I always remember the famous actor who said his favorite time is always five o'clock on friday, because that was when all the lawyers knocked off work, and he knew he would not get sued again until at least Monday.

My used car came without the tire sensors working, and I plan on restoring function when I get new tires.

Unlike the old inner tube days, where flat fixing was a needed skill for any driver, tires are now so durable and trustworthy they are often ignored, and with many tires, exhibit no visible signs when pressure goes slightly low.

Yeah, I lived without TPMS for most of my life, but it does provide a useful function, and it checks pressure at every start up, not once in a while , or before a long trip, which is my usual habit. So, if I am honest, it is a safety upgrade in my case. Plus I like everything to work on the cars I own. Also, I don't like explaining why I am turning off an automatic safety warning , as has happened with one passenger.

I also expect my new tires will have a nitrogen fill, so planning ahead for a pressure touch up will make the sensors very handy. With an air fill, if I loose a little pressure when attaching or removing the gauge, I can restore the air easily to the desired pressure. with a nitrogen fill, messing with the pressure is a don't do this at home deal.

 

I do agree with your comments and rationale. I will be installing new TPMS sensors when I purchase the new tires.

 

It has to be possible though as the Z06 does not have them. Just saying, same generation Corvette - has to be the same computer with a different configuration and TPMS turned off...