Okay, I did at one point have almost exactly this thread, but I figured if I resurrected it that people would start replying to the first few posts instead of answering my slightly more directed question.
I still have the winter wheels and tires, and I have a mother in law whose car they fit, and I have the task of getting her to actually use them, which means probably not having to send her to the tire shop, even just for the sensor update.
I am hopeful but not convinced that one TPMS tool should be able to pretty much work for anything I need to do from the awkward-but-ending(?) era of cars that needed to A) have specific sensor IDs read from the sensors and B) programed into the car.
So. Autel? Foxwell? Ateq?
I have a Foxwell NT501 for general use on our Mini, and could buy the Subaru software pack. There are fragments on the Internet that suggest this might even be able to set the car's sensor IDs, but it can't, as far as I know, read them from the sensors.
In my 09 WRX, the tool I used was a little piece of black electrical tape over the TPMS warning light.
I'm pretty pleased my new VW doesn't use in-tire sensors at all. Measures everythign via the ABS to sense if a tire is low (and it works, I tested it!)
Aw, c'mon, we covered the electrical tape jokes (or electrical tape earnest advice) in the other thread I linked. 
I am not interested in circumvention. I am not interested in how stupid and unnecessary the whole system is. I'm only interested in having the self-contained ability to swap these summers for these winters and back with all systems functioning normally. It avoids enough stress in other areas that I'm happy to go out of my way to get this sorted.
I guess, given that my Foxwell "OBDII-plus-mfr-specific-stuff" tool works pretty well, I'll default to that TPMS tool in lieu of other input. But I'd love some other input from folks who've gotten this working.
java230
UltraDork
10/15/18 5:24 p.m.
In reply to Ransom :
Sorry, I don't honestly have any answers for you. Please do Post if that one works. I don't have anything with TPMS, but I will in the future.
In reply to java230 :
Will do! Fingers crossed. If nobody has any suggestions, I'll probably make one last desperate Google tomorrow, and default to the Foxwell if I can't find anything more definite.
I'm glad that stuff seems to be moving towards sander implementations, and also that at this point if you were buying a second set of tires, I think you could get them with programmable sensors so all you'd need to do is wake them up, as you could set summer and winter to the same IDs...
Actually, I suppose I should ping my tire shop and make sure they can't just replace my sensors for less than one of these tools. If I'm very clever, maybe I can avoid doing this all over again... Though for the same cost, I suppose tool is more useful than a one-off fix.
Note along the way... I have no idea why there's so little clarity on TPMS stuff, but there isn't. Update of the moment is that the Foxwell tool is just for reading IDs from the sensors and activating them. It does not do any setting of IDs on the car. The leader right now is the Ateq, though its process is a little hinky: It seems the premise is that you'll use one unit per car, and just leave it holding the winter and summer IDs and not use your computer for input beyond that, though I think position is involved, so I think you'd need the computer to rotate, as I do on the seasonal swaps.
I see no reason why you can't just involve the computer and just keep setting whatever IDs and make/model you need. For now, I actually only need it to do one vehicle, so... I would need a separate tool to wake the sensors up (unless a ring magnet works on the Subie style, which is still unclear), and to either read the IDs, or I'd need to make one more trip to the tire store and ask them nicely to read the IDs for me (the Ateq can get the sensor IDs for the currently-installed sensors from the car).
Hey, looks like maybe the Ateq Quickset can actually store winter and summer for four cars... Though that still doesn't address rotation.
Anyhow, I've ordered a Quickset and an Autel TS401 to read IDs and activate sensors. Which is a bigger chunk than I thought the necessary tools had gotten down to by this time, but I got so invested in being done with this crap that I decided to go ahead. I'll report back after I either successfully swap the Winters on the Legacy or... I don't know what "or" is. I shudder to think.
The tools have arrived, and I've successfully done one ID read on a tire in the basement. Waiting for a free weekend and an improved state of spine to do the full process.
Update: Success, I think. Turns out I got reminded of something I already knew, which is that managing extended family's car care is more difficult than TPMS tech...
Anyhow, I *think* yesterday I successfully read the summer tires' codes out of the car with the ATEQ, read the winter tires' sensors with the Autel, input the latter back into the ATEQ, and reprogrammed the car. My brother in law has the car right now, and I didn't drive it much after the swap, so I'll be more sure it worked in a couple of days.
After having used the software, it's clear that the ATEQ does indeed manage four cars at a time (there's really nothing to stop you taking external notes and using it on whatever at any time). It also lets you view/edit the sensors/locations, so you can rotate the tires.
The process is a little clunky the first time, and having to get the Autel involved. If I'd known the IDs of the sensors in the extra tires, I wouldn't have needed it, and could have done everything with the ATEQ. Unless waking them up enough to read the IDs is an important step in making them available to the car, which it may be.
Update to the update: BIL has been driving around for a day now and no sign of the light, so feeling pretty optimistic.
Not sure what to do in Spring; I guess the light *had* been on lately, and a shop had said one of the original sensors had stopped responding. I guess the answer to that is that if the car were sticking around, we'd probably replace sensors, or sensor batteries if you can do that... But I think it's getting traded in before that becomes my problem. *shrug* I do feel a little sillier about having acquired the tools now that I have no idea whether we'll ever have another non-self-learning TPMS car in the family again.
