Hi, I'm new here, we just bought a 2010 Corolla (pretty sure it's the lowest trim level). It replaced my 2001 Lexus - so I'm getting used to not having a lot of things I used to have in a car! 
The main reason we bought it was that it's a genuine "little old lady" car with 25K miles (my Lexus had 260K, it was time)! The Corolla has a few small dings and scratches you'd expect to find from being driven by someone with poor eyesight and depth perception, otherwise it drives nicely and you can eat off the engine. Garaged it's entire life and all scheduled maintenance religiously done (however much there was in 25K of driving, anyway).
Our first issue popped up quickly - we had to replace a tire that developed a small leak, and the tire place said all four TPMS sensors need replacing, as none of them are seen. I've done some googling and see that the batteries go after 8-10 years so I'm not shocked at this, but right now is a bad time to spend what they asked for - about $70 per sensor. I figure I can do what I've done my entire driving life: manually check my tire pressure occasionally (or when I sense an issue with handling & steering, of course).
It's possible we'll be getting snow tires this winter, so I was thinking about getting aftermarket sensors and having them installed when the tires are switched. I found this brand on Amazon for $24, just one review though. The Densos are on sale for $11 more each; as I understand, they are the OEM manufacturer for a lot of Toyota parts, is that right? Maybe I should go with them. What jumped out was the $24 model's claim of not having to be programmed - just drop them in and go. And what exactly do they mean by "[OE Validated]: Direct-Fit OE replacement sensor, easy installation as OE." "OE Validated" sounds like a marketing buzzword.
I'm not sure a tire shop would install customer-supplied parts, but if there's a way to avoid spending ~$300 to get this done I would sure appreciate knowing how! Does anyone here just ignore the warning light and check tire pressure manually? TIA for any tips!
The main reason we bought it was that it's a genuine "little old lady" car with 25K miles (my Lexus had 260K, it was time)! The Corolla has a few small dings and scratches you'd expect to find from being driven by someone with poor eyesight and depth perception, otherwise it drives nicely and you can eat off the engine. Garaged it's entire life and all scheduled maintenance religiously done (however much there was in 25K of driving, anyway).
Our first issue popped up quickly - we had to replace a tire that developed a small leak, and the tire place said all four TPMS sensors need replacing, as none of them are seen. I've done some googling and see that the batteries go after 8-10 years so I'm not shocked at this, but right now is a bad time to spend what they asked for - about $70 per sensor. I figure I can do what I've done my entire driving life: manually check my tire pressure occasionally (or when I sense an issue with handling & steering, of course).
It's possible we'll be getting snow tires this winter, so I was thinking about getting aftermarket sensors and having them installed when the tires are switched. I found this brand on Amazon for $24, just one review though. The Densos are on sale for $11 more each; as I understand, they are the OEM manufacturer for a lot of Toyota parts, is that right? Maybe I should go with them. What jumped out was the $24 model's claim of not having to be programmed - just drop them in and go. And what exactly do they mean by "[OE Validated]: Direct-Fit OE replacement sensor, easy installation as OE." "OE Validated" sounds like a marketing buzzword.
I'm not sure a tire shop would install customer-supplied parts, but if there's a way to avoid spending ~$300 to get this done I would sure appreciate knowing how! Does anyone here just ignore the warning light and check tire pressure manually? TIA for any tips!