Originally Posted by
Mark
You can read any sensor brand, but you are at the mercy of Autel's pricing of their clone-able sensors & quality of them. (how good are they/how long will they last).
As far as pricing goes, they seem about average to me. 4 sensors cost me about $120 with free shipping. 4 Duralast sensors that aren't made to be cloned are $130 @ my local Auto Zone. A tire place like Discount Tire lists all their sensors as being $60/sensor (probably a 100% mark up).
I can get 4 sensors for my Subaru for $70 @ eBay, but they can't be cloned. If I don't have a tool to reprogram my vehicle, they are useless. Plus, every time I change my two sets of wheels, I would have to reprogram my vehicle again. Yuck!
I switch 16 wheels on my Forester/Mirage recently. Pull 8 tires off and put 8 tires (with new Autel sensors) back on. Both vehicle's TPMS never knew the tires had been changed.
I can read the sensors on my vehicle and clone 4 new ones in less than 10 minutes. It's so simple. I don't have to do anything else to keep my TPMS working.
Plus, a relatively cheap ($120) programming tool comes with free lifetime updates. I will most likely be able to take care of all the vehicles I own in the future, too. I have never owned a vehicle that didn't have extra wheels, because I need good traction to get home. I use newer tires in the winter & use up older ones in the summer.
If my local shops would just clone sensors, I would not have gone that route. I wasn't finding that to be the case. If I decide to switch tires around (say I want to use up a pair of snow tires on the rear of my Mirage), I can reprogram the Autel sensors to any of the four codes programmed on my Mirage's TPMS to keep the system working.
I know you can buy cheaper sensors, but those that can't be cloned are useless to me. I have zero interest in reprogramming both vehicles every time I switch tires in the spring & fall. Plus, I don't have a tool that does that & many of those type of tools also require expensive updates. Some are saying a Mirage requires two tools to reprogram it. No thanks to all that!
Since other companies are making clone-able sensors, my hope is that Autel will stay competitive with their pricing. Compared to other well known brands, they seem competitive to me. Plus, free lifetime updates is nice for someone who doesn't work on tires for a living.
Life would be better without TPMS. I wanted something that allows me change wheels & just keep the system working with as little effort as possible.
I get it. If we carried autel sensors my life would be made simpler. I can get some from amazon for just under $40 if I buy a set of 4. The standard pre programmed sensors are close to $60 and the qwik sensors are under $30. I might try to convince them to just spend the extra $80 and get 8 autel senors so I don't have to buy a $250 tpms tool. Though it would be nice to have the ability to program the universal qwick sensors.
Stupid tpms. Though it's handy when you do have a flat. It would have saved me a tire. I don't do a daily pre trip walk around of my personal vehicles so never noticed that stupid flat tire til I hit the freeway lol.
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View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)