997.1 TPMS Sensor solution

[EleCTriCT]

It's seems that these vehicles are reaching the age where the TPMS sensors are dying now so we are seeing more and more these days.

Even with piwis access and the latest Bartech TPMS tool these sensors can be a royal pain.

We recently discovered an aftermarket brand of sensors that are half the price of OEM and so far work great! They are Aligator sensors available at our local tire distributor. - This is after trying various aftermarket sensors that should just work... but don't.

Please note I have only used them so far on 997.1's so reliability and longevity as well as function for other models is an unknown at this point.

Anyhow the brand is "alligator" and it is a straight and simple replacement no programming necessary. Just reset on the dash test drive and away you go. These even seem to communicate without having to deflate the tire to have a scanner such as the Bartech to read them unlike OEM the beru ones.

Hope this info helps some of those looking for options whether you are DIY or and Indy shop.

Cheers

Edited October 2, 2013 by EleCTriCT

[0356kid]

I just had my factory sensor on the front left go bad. I stopped by my local independent shop and sure enough it was bad with the other three registering very little life as well. Was looking in to the replacements when the shop owner said "I think they are covered under warranty" (which I didn't even consider). Contacted my local Porsche dealer and they put 4 new ones on under my CPO. For any with a CPO and TPMS issue/s call your local dealer first. I was surprised.....

[Mijostyn]

1/2 price? How's about 1/4 price. The sensors fail usually somewhere between 6 and 7 years as their batteries run out. My car is an 06 and I just replaced mine with a tire change while the wheels were naked. These are from OE Wheels, are made in China, and as far as I can tell work great. $134 including valve stems! 0356kid turned us on to them. It is important to change all 4 at once using the same brand as slight variations in manufacture and maybe battery strength will give you slightly different readings which drives me nuts. One of mine went bad and the dealer replaced it under warranty. It always read 3 psi off from the other side even though they measured exactly the same with a manual gauge. With the 4 new ones I get equal readings exactly 2 psi lower than my manual gauge.

You can certainly wait till they go bad and have your dealer swap them out free but for $134 you might save the headache and swap them out while you have the tires off. The FCC controls these devices so, it is unlikely that there are significant variations in performance and durability between brands. In EleCTriCT's pics you can see the FCC license code.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Mijostyn