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Foust · 07-18-2018, 10:41 PM

Time for a progress report. The short story is that the internal TPMS and valve stems I purchased from TST did not fit on 2012 Sprinter steel wheels. I had a short time to test them and the pressure and temperature monitoring and display console worked great. Now I am waiting for the correct parts.

Here is the long story. Anyone wanting an internal TPMS for a 2012 or later Sprinter might want to read this.

I chose the Truck Systems Technologies (TST) 507 internal TPMS for my dually Sprinter. As explained in an earlier post, an internal system is best because it reads accurate temperatures, is not easily damaged, cannot be stolen, and with new valve stems it is easy to add air. I told TST I had a 2012 dually 3500 Sprinter and needed 2-inch valve stems. I installed in a couple of hours the receiver and repeater myself at home before leaving on a 2-month trip to Florida. Weather was bad in Indiana so I waited and found a truck tire place, Neece Tire and Auto Service, in Tallahassee, which listed TPMS on their web site. We were not expecting any problems so we waited patiently for 6 hours (!) while they installed them. Some of this time the mechanic helped others move around very large truck tires. The service advisor did not mention any problems. Towards the end I ventured past the “No customers beyond this point” sign to see what the mechanic was doing. He was very upset and frustrated saying that on every tire he installed the components as provided, then it leaked so he had to take it apart and substitute different parts. The nut would not fit on the valve stem so he was putting on a smaller nut that was very hard to tighten. I asked him to set the pressures to the label on the door, 54 front and 61 rear. He finally said they were all done and we could leave now.

We were hungry and it was late so we paid the $160 bill ($25 per tire plus tax) and left. The pressures being reported in the monitor were all very high, about 75 psi (which is near the max cold pressure written on the tire), so after eating I checked the pressures with a pressure gauge and indeed they were that high. The tire pressure gauge that the mechanic at Neece Tire used must have been wrong??? So I lowered them to about 5 over the pressures on the label (the tires were warm). The pressure monitor worked perfectly. The high-pressure alarms went off before I lowered them and afterwards all six tires reported the same pressure as the pressure I set them to.

Then the nightmare started. On the way to our campsite about 30 miles away, some of the tires started losing air. The front right went down from 60 to 40 in a few hours, so I jacked up that tire for the night since I was sure it would be completely flat in the morning and I did not want to damage the tire and I wanted to be able to inflate it with the 12V pump that Mercedes provides with the van.

At this point we figured that the Neece mechanic put so much pressure in the tires because they did not leak at that pressure or because it would be longer before they went flat. His pressure gauge would not be off by 20 psi.

I called Mike at TST and explained what happened. He seemed surprised and suggested I call the valve expert Bill “Borg” (Falkenborg) in California. Bill sighed and said TST must not know about the changes in Sprinter wheels mid-way through the 2012 model year. He knew right away that the valve stems that TST provides would not work. The nut on the valve stem needs to be on the inside for these wheels since there is no room for it on the outside. We needed special valve stems that he has developed and sells for $140. I am sure there are lots of posts about his valve stems for Sprinter duallys on this forum. The stems are chrome and are different for the front, rear inside, and rear outside. You can reach them easily to add air and they should work fine with an internal TPMS. If you want to rotate tires you can do it only right to left, but he said that if tires are balanced and aligned properly they do not need to be rotated. If they cause trouble or leak, Borg Equipment and Supply will pay any additional installation or repair costs. Bill said that installation should cost $20 +/- 5 and there should be no problems.

I called back Mike at TST and explained what Bill Borg had said. Mike said he would call Bill and call me back. He did and his solution was that he would pay for Borg’s valve stems but would not pay for their shipping and for my $160 first try expense, nor would he pay for the installation of the new ones. I accepted that since I feel partly to blame for letting the Neece mechanic work for 6 hours without proactive investigation.

In the morning I added air with the pump (the MBz pump took about 15 minutes for the flat tire and needed to cool before the next one). Then we headed back to Neece Tire and Auto Service and asked for the person in charge. Mr. Neece was very defensive and after a few minutes that seemed an eternity I was able to get some words in to tell him that we now realize that the parts we provided from TST were not the right ones. But why did they install them anyway when they all leaked? He said that they did not leak when we left and the pressures were so high because the gauge was defective. I had no way to prove he was wrong, but later I found out he was wrong when we overheard the mechanic say to a foreman that they were indeed leaking after he finished installing them. Mr. Neece said that they would put back regular rubber valve stems, give us back all our parts, and charge us $15 per tire for that work. I explained that I would report all this on the forums and he didn’t care. In the end the service manager did not charge us for removing the TPMS, but a refund of the original $160 was out of the question. Not to mention our time of about 12 hours counting the drive back from our campsite.

So Bill Borg shipped the new valve stems to our next address where we would be in a week. The valve stems looked good so I took them to a Sears’s auto center for installation. The foreman at Sears and I could not figure out how to install them (no directions were included) so I called Bill Borg. He asked me some questions about my wheels, which have round holes, and said that I have a 2012.5 Sprinter and he had sent me the wrong parts. I told him I would wait until I got home in March, a few weeks from now, and he said he would send the correct ones and pay the postage.

You are probably wondering, as my wife is, why I am going through all this hell just to be able to monitor the tire pressures and temperatures. I still think this is an important safety system and will be worth the trouble when this is all over. After all, it is so important that our government has required TPMS in all new 4-wheel vehicles and may soon require in all trucks. As I said above, except the leaking problems, the TST internal 507 TPMS worked perfectly and I will not change my mind on my choice of this system.

07-18-2018, 10:41 PM	#40
Foust Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2018 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 4	Time for a progress report. The short story is that the internal TPMS and valve stems I purchased from TST did not fit on 2012 Sprinter steel wheels. I had a short time to test them and the pressure and temperature monitoring and display console worked great. Now I am waiting for the correct parts. Here is the long story. Anyone wanting an internal TPMS for a 2012 or later Sprinter might want to read this. I chose the Truck Systems Technologies (TST) 507 internal TPMS for my dually Sprinter. As explained in an earlier post, an internal system is best because it reads accurate temperatures, is not easily damaged, cannot be stolen, and with new valve stems it is easy to add air. I told TST I had a 2012 dually 3500 Sprinter and needed 2-inch valve stems. I installed in a couple of hours the receiver and repeater myself at home before leaving on a 2-month trip to Florida. Weather was bad in Indiana so I waited and found a truck tire place, Neece Tire and Auto Service, in Tallahassee, which listed TPMS on their web site. We were not expecting any problems so we waited patiently for 6 hours (!) while they installed them. Some of this time the mechanic helped others move around very large truck tires. The service advisor did not mention any problems. Towards the end I ventured past the “No customers beyond this point” sign to see what the mechanic was doing. He was very upset and frustrated saying that on every tire he installed the components as provided, then it leaked so he had to take it apart and substitute different parts. The nut would not fit on the valve stem so he was putting on a smaller nut that was very hard to tighten. I asked him to set the pressures to the label on the door, 54 front and 61 rear. He finally said they were all done and we could leave now. We were hungry and it was late so we paid the $160 bill ($25 per tire plus tax) and left. The pressures being reported in the monitor were all very high, about 75 psi (which is near the max cold pressure written on the tire), so after eating I checked the pressures with a pressure gauge and indeed they were that high. The tire pressure gauge that the mechanic at Neece Tire used must have been wrong??? So I lowered them to about 5 over the pressures on the label (the tires were warm). The pressure monitor worked perfectly. The high-pressure alarms went off before I lowered them and afterwards all six tires reported the same pressure as the pressure I set them to. Then the nightmare started. On the way to our campsite about 30 miles away, some of the tires started losing air. The front right went down from 60 to 40 in a few hours, so I jacked up that tire for the night since I was sure it would be completely flat in the morning and I did not want to damage the tire and I wanted to be able to inflate it with the 12V pump that Mercedes provides with the van. At this point we figured that the Neece mechanic put so much pressure in the tires because they did not leak at that pressure or because it would be longer before they went flat. His pressure gauge would not be off by 20 psi. I called Mike at TST and explained what happened. He seemed surprised and suggested I call the valve expert Bill “Borg” (Falkenborg) in California. Bill sighed and said TST must not know about the changes in Sprinter wheels mid-way through the 2012 model year. He knew right away that the valve stems that TST provides would not work. The nut on the valve stem needs to be on the inside for these wheels since there is no room for it on the outside. We needed special valve stems that he has developed and sells for $140. I am sure there are lots of posts about his valve stems for Sprinter duallys on this forum. The stems are chrome and are different for the front, rear inside, and rear outside. You can reach them easily to add air and they should work fine with an internal TPMS. If you want to rotate tires you can do it only right to left, but he said that if tires are balanced and aligned properly they do not need to be rotated. If they cause trouble or leak, Borg Equipment and Supply will pay any additional installation or repair costs. Bill said that installation should cost $20 +/- 5 and there should be no problems. I called back Mike at TST and explained what Bill Borg had said. Mike said he would call Bill and call me back. He did and his solution was that he would pay for Borg’s valve stems but would not pay for their shipping and for my $160 first try expense, nor would he pay for the installation of the new ones. I accepted that since I feel partly to blame for letting the Neece mechanic work for 6 hours without proactive investigation. In the morning I added air with the pump (the MBz pump took about 15 minutes for the flat tire and needed to cool before the next one). Then we headed back to Neece Tire and Auto Service and asked for the person in charge. Mr. Neece was very defensive and after a few minutes that seemed an eternity I was able to get some words in to tell him that we now realize that the parts we provided from TST were not the right ones. But why did they install them anyway when they all leaked? He said that they did not leak when we left and the pressures were so high because the gauge was defective. I had no way to prove he was wrong, but later I found out he was wrong when we overheard the mechanic say to a foreman that they were indeed leaking after he finished installing them. Mr. Neece said that they would put back regular rubber valve stems, give us back all our parts, and charge us $15 per tire for that work. I explained that I would report all this on the forums and he didn’t care. In the end the service manager did not charge us for removing the TPMS, but a refund of the original $160 was out of the question. Not to mention our time of about 12 hours counting the drive back from our campsite. So Bill Borg shipped the new valve stems to our next address where we would be in a week. The valve stems looked good so I took them to a Sears’s auto center for installation. The foreman at Sears and I could not figure out how to install them (no directions were included) so I called Bill Borg. He asked me some questions about my wheels, which have round holes, and said that I have a 2012.5 Sprinter and he had sent me the wrong parts. I told him I would wait until I got home in March, a few weeks from now, and he said he would send the correct ones and pay the postage. You are probably wondering, as my wife is, why I am going through all this hell just to be able to monitor the tire pressures and temperatures. I still think this is an important safety system and will be worth the trouble when this is all over. After all, it is so important that our government has required TPMS in all new 4-wheel vehicles and may soon require in all trucks. As I said above, except the leaking problems, the TST internal 507 TPMS worked perfectly and I will not change my mind on my choice of this system.