Long Overdue Update - New Tires and TPMS!

So I know there are at least a few people out there who read my other blog who may be wondering if I do anything at all with my Lexus in the way of mods, repairs, or improvements.  Truth is, other than regular maintenance, not much. Not surprisingly, this is a solidly built car which I use on the weekends for family stuff, so I keep the mileage down and of course the neighbors happy that it has the OEM exhaust still.

Of course, I always keep it as clean as possible.

Although, I did finally decide to get new tires.  After doing some research, I decided to go for the spiritual if not actual successor to the Michelin Pilot Sports tires which were OEM equipment on the car - the Pilot Sports 4S. 

Unfortunately, if you know anything about Japan, buying tires from regular tire shops is expensive - easily twice in dollar amount than what I would pay back in the USA.  And as stated in my last post - about 18 months ago - the local Lexus dealer wanted about 80,000 yen per Pilot Sports 4S! So, I did what anyone in their right mind would do - find the best prices for the tires I wanted on Amazon and Rakuten. Rakuten to the rescue, so I pulled the trigger and had the tires delivered to my house last October. 

They came nicely wrapped in industrial clear wrap (and yes I checked the manufacturing date, but since the 4S came out recently, not too worried about "old stock").

Just making sure...

But of course since my garage doesn't have the right tools to replace tires, I made an appointment at the closest Tire Fitter outfit to me.

I didn't get many great photos of the outside of the store:

So you can see the nose of my car peeking out. 

But they let me watch as their team went to work - not unusual for Japan, I was in and out in about 10 minutes! It was akin to a racing team pit crew at work. Everyone knew what the others were doing, and everyone focused on one task. 

I found most gratifying that they actually bothered to wipe down the wheels when done, to minimize the dust on the wheels (don't worry, I saw the cloth was clean lol).

They also agreed to install the tire pressure sensors for an updated aftermarket Tire Pressure Monitoring System, as the older one had indicated a battery failure in the left rear wheel. 

Some assembly required - of the sensors and valve stems:

Just in case I labelled in Japanese to eliminate any chance of error

This new one did not require me to let air out to trigger the match up on the small LCD display - it was pretty much automatic.  Further bonus was how ALMOST OEM the display looks, with its slightly bluish crisp white numbers. 

If you recall, a few years ago I had Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious install the older version of the display when I replaced my scratched up wheels for some used OEM ones that were in better condition.

Older version

See the difference? Two buttons, plus bigger numbers. Bonus was that since I think it was the same company, I simply reused the wiring that Ninomiya-san had done for me. So a literal plug and play.

So what's next? Well this all happened last October.  I just had an oil change at the dealer, and there is a small detail that bothers me, so I may ask them to fix it next time I am there, which should be in a few weeks.  Stay tuned!