TPMS dilemma. 2012 Civic

452 Views 35 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Teeps, 1 d ago

Peabody

Discussion Starter · 13 d ago

I bought my 2012 Civic in June, 2011, so next month it will be 12 years old. But at just under 40K miles, it still has the original tires and TPMS sensors. I'm getting new tires, but it turns out that the big decision is what to do about the TPMS sensors. The originals still work fine, but at 12 years I think I must already be pressing my luck on battery life, and it seems now is the time to replace them when the tires are replaced.

But I've checked at Discount Tires, and the sensor they use is some Schrader part, and reveiws for it on Amazon indicate a big problem with battery life. I haven't checked, but assume other tire stores will use similar after-market parts. I'm tempted to resort to genuine Honda sensors. I can get supposedly genuine sensors from HondaPartsOnline for $35 each plus shipping, or get them from my dealer for $53. The only reason I would do this is to give myself the best chance of extended battery life. I want them to last for another 12 years.

Can anyone share their experience with battery life on after-market sensors? Is my concern unwarranted? Would a tire store likely be willing to install genuine Honda sensors, or install mine if I buy them myself, as part of the tire installation? And then of course there's the question of getting my car's computer to recognize the new sensors. A local shop I use will do that for $60 for the set - provided they are Honda sensors. The dealer I suspect would want twice as much.

These active TPMS sensors were a really bad idea.

Anyway, any wisdom on this subject would be appreciated.

Edit: Can anyone confirm that the Honda sensors go into low-power mode unless the car is moving? That might explain why mine have lasted so long. Is that also true for after-market sensors?

21 - 36 of 36 Posts

Teeps

· #21 · 5 d ago

I asked a source about the production date of the sensor in the photo, 0833T
He said 83rd day of 2013!
If that is correct that sensor is already 10 years old. Which makes me wonder about the shelf life of the battery in it.

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #22 · 5 d ago (Edited)

If that's right, then I've made a mistake. But is it possible it's 2023 instead of 2013?

Edit: The plastic bag containing the sensor has the Honda part number, and these three lines:

VC003261
CP CRN L
JD 23102

So I don't know what to think.

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #23 · 4 d ago

More information. I found this video on TPMS date codes:

The indicator on the back of my sensors is a bit different, but looks like this:

The dial at the bottom indicates March, 2022. I don't know what the other dial is.

Perhaps the shell and the circuit were made in 2013, but the final part, with battery, wasn't put together until 2022, then packaged in the plastic bag in 2023.

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Teeps

· #24 · 4 d ago

Peabody said:
If that's right, then I've made a mistake. But is it possible it's 2023 instead of 2013?

Edit: The plastic bag containing the sensor has the Honda part number, and these three lines:

VC003261
CP CRN L
JD 23102

So I don't know what to think.

Could be 2023
The guy I contacted asked about the numbers on the packaging.
I will show him the numbers above.
As it is, his latest message he said could be 2023 too...

Stand by.

Teeps

· #25 · 4 d ago

Teeps said:
Could be 2023
The guy I contacted asked about the numbers on the packaging.
I will show him the numbers above.
As it is, his latest message he said could be 2023 too...

Stand by.

I probably should not have put in my 2 cents on the subject. Since all my direct AHM contacts have retired.
I contacted the AHM Folks group on FB for the info...
Sorry if I caused you any additional grief or anxiety.

Teeps

· #26 · 4 d ago

Good news, the guy said the number on the package JD said:
"then that would mean the 3 on the TPMS Sensor date code would be 2023. Package JD = 102nd day of 2023"

Again sorry to have caused a problem...
Have a great weekend!

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #27 · 4 d ago

Please don't be sorry. Given that Honda switched to indirect pressure monitoring in 2015, and would have had no need for direct sensors after that, other than as replacement parts, the question of battery age on Honda parts was always the big unknown. And I'm still not sure we know the answer. I was depending on Honda not selling me sensors with dead batteries, but you just don't know for sure.

I think the outer shell shown in the first photo may well have been made in 2013, along with the electronics, and assignment of the sensor ID, which is printed on the shell. But it would make sense for Honda to do final assembly, with a new battery, a batch at a time over the years to make sure the batteries are always reasonably fresh. That might explain the 3/22 circular date indicator on the back. Or 3/22 could be the date the back was manufactured. If that's the case, then the battery could be only a couple months old per the Julian date on the packaging.

Well, I don't know if there's any way to pin this down. We would have to contact the product manager for TPMS sensors in the Honda parts division, if such a person exists, and I don't know how you would do that.

By the way, I was able to read out the ID numbers of the original sensors using my neighbor's Innova 5610 OBD2 scanner. They all start with hex 8D, whereas the new sensor IDs start with 6E or 6F. I don't know if that means anything. Also, the scan tool only reports that the old batteries are still good, not what their voltage is. I don't know if that's a limitation of the scanner, or that Honda's computer isn't programmed to report the specific voltage. But I suspect the sensor itself does transmit that, so maybe a TPMS tool that directly reads the sensor output would show it. There are no test points on the sensor that would allow direct reading of the battery voltage.

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Teeps

· #28 · 4 d ago

Before I retired I could walk across the room and ask such questions of the tpms engineer... now not so much.
I too wonder about the battery life in the sensors.
My '12 will start the 14th year of service next month, only 52k miles on it.
I plan on driving the car until the first sensor dies or it gets sold or traded on a replacement.

RedRocket

· #29 · 4 d ago

Peabody said:
Also, the scan tool only reports that the old batteries are still good, not what their voltage is. I don't know if that's a limitation of the scanner, or that Honda's computer isn't programmed to report the specific voltage. But I suspect the sensor itself does transmit that, so maybe a TPMS tool that directly reads the sensor output would show it. There are no test points on the sensor that would allow direct reading of the battery voltage.

I just checked with my ATEQ VT31 wireless sensor reader, and it just says Batt: OK. So I'm guessing it doesn't get any more specific than that in terms of battery voltage.

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #30 · 4 d ago

Teeps said:
Before I retired I could walk across the room and ask such questions of the tpms engineer... now not so much.
I too wonder about the battery life in the sensors.
My '12 will start the 14th year of service next month, only 52k miles on it.
I plan on driving the car until the first sensor dies or it gets sold or traded on a replacement.

Are you still on the original tires?

You need to sell or trade just before the first sensor dies.

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #31 · 4 d ago

RedRocket said:
I just checked with my ATEQ VT31 wireless sensor reader, and it just says Batt: OK. So I'm guessing it doesn't get any more specific than that in terms of battery voltage.

Even if it told you the current voltage, you still don't know at what voltage it no longer works. I mean, if it's still over 3V, you're certainly safe, but if it's 2.7V you just don't know.

Teeps

· #32 · 3 d ago

Peabody said:
Are you still on the original tires?

You need to sell or trade just before the first sensor dies.

No, tires were replaced in June of 2018 @ 35K miles due to puncture, weather checking and tread wear.
If not for the puncture, I could have driven on them for another year. Couldn't convince anyone to make the repair.

That would be the trick to off the car before.

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #33 · 2 d ago

Teeps said:
No, tires were replaced in June of 2018 @ 35K miles due to puncture, weather checking and tread wear.
If not for the puncture, I could have driven on them for another year. Couldn't convince anyone to make the repair.

That's exactly the situation I'm in. I have about 37K on the original tires, but developed a slow leak. The tire shop says it's too close to the edge, and their lawyer won't let them repair it. They showed me where it is, and I kinda agree that it's borderline. However, to complicate matters a bit, now that I've bought the TPMS sensors, the tire has stopped leaking. WTF.

Anyway, I don't want to go through another winter with these tires, so I'm going to change them, leak or no leak. I have tentatively settled on the Hankook Kinergy ST H735.

Teeps

· #34 · 1 d ago

I went with Michelin Premier tires. I wanted something quieter than the OEM tires.
However the Civic is so inherently noisy; I can't be sure how or if the Mich tires are in fact quieter.
The one thing I did notice was a 2~3 MPG loss in town driving, (which is 98%.)
Highway mileage, as presented in the iMid display, is about the same.
So be prepared for a slight drop in MPG.

Peabody

Discussion Starter · #35 · 1 d ago

The Michelin Premier A/S is $154, versus $97 for the Hankook. I just have trouble justifying the higher cost for 3300 miles a year of city driving.

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Teeps

· #36 · 1 d ago

Peabody said:
The Michelin Premier A/S is $154, versus $97 for the Hankook. I just have trouble justifying the higher cost for 3300 miles a year of city driving.

$97 that's a deal for what I gather is supposed to be a top 10 tire in the grand scheme of things.

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