I'm going to change tires on my 2000 C5 soon and was wondering about the TPMS. All four have worked perfectly since I've had the car (Dec of 2018)

• Are new TPMS units required?
• Do the old ones have batteries that I could replace?
• Will I need a magnet to re-program if new wheel locations are used?

Thanks very much,
RPGR90s

 

Answers are…no, they have batteries but labor intensive to replace, just tell the tire tech to put the old ones in the same tire location !!

 

If the tpms are 22 years old like the car i would replace them. Didn't replace the tpms in my 2010 Mailbu and one died a week later. Schrader 20117 is the tpms I used. I big magnet out of old speaker worked for me.

 

I highly doubt the sensors in the OP's setup are original if they're still working 22 years later.

RPGR90s my advice to you is to be there when they pull the used tires off and see what kind of sensors are installed. Educate yourself ahead of time on what these look like. If the sensors have been replaced with modern reprogrammable pieces, I would strongly recommend replacing them because the batteries that are used in the newer units aren't nearly as robust as the OE sensors. The trade-off is that if you buy new sensors for a reasonable price, it's economically wise to replace them about every 6-7 years, which is roughly the tire's lifespan.

If it appears you have OE sensors that have possibly had the original batteries replaced, I would probably recommend replacing them as well since you don't know their history.

I'm currently doing the same thing with my 2001 and am presently waiting for the sensors to arrive. Luckily I have a friend who runs a shop and is willing to let me micro-manage the process so I can get things done without paying an arm and two legs in markup.

This whole industry (TPMS) is a racket. There's scarce to no info out there for consumers to educate themselves with. Only after reading a couple different research documents was I able to deduce that the sensors GM used from 2001-2004 in the C5 need to transmit on 315mhz and use ASK signal modulation. After 2004 I think they switched to the more robust FSK modulation technology.

Most reputable tire shops will have some kind of universal sensor they'll sell you that can be programmed to work on any of the three frequencies and either of the two signal modulations. The better of these universal sensors will have external contacts so when programmed they draw power from the programming device instead of the sensor's internal battery, because writing the eeprom in the sensor can consume a significant portion of said battery's capacity. Just be prepared to pay dearly for this convenience ($100 per sensor is not uncommon). Most of these universal / reprogrammable sensors can be triggered by the standard 120khz tool instead of needing to use a magnet. Though a magnet may also work equally well.