TPMS sensor replacement in the Buick.

I’ve had a squealing noise on cold mornings since I bought my 2008 Buick Lacrosse CXL last week, and it turned out to be a tensioner pulley.

While I was in the shop getting caught up on the oil change, engine and cabin air filters, and fluid flushes (transmission, coolant, brake), I got a new serpentine belt and tensioner pulley, and now the car is completely silent and drives like a dream, but the TPMS service light keeps coming on every once in a while, and the Chevy dealer that worked on it today told me it was going to cost $166 per TPMS sensor.

I knew it would be about $87 per sensor at the shop I normally go to, which is Car-X. I bought the car from a mechanic there, and I had planned to replace any low battery sensors there on Wednesday because I knew the TPMS sensor light was on when I bought the car.

However, I decided to shop around instead.

I ran into a Web site that says Pep Boys has a TPMS replacement service for $17 labor per sensor, so I called and asked how much per sensor, total, and they claimed that it’s $17 labor, but $250 total because the sensor is $233 because reasons I guess. Well, scratch that.

But then I ran into another article that said Discount Tire can do TPMS sensors cheap, and sure enough there’s one in the next town over, so I have an appointment tomorrow to go get them replaced for $63.75 each.

That’s quite a difference. I thought the Chevy or Buick dealers would be the most expensive for sure, but Pep Boys managed to outdo the dealer by about $84 per sensor.

How is this company even still in business? Last time I was in Pep Boys, it was to replace a defective car battery they sold me on the 2003 Chevy Impala which went dead after just 9 months, and the before COVID/After COVID difference was stunning.

Before COVID, they were a full service shop, but you could buy parts there too, and after COVID, the store outside the shop is empty of retail stuff and they just want to service your car, for twice what the dealer rates are! Again, HOW?

I think Pep Boys must be on the verge of bankruptcy and I can’t tell why anyone would go there anymore. I had an oil change coupon, and the guy comes out and wants to sell me a tie rod end on the Impala. Sure, it was busted, but they wanted $375 for a stinking tie rod end, so I declined.

It turned out that $75 of it was some idiotic “extended warranty”, but even if you decline that, $300 is twice what a tie rod end costs at Car-X, so I drove across the street and had it done for like $150 at Car-X.

Back to TPMS again for a minute. It become mandatory in 2008 in the US, but most cars had some form of it previously. In the 2003 Impala there are no sensors to go dead because it uses the wheel speed sensors to detect a low pressure situation.

Not very accurate because it can’t tell you if one particular tire is low or what the exact pressure is, but the one in the Buick runs on wireless (bluetooth) and communicates to the car computer that way, and they have sealed batteries that last 6-8 years and then die.

Apparently, the last owner of this car put new tires on but was in no hurry to put TPMS sensors in it because they planned to sell it in a few months and dump that on me.