Hello all! New to this forum. I recently traded my nissan titan in on an E350. My son is an avid bmx racer, we have a 100lb dog and recently added a new young man to our clan! The room in the van is great, fuel mileage is better, it tows a 5500 lb camper waaaay better, and being able to lockup a few grand worth of bmx goods is priceless! Only issue I have is a little cosmetics... I'm purchasing some 17" wheels for it, I have a question regarding the tpms on the fords. I'm used to seeing the metal valve stem style that just bolt onto the rim, I see that the ones I have now look like standard rubber stems. I cannot find much info on them. What I can find mentions a sensor band, and I noticed that it is specific to the rim size. My question is... if I go from the factory 16's to 17's, will the sensors just swap over or are there additional pats that i will need? Thanks in advance!

 

Yes, you can swap the rims, but first please tell us what year this is. There are two different system that were used, and they are slightly different. One uses a band, the other a newer style rubber stem that has the sensor mounted to the bottom the stem by a screw.

 

It's a 2011, that band is the main thing I was questioning..... If I need to buy ones for a 17" rim? Thanks Greasemark.

 

Sorry for the spelling..... It's a "smart" phone!

 

By going to the larger rims, you will need to reprogram the PCM to accommodate the larger size so the fuel mileage and shifting stays the same. The PCM is also reading the transmission and wheel speed to give you an accurate speedometer reading.

 

The outside diameter of the tire will not change.

 

Just some info I found today. I called ford and they told me the part numbers of the original tpms sensors that were installed during build. 9L3Z1A189A, I did a little research on this sensor and found that they are the ones without the bands. Not sure if it pertains to all 350 models, but they were used from 2010 to 2013.

 

Ok, it's the newer system. This is the variation where the sensor mounts to the bottom of the rubber valve stem, which is the newest style that's all the rage today. It doesn't matter, as long as the sensors get 1) tranferred to the new rims, and 2) they are kept tight.
If it's the bands, yes, you'll obviously need the right size band, but the thing to make sure of is to keep in mind that this is the high pressure version of sensor (it starts reading at 50 psi, and goes up to about 85 psi) as this is a heavy duty van.
And as Way2OLd commented, the tire size will have to be programmed again, but that's really not hard, and takes all of 30 seconds. There may not be an exact match for the size you have, but just pick whatever is closest. It'll have to do.
And once your done, just drive it to see if the light stays out. It should.