TIRE PRESSURE INDICATOR, BLANK.

[ACEd]

I called him my friend, but as it turns out he is just another **** from a club I go to. He bought new tires and wheels for his Ram, at Les Schwab, and they suggested he take the old sensors from the wheels, as a cost saving measure. I was curious when I was installing his original wheels and tires on my Ram, as the tire pressure was low on all 4 tires. So yeah, They opened up all 4 tires, took the sensors, and then closed them back up. And then he sold them to me, without mentioning that he took the sensors. Discount tire told me that they could install 4 sensors for 365$, (60 bucks per sensor, and 30 to install per tire). At this point, I am just going to go ahead and use the parts as is.

Sorry for your predicament but removing sensors and installing in new wheels is common practice for several reasons - in fact, I have never seen a set of takeoff wheels that included original sensors.
1. The Sensors are already mated to parent vehicle.
2. They may require reprogramming that requires vehicle specific tools (meaning you may have to go to get car dealer to reprogram if tire dealer does not have the most current or correct programming tool) - though this is a less common problem as they may be automatically recognized on more recent vehicles.
3. Cost - Sensors run from about $25 to $50 each so you save $100+ by reusing your original sensors.
4. Sensors may be vehicle specific so tire/wheel dealer is unlikely to have correct TPMS sensors in stock - yes there are generic sensors but they typically require you jump thru more hoops to make them work, they are frequently more expensive, and even they are not universal.
5. You dont mention specific truck models - but if for example you were switching 2021 wheels to a 2018 truck, the sensors are not the same - they apparently changed in 2020 for the Ram 1500 and 2019 for the Ram 2500. They also changed in 2015 for both 1500 and 2500 - probably when they changed to individual data for each tire rather than a Pass/Fail on all 4 without telling you which wheel.

Suggest you go to Rock Auto or Amazon if you have the correct P/N for your truck and buy 4 sensors. They will be cheaper than retail at tire dealers by about half in my experience.
As pointed out elsewhere, assuming they replaced with generic rubber valve stems, all you have to do is break top bead and pull out the rubber stem and insert new TPMS from bottom and screw on retaining nut - do not overtorque. If the tire wheel assembly was originally balanced with TPMS, you should not have to rebalance.

 

[HANSOME]

My idea with this Ram is to keep it running with all available devices and gadgets as long as I own it. And technically, it is still working, there is just nothing to read because there are no sensors.