Called TireRack and leanrned somthing. - AWD Car Tire replacement Content

As some of you may know I have a new to me 04 X type with AWD. The short of it is when the car was towed I think that one of the tires was damaged when they slid it off the flatbed. It had to be slid off as the transcer case was locked up. It looks like one of the tires caught on one of the tie down holes in the aluminum bed and it ripped out a section of the tire tread about 1 inch square. I can not prove it. I do know that the tire held air befor the tow and now after the tow it is leaking and I found the damage.

Anyway the tires on the car are Contipro's. Since it is AWD I was resigned to the fact that I was going to be replacing all 4 tires. This was going to be at a $400 bill at least. Then I got thinking. Will TireRack shave street tires to match? So I called them and spoke to a very nice guy there and he told me that they will gladly do it. Furthermore he said that although they do not advertise it they have done it a lot for just this reason so that customers with AWD cars that have blow outs or damage a tire but the rest of the set is in good shape they will shave a tire to match the other three. I thought this was really cool.

Every time I have heard that someone that gets a flat or damaged a tire on their AWD car they have had to replace all 4. Well there is another option especially if you tires are relatively new. My contipro’s have 8/32 of tread on them new is 12-13. They are not “new” but they are far from worn out. I am considering just replacing the single damaged tire. It would cost me less than $200 delivered to my door. With my tires currently about 1/3 gone I should get another 20K or so out of the set before they need replacement. Not a bad deal really.

I still may go ahead and replace all 4. There are General’s that TireRack is selling (made by continental) that are as good as the contipro’s that are on the car. After the MFGR’s rebate I would be at about $380 or so for the set. The key is I have to get the exact model of tire and all the data from off the tire to see if TireRack can get a matching tire. The first look was that all the conti’s were 91H’s I have 94H’s

Bet i can guess. When replacing one tire on a vehicle with AWD you have to replace them all. OK I'll wait for the real story.

Or you have to shave the new one to match. They say.....

Yep Shaving to match!!!!! I did not know that TieRack would do it.

In reply to dean1484:

For no charge I'd mount it onto the front of the FWD car sans limited slip and power brake it to match

Uh.... he said "Shave to match"

Tire rack does shave tires and does an excellent job of doing it. I've had several customers order tires through tire rack that have showed up shaved, and each one has looked perfect

dean1484 wrote: There are General’s that TireRack is selling (made by continental) that are as good as the contipro’s that are on the car.

my expereince... take it as you may...

Run berkleying away as fast as you can.... I "suffered" through a set of General Exclaim UHP that were motherberkelying SQUARE... ok... not square... but official not round either... more irregular They were also made by Continental.......

Tire Rack was only allowed to warranty 2 of the 3 bad ones... so I had to figure out which were the worst 2! The replacments were more round then the ones they replaced... but the car always had a small vibration that just recently went away with new COMP 2s.

I am looking at the "G-MAX AS-03" I was going to get them for my daughters car but now I am thinking that they would be a bit of an upgrade from the touring tires that are on my X Type. I am hoping that you just got a bad batch / set.

e46potenza wrote: Tire rack does shave tires and does an excellent job of doing it. I've had several customers order tires through tire rack that have showed up shaved, and each one has looked perfect

I have had race tires done by them and they all have been excellent just never thought to get street tires done. Never had a reason before.

oldeskewltoy wrote:

dean1484 wrote: There are General’s that TireRack is selling (made by continental) that are as good as the contipro’s that are on the car.

my expereince... take it as you may... Run berkleying away as fast as you can.... I "suffered" through a set of General Exclaim UHP that were motherberkelying SQUARE... ok... not square... but official not round either... more irregular They were also made by Continental....... Tire Rack was only allowed to warranty 2 of the 3 bad ones... so I had to figure out which were the worst 2! The replacments were more round then the ones they replaced... but the car always had a small vibration that just recently went away with new COMP 2s.

I kind of agree. I had a set of Generals that everyone raved about and hated them. Much happier with the coopers I have now.

My breytons had generals on them when i got them... Never noticed any vibrations but Jebus they were loud

That's pretty cool. Good idea*

*I don't really buy the hype about AWD cars needing exact matching diameters. They do have differentials ya know! I'm sure there are some vehicles where it matters more than others, but I replaced 1 tire (unshaved) on a Subaru Impreza that had the remaining tires at 60%

I just kept the taller tire on the rear of the car and put 25k miles on it before replacing all 4 as a set.

If discount tire had offered to shave the warranty replacement tire I would have done it in a heartbeat, but at the time I could not afford to buy 3 new tires.

mazdeuce wrote: Or you have to shave the new one to match. They say.....

Well, really you should replace tires in pairs. 2/32 difference in front tires in a vehicle that drives the front wheels will cause a tire pull. Can't leave 'em on the back forever, either.

And, some AWD systems really don't like having difference in tread depth. The AWD Grand Cherokees were notorious for eating transfer cases if you replaced only two.

If you only do two on an AWD, they really should go on the front because the front carries more weight and will naturally have more revs/mile than the rear, all else equal. But you're supposed to never have two new on front, two old on rear, because then the car might spin instead of plowing in headfirst if you exceed the car's limits.

Knurled wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: Or you have to shave the new one to match. They say.....

Well, really you should replace tires in pairs. 2/32 difference in front tires in a vehicle that drives the front wheels will cause a tire pull. Can't leave 'em on the back forever, either. And, some AWD systems *really* don't like having difference in tread depth. The AWD Grand Cherokees were notorious for eating transfer cases if you replaced only two. If you only do two on an AWD, they really should go on the *front* because the front carries more weight and will naturally have more revs/mile than the rear, all else equal. But you're supposed to never have two new on front, two old on rear, because then the car might spin instead of plowing in headfirst if you exceed the car's limits.

I will take the spin option at least I have a chance at doing something about the end result.

I didn't know General made a decent tire. I've yet to find one. Their truck tires were terrible in the rain, snow, dry, hot and cold. At least they were consistent.

I've had great luck with General Altimax Arctics in several cars and with Grabber AT2s on my Suburban2500. I had some as03 that came on a Mazda3 I bought and they were fine, no problems.

Needing all tread depth/same height tires in awd is complete bullE36 M3.

IF your tires were glued to the road as you drove, then yes it would be an issue. But thats not how reality works.

If it makes you sleep better at night, go ahead, but it really doesn't matter unless we're talking 5/32nds or greater.

As a matter of fact we are talking exactly 5/32 differences between new and what is on the car.

HiTempguy wrote: Needing all tread depth/same height tires in awd is complete bullE36 M3. IF your tires were glued to the road as you drove, then yes it would be an issue. But thats not how reality works. If it makes you sleep better at night, go ahead, but it really doesn't matter unless we're talking 5/32nds or greater.

While true that tires do slip when under load, a difference in rollout between front and rear axles will either result in the differential differentiating or the tires scrubbing.

On anything with a computer controlled diff, I'd want the tires much closer than 5/32. 5/32 on an AWD Honda will result in barking clutch packs within a frighteningly short period of time.

Actually, if the new tires are 5/32 more than the old ones, the old ones were junk anyway. The first couple 32nds of wear happen not so much by mechanical wear but from evaporation. The rubber gets harder as time goes on. That's why it seems like they go from 9/32 to 7/32 very fast, but they can take 40,000mi to go from 7/32 to 5/32. (And why shaved new tires are better than tires worn to that depth)

This IS a subject that I take seriously. People talk abut the brakes being important safety items, but the tires need to be good for the brakes to be good and the tires are also needed to control the car. Tires should be lifed out at 3-4 years no matter the tread depth, because the rubber hardens and it is rubber compound, not tread depth, that is the important factor in traction unless you are driving on roads with four inches of standing water everywhere.

I had a pair of General tires, but they weren't the G-Max. The model I had didn't ride that well, and were a little noisy.

Knurled wrote:

HiTempguy wrote: Needing all tread depth/same height tires in awd is complete bullE36 M3. IF your tires were glued to the road as you drove, then yes it would be an issue. But thats not how reality works. If it makes you sleep better at night, go ahead, but it really doesn't matter unless we're talking 5/32nds or greater.

While true that tires do slip when under load, a difference in rollout between front and rear axles will either result in the differential differentiating or the tires scrubbing. On anything with a computer controlled diff, I'd want the tires much closer than 5/32. 5/32 on an AWD Honda will result in barking clutch packs within a frighteningly short period of time. Actually, if the new tires are 5/32 more than the old ones, the old ones were junk anyway. The first couple 32nds of wear happen not so much by mechanical wear but from evaporation. The rubber gets harder as time goes on. That's why it seems like they go from 9/32 to 7/32 very fast, but they can take 40,000mi to go from 7/32 to 5/32. (And why shaved new tires are better than tires worn to that depth) This IS a subject that I take seriously. People talk abut the brakes being important safety items, but the tires need to be good for the brakes to be good and the tires are also needed to control the car. Tires should be lifed out at 3-4 years no matter the tread depth, because the rubber hardens and it is rubber compound, not tread depth, that is the important factor in traction unless you are driving on roads with four inches of standing water everywhere.

The tires on the car have 7 to 8/32 left on the tires. New ones being 12/32. I would call them about half gone and with "normal" driving I should get another 20K out of them yes? How can those be used up with that much tread left on them?

How old are they? That IMO is more important than depth itself.

7-8/32 isn't worn out, really. Legally worn out (here) is 2/32 but that is kinda like the legal minimum car insurance - it meets the letter of the law but it's not very useful...

I've ordered race tires shaved from them, wouldn't hesitate to do it for any reason.

I've seen lots of GM pickups tear the clutches out of the part time/AWD T-case, I changed the t-case in a Hyundai suv of some sort that had melted the viscous clutch, changed the burnt to a crisp rear diff in a viscous V70XC, followed a year later by the angle drive. All these were completely due to badly matched tires.

A local tire shop got sued by an XC90 owner after she put the spare on, drove 11 miles to town, and killed the angle drive. The suit was due to them installing the wrong size of tires, so they didn't match her spare. Shoulda pulled fuse 14 from the REM...