Tire replacement - AWD

Could also try one of the wreckers on Mitchell Island. They usually have lots of OEM tires pulls off of wrecks. Of course, it's a gamble whether the wear is anything close to what you want.

Kn.

Mark your current tire's tread depth on a penny with some masking tape and head out to the wreckers.

And when you get new tires for it buy them at crappy tire and get that warranty its awesome

Or from Costco.

I had a similar problem with one of my Jeep tires. Costco warranty helped provide for 4 new ones.

You think so? I have my doubts, especially if you put it on the rear end.

You could gamble, it does make a difference though. Front or rear won't make a positive difference unless the car has a limited slip differential, then you will want to run the different sized tire on the open differential.

The binding occurs in the center differential. The binding creates excess heat, excess heat expands metal parts, this creates accelerated wear or catastrophic failure. Speaking of catastrophic failure, 2-3 years ago my center differential seized and locked while travelling 70km on east 49th in traffic. Your tires suddenly lock up with zero warning causing the vehicle to skid almost uncontrollably either into an oncoming car or into the curb or parked car, it's also a really good way to get rear ended. I was lucky and managed to slide the car to the curb.

I have have tried the different sized tires on a awd subaru legacy, the difference was noticeable by me, which means the car was really feeling it. Tried it on a 4x4 subaru (not awd). In 4x4 it was extremely unhappy, even in a straight line. My friends had an awd astrovan for around town, it had a small difference between rear tires vs fronts and the center differential is destroyed after a couple years of that.

still thinking that doing a burnout would be the easiest way….and whos to say you wouldn't have fun doing it.

Testy and Dantes are both right unfortunately. Running tires with that much of a difference in diameter will eventually take out a diff.

Tires at 60% are worn out anyways IMO,especially cheapo OEM tires.

Dont feel bad on what those tires are going to cost you though. last month I dealt with a wheel loader where there was a 20% difference in circumference on a set of tires.(They threw on an old spare when they wrecked a tire)

…..total cost for the new diff install….$ 72,000

Testy, Dates, and Hard Tack are correct.

1. Plugs don't hold that well on a side puncture
2. AWD vehicles need all the tires to be darn close to the same size
3. Diff replacement is more expensive than new tyres

Look at this as an opportunity to improve the ride and noise level in your wife's vehicle with a better set of tires.

Same thing happened to me last year.

I went to the place I got the tires from originally and they bought back the old tires.

Sucks to have to buy 4 because 1 is dead.

nuff said guys, thanks for all the advice

New tires it is.

I kacked a NoKian I had bought from Kal and they gave me 2 new tires on that axle and prorated the wear then they will put that other tire into their used stock so my point one is kal was good to buy tires from

Point two I had a similar incident with a Ford PU I was driving on a shuttle for a raft company the truck was in my care, I got 3 flats and there was nobody around to make the decision/pay the bill BUT I had to pick these people up in 3 days down on the Skeena and there were NO new tires in town, the guy at Kal said they were a wierd size BUT he had 2 used take-offs he would give me for 75$ total … SOLD!

I figure Kal had 2 shitty 4ply general tires because they come on new fords they are shit, somebody blows a tire so Kal sells them 4 new tires and stockpiles the take-offs … IME check some Kal tire stores or any tire store for take-offs of your specific tire I bet they are out there

some more info to consider:

not all awd systems operate in the same manner and there will be differences wrt to what to do in your situation dave depending on the design of your vehicle's awd system. this is the same reasoning that some awd vehicles can be towed only from the front wheels and others need to be towed by all four or put on a deck. at a minimum you should be replacing two tires and having them on the same axel. worst case scenario is replacing all four.

personally i like the idea of checking with a few wreckers to see if they have any edges in with close to the same mileage as yours. if so it might be worth your time to investigate that and check the tread depth yourself - it could save you around $600 by the time it's said and done.

the other thing to look at is getting one brand new tire of the same shape and taking it to a race tire shop to get it shaved. this will bring the overall diameter of the new tire down to the same level of the old one so you won't have any issue. basically they put it on a machine like a lathe that grinds or slices the new tire down to match the old one. you'd still save quite a few bucks going this route.

try these guys to see if they offer that service or know of a shop that does

http://www.unlimitedtireteam.com/

If you do go ahead and get new tires …

One thing I CAN say … even though I don't usually bother with most of the "insurance" or "protection plans" for just about every product out there, this is one of the very few that I think is well worth it. All it takes is one nail in one tire, and you're looking at a whole set of four, so the insurance is cheap compared to its cost.

Most tire places offer a protection plan that covers replacing the full set (usually pro-rated by %wear), if even one tire is damaged and unrepairable.

Kn.

Since you still have 60% left on your old tires you could still sell your old tires. Buy the new ones, sell the old ones on craigslist with full disclosure about the plug. There will always be people who are looking to save a buck and don't care why and think that a tire is a tire and good enough.

Yep, always a good idea to sell a damaged tire to someone too ignorant to understand the risks, so they can veer across the highway and kill someone when the blowout happens.

Kn.

I wouldnt take tread depth as an accurate measurement of tire circumference.