It shouldn't be but it is. PITA. Don’t. It sucks.

These are all over Ebay. Mine was $7 shipped I think. The hilarity of the instruction (see pic) was worth that. Not great, and bring your own 9V battery. Only took three tries to get it to work. Not dissatisfied.

Even the official GM tool, the one the dealers use, is only $65 or something. Can’t tell you if it will work any better.

Before I got my own tool, I just took my car to the local Chevy dealer and the guy at the desk would do it on the spot for free in about 30 seconds. Even my Buick. Of course we all know that when it comes to dealers, “individual results may vary.”

 

To all the people who check their tire pressure every week etc. A flat happens while you are driving. It doesn't matter what the pressure was 3 days ago. I like to know that my tire is loosing pressure real time and how far I can make it before it becomes dangerous. I've had the light come on during a trip and would stop every 20-30 minutes when it dipped below 20psi till I got where I was going and could give it proper attention.

 

Alrighty then. Thanks for that suggestion.

 

All HHRs with factory TPMS have a real time pressure reading you don't need to stop and check. If you reset the positions every time the tires are rotated it even tells you individual pressures.
Your "cradle to grave" nanny government at work. Too many people don't pay attention to their vehicle beyond the gas tank. One of my pet peeves is people that have absolutely no curiosity; I want to know how everything works, that's just me. A corollary is people that think I am attacking or criticizing when I ask a question out of curiosity.

The reason for the TPMS mandate is that people were driving their Ford Explorers or was it Broncos and never looking at the Firestone tires and getting killed when one blew up from under inflation.

 

Well , I now have my new TPMS sensors installed and functioning properly, in both my GM vehicles. In all 4 sets of tires and rims, winter and summer.