Jeep Cherokee KJ - Tyre pressure monitors+aftermarket wheels

[Falling Down]

We have an 06 Cherokee that we bought some years ago as a winter hack, but it fell itno everyday use. As is common with Jeeps, the alloy wheels have corroded under the lacquer coat and now look a mess. More worrying is that the two front tyres slowly lose air pressure. Its a guess, but would think that the corrosion around the rims may be responsible for this, rather than slow punctures.

So....was wondering about getting an inexpensive set of 4 aftermarket alloys and putting winter tyres on those. In the meantime, I can get the existing (original) alloys refurbished at my leisure over the winter months and put new rubber on those when the temperatures come up again (rear tyres are original, done 30,000 miles and looking on the low side, though still legal).

All this sounded like a rosy plan, until I remembered that the car has tyre pressure monitors on the wheels. An enquiry to a Jeep dealer indicated that these are £64 each, so would need a new set of those to run two sets of tyres. Problem is, will the TPS monitors work with aftermarket alloys or not? OEM Jeep wheels are about £1300 + VAT and will no doubt corrode again, so really not an option. The usual places that sell refurbished wheels (Ebay and some independents) don't appear to have any stock at the moment, so that is a difficult option to pursue. I am therefore pretty much stuck with getting new alloys of the aftermarket variety, but no idea how compatible they would be the pressure monitors.

Can anyone offer any advice on this?
Thanks

[chris182]

You could just ditch the tyre pressure monitor system altogether and use regular valves. It won't cause any problems apart from a slightly annoying message on the dash. I believe this is quite a common thing for owners to do.

[Falling Down]

Thanks Chris. Yes, I had considered that. The message has been annoying us already with the slow deflation. There does not appear to be a way to clear it though, so it would be on show all the time. I don't know if there would be a dash light stating that there is a sensor problem or not? Probably not, but if so, that would be an MOT failure now.

Will see what the alloy retailers say.

[HemiCommander]

I have a constant warning that the spare pressure is incorrect on my screen but there aren't any warning lights. I don't know whether there is a light that comes on when a road wheel tyre pressure is low or not.

Apparently the sensors need coding to the car as well so you would have to factor in labour for that as well as the £64 each for the sensors if you went that route. Perhaps it would make sense just to go get the original alloys refurbished properly and have the winter tyres mounted at the same time (at no extra cost), then get them removed and replaced with the summers in spring (so just have the one set of alloys)?

[Falling Down]

Thanks Hemi. That would make sense and be cheaper. It is just logistically more difficult. I would either have to leave a car with the refurbishment people for a day (meaning a difficult early drop off and late collection), a few days (then without car), or have car standing on axles stands/supports (don't like that idea!). Having an extra set of wheels would make this much easier, but there is that extra cost of sensors and wheels(£250 + £400). That's pretty much the choice.