Right around $200 --
http://www.tpmsoutlet.com/osc-8204.aspx
Your points are well taken. To me it's not an annoyance of a light on the dash that warrants me to do this, but the safety value in it.
You'll obviously know if you have a tire blow out, but a slow leak is harder to detect e.g. nail in tire. I check my tire pressure almost every time when I drive via the screen, there is no chance I would check it manually that frequently.
Nitrogen cost $$ (anywhere from $5-$25/tire) and air is still free at some gas stations, if not, $.50 or so.
Swapping sensors just puts unnecessary wear on a tire and wheel so that wasn't an option for me.
In your scenario based on your priorities, nitrogen sounds like the best bet.
Yeah there is a minor safety risk by not having sensors, so it's whether you're willing to accept that additional risk or not. For me (at least for the short term), it's an extra risk I am willing to take. Swapping sensors isn't very feasible either really, which means that your only options are to skip sensors all together or pay $200 for extra ones. While it's not a huge cost, since I'll already be paying $3k on rims and tires, not to mention all the other things I need to pay for this summer, an extra $200 right now just insn't in the cards. Down the road in a couple years maybe, but just not right now.
I think it depends on where you're from as to what cost nitrogen is. My dealer puts nitrogen in all my tires and never charges me anything. Plus, since it is so mainstream now, many tire service places have the equipment as well. So there may be some cost depending on where you live and who does it.
But I can personally vouch for the difference. With regular air, my pressure was always fluctuating, especially when the temperature changed from cold to hot, etc. Pressure would always inevitably get low, and you'd have to top them off. Another factor to this is whether the station where you get air at filters out all the moisture from the compressed air. Since having nitrogen however, I can go all year without having to adjust my tire pressure, as I don't see the pressure drop and require me to top it off. Unless you have tire damage from a nail or puncture, the pressure stays very constant and doesn't fluctuate like it does with compressed air.
---------- Post added at 05:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:16 PM ----------
Bobby, I think the same way as you. I drove for over 30 years with no tire pressure sensors with no problem and see no reason to waste my extra dollar for my summer rims.
An extra cost you forgot was reprogramming the sensors each spring and fall. My Dealer charges $45 each time, so add that onto your $200 for another set of sensors
Very good point about the extra cost for getting them reprogrammed also. Like you, I also drove for about 20 years with no major problems (i.e. no flat tires, although I've had a few punctures before). The one big risk I do see isn't necessarily from a safety standpoint, but from a rim damage standpoint. If you are running low profile tires with big wheels, you have less room for error. So low tire pressure can lead to damaging your wheels when you hit a bump, pothole, etc. In this case, $200 would be way less then it would cost me to replace a $500 wheel if it gets damaged.
This is the main reason (at least to me) where it would possibly warrant the sensors, if nothing else to protect your investment (my aftermarkets will cost be almost $2k just for the wheels).
