Stock wheel/tire downgrade advice

[blameitoncrane]

My dad's stock 2006 explorer with 180k just blew another transmission, and he is finally giving up on it. He has brand new tires on the standard 17" rims, and I'm considering taking his wheels and tires and swapping with mine as I need new tires. I have a 2007 Ironman explorer with the Ironman 18" rims but they are fairly pitted from poor maintenance of the previous owner so I'm not losing much "look" by downgrading to the smaller wheels.

It seems that these years use the same tpms sensors and the overall tire heights should be close enough to not mess up my speedo more than 2%. Can anyone think of any issues I could run into by switching his 17s with my 18s before he scraps his truck for cheap? We would at least be getting use out of the nearly 1k that new tires cost!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Explorer_PL]

What are the sizes ?

235-65-18 vs what ?

You are replacing all 4 so no issues there, few % is not a big deal.. Not sure if TPMS sensors needs to be programmed with the car or they just start talking to the "new" car.

 

[thebrakeman]

I would think they need to be reprogrammed. Otherwise, cars would be "taking" to each other on the street.

 

[Explorer_PL]

That's exactly what I thought Imagine few new explorers on a dealer lot .....

 

[tripplec]

I think they talk when you spin the tires. LOL

I had a sensor replace that corroded on my wifes car. They just changed it and done other than needing a new tire as well. No programming

 

[Tech By Trade]

You need to program them over. A programmer will run you about 50 bucks from the stealership. Not much point in buying one though, unless you are running 2 sets of tires. Just have to bite the bullet and pay a shop to flip the key to on press the brake pedal 3 times, flip the 3 key from off to on again and press the pedal again 3 times, then walk around the car and press the button on a programmer opposite of the valve stem on all 4 wheels.

 

[blameitoncrane]

My truck has 235 65 r18, his has 245 65 r17 so sizing shouldn't be a big issue.

I have a tpms programming tool that I purchased for my 2013 mustang when I bought winter tires for it. Does anyone know if the Ford tool changes from year to year? If I do need to reprogram I'm hoping I can use the same tool. It required the same process mentioned above (brake pedal, key on/off etc).

 

[Bill MacLeod]

The small gray Ford programming tool apparently works on all 2006 to current year. Only the early Navigator's needed a different programmer.