puma1552

Thinking about buying a Mercedes winter wheel and tire package. Comes with OE TPMS sensors, etc. Other option I'm considering is just buying a set of snow tires and dealing with mounting and balancing 2x a year onto the one set of factory wheels.

Getting conflicting information from different dealers regarding TPMS.

-Dealer A who gave me the winter package quote (parts manager) included a $160 charge to program the TPMS to the car. He said he checked with the shop foreman and this would be a one time thing that only needs to be done the first time. After that, every time I swap wheels, the car will recognize the sensors. This seems mostly right.

-I called Dealer A again today just to talk to anyone in service and see if I'd be told the same thing. I was not. Today someone in service said the sensors would need to be programmed every single time I swap wheels. This seems wrong, but if it's right, there's zero point buying a second set of wheels if I still have to go to the dealer 2x a year everytime I swap, especially if I have to pay more money every time too.

-So I called Dealer B, and got a third answer. They said no programming is ever needed, including initial programming.

-So I called Dealer C, but they were all with customers and couldn't talk.

Who's right? Given all the conflicting info, maybe it's just easier to buy new tires only and deal with mounting/balancing 2x a year...

jastleymb

I have a German built A250 for which I bought a winter tire/wheel package.

At least on the German A250 there are no TPMS sensors. The tire pressure warning comes from a comparison of the wheel speeds from the ABS sensors. I suspect that the US built A220 is the same.

Check your manual: if you have this type of system, the manual will have a short section showing how to reset the TPMS system from MBUX upon changing tires. Another hint: if your tire pressure display does not show tire pressure, you have this type of system.

In that case, you need not get your package from Mercedes. Tire Rack has a large number of available packages which will be significantly cheaper than Mercedes OEM as well as providing an opportunity for customization. The only thing to be wary of would be if you have the AMG package with sport brakes and 18" wheels. In that case, you absolutely need the 18" wheels, as 17" ones will not fit over the brakes. Also, Mercedes uses a large offset, 49 mm, and many of the Tire Rack packages will be 40 mm or so. That is a large discrepancy and could increase the chance of vibration. 45 mm offset or more should be fine.

jastleymb

Follow up: I may be wrong about the AMG package. Looking on the MB website the AMG package no longer includes sport brakes. If you have a 2021 model you could be fine. The way to be definitive is to look at the front wheel (assuming you do have the AMG 18" wheels) and look at the clearance of the brake caliper from the inside of the wheel rim. On mine that is about 4 mm, i.e. 1/6 inch..

Also, I highly recommend non run-flat tires. Not only are they significantly cheaper, they provide a much smoother ride. The only downside is that with no spare you would have to buy an emergency tire inflator kit such as from Amazon. Mercedes has a more expensive one which fits in a space under the trunk cargo floor.