Cut tire

[hkshooter]

Giant PITA.

Hit something on the road today and cut the side wall of the right rear. With 31k on these tires the new one will have to be shaved to match the other three. I had no idea this wasn't a service your everyday Discount Tire or Tire Barn Warehouse offered. No, called and they will have to order the tire pre-shaved. Even the Subaru dealer, the authority in AWD vehicles around here, will have to send out a tire to have it shaved.

This means a wait for days while this happens. Which means I'll be riding my thumb until probably next Wednesday while my car sits at the dealer. AYFKM??

Is it unreasonable to expect a company that sells only AWD cars (BRZ excluded) to be equipped to shave tires for service vehicles should the need arise?

My only alternative is to replace all four, something I'm NOT prepared to do at the moment, especially considering the tires still have around half their serviceable life left in them.

*sigh*

Sorry for the rant. Wish it made me feel better.

[08SpecB_DE]

Tire rack has a location in Indiana that shaves tires. Im not sure how far they are from you but maybe it's worth looking into.

[spect2k]

Sorry, I had the same thing happen at the same mileage (weirdly). I went back and forth between a shaved tire from tirerack and 4 new. I ended up going with 4 new, but maybe yours have more tread. I feel your pain. Sorry to hear...

[crisscross]

I would swallow the cost and get new tires. Sooner or later you have to get them anyway and it is critical that they are all the same in every respect. There is little tolerance. I've had to throw out a set of tires at that stage - it really is just an expense for the joy of AWD. I once didn't do it, years ago on a 95 Legacy. The matching tire didn't wear the same as the others. The cost - thousands for a replacement transmission.

[The Grey Goose]

I would swallow the cost and get new tires. Sooner or later you have to get them anyway and it is critical that they are all the same in every respect. There is little tolerance. I've had to throw out a set of tires at that stage - it really is just an expense for the joy of AWD. I once didn't do it, years ago on a 95 Legacy. The matching tire didn't wear the same as the others. The cost - thousands for a replacement transmission.

I have a hard time believing that one tire caused your transmission to go out over time. If anything, it would cause one of the differentials to fail. How do you know that was the culprit?

[hkshooter]

The anxiety of leaving the car with the dealer for three days plus the thought of throwing away a tire I just bought a year later didn't appeal at all. So today I had all four replaced.

[vtdog]

The anxiety of leaving the car with the dealer for three days plus the thought of throwing away a tire I just bought a year later didn't appeal at all. So today I had all four replaced.

 

You made the right choice. Spending money on OEM tires with 30K+ miles is not justified

[crisscross]

I have a hard time believing that one tire caused your transmission to go out over time. If anything, it would cause one of the differentials to fail. How do you know that was the culprit?

It was explained in detail by several mechanics. The clutches for all four wheels are in constant synch. If one is off, then all the others have to work at it too. But you could be right - in that case you could decide to replace the differential rather than the rest of the transmission but no one offered me your insight.

[chowser51]

I was sort of in the same boat as you this February. One tire had a leak I couldn't find. Every 1500 miles it would go down to 28psi. This was the tire I ran over fresh asphalt with and I took chemicals to it to clean so maybe I hurt the tire?

At 42k and each tire had 5/32 of tread left, I could've made it till next winter but with an upcoming road trip to NC and still being winter I wasn't going to risk my family so instead of replacing the one, I just went and replaced all four.

[dgoodhue]

I have a hard time believing that one tire caused your transmission to go out over time. If anything, it would cause one of the differentials to fail. How do you know that was the culprit?

 

All the stress of mismatch tires is put on the AWD clutch, open differentials do not care about tire diameter differences.

 

A lot people make false assumptions and statements about how a little bit of tire diameter won't make a difference. If you read the service manual Subaru does don't a spec any difference between diameters, only the diameter need so be equal. If your into the math, the difference in 4/32 between the front and rear tires is about 4 revolution per mile. The AWD clutch is spinning faster because it is gear down by the front and rear gear differential ratios. With a gear of 4:1 this about 16 revolution this is slipping one full rotation every 4 secs @ 60mph. The faster you drive the worse it get. This is going to create heat and unnecessary wear on the clutches.

 

The differentials on the hand would be 'slipping' at 1/4 of the speed of the AWD clutches. (I put slipping in quotes because opened differential don't have clutch and they are all gears)

[The Grey Goose]

@crisscross and @dgoodhue Thanks for the insight. I'm coming from a truck background, so this is all quite new to me.

[hkshooter]

@crisscross and @dgoodhue Thanks for the insight. I'm coming from a truck background, so this is all quite new to me.

I saw you make a comment about selling your Limited wheels. Let me say, I advise you to hang onto them. You already have a complete set of replacement wheels if something should go wrong with your current in use set. Give it some thought, if you cut a tire or broke a wheel, how long would you be down before you got your car back into service? How many miles might it happen? Would you have to shave a new tire? Buy four new ones suddenly and unexpectedly? With a spare set of wheels ready to go, only as long as it takes to jack up the car and replace them.

 

This is the situation I find myself in and why I'm tempted to buy your wheels. Truth be told, if I hadn't just broke the bank with taxes and new tires I would. I'd much rather have a spare set of ready to go wheels in the back of the garage than have to deal with what I did this last weekend.

 

As it is, I kept one of the old tires and plan to buy a spare wheel to assemble it on so I'll have a full size spare. But even this plan isn't the best because I still can't account for a different amount of wear on the spare wheel against the ones on the car, should this happen again. But at least I'll something besides the donut. The dealer advised only 150 miles on the donut, no more than 50 miles at a time, and not over 50 MPH. I drive WAY to much to deal with that.

 

My biggest concern now is a planned trip that's coming up. If a Subaru is hundreds of miles from home and a tire goes down, what's a guy to do? Can't wait days to have one shaved so would be forced to buy a whole set on the road where the local tire shop may not be the best, carry the right tires in the right sizes, or even have all of the right size in stock. And I already found out dealers can't shave tires so that leaves them out unless, again, you buy a set of four.

 

I haven't figured out the best way to handle this situation yet and I'm open to input. At this moment, the spare wheel I'm about to assemble is going with us on the trip, as much of a PITA it's going to be to haul it around. I can't be hundreds of mile away running on a donut that's rated for 150 tops, and I can't drop $800-$900 every time something in the road nicks a side wall.

[The Grey Goose]

@hkshooter that's a good point that I never really thought about. I'm still going to keep them listed, but just be patient. If they never sell, they never sell. While your situation is really unfortunate, it's also not a very frequent occurrence. If that ever happens to me I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get there. If you end up wanting my wheels and tires, let me know! I don't think they'll sell any time soon.

[chowser51]

This happened on my last car. I had snow tires put on my 17" OEM wheels and I got 19" aftermarket wheels for my BMW. A year later I hit something and destroyed a wheel.

Called the company and it was no longer made but they could get me a similar set out of China. I sold the tires and threw away the wheels and went back to OEM.

[hkshooter]

Had to take the car back to the tire retailer today, had a faint vibration. They checked and yup, one wheel out of balance by three ounces. Not a tiny amount.

Smooth as it came from the factory now.

 

I tell you what, my luck with this car has been unbelievably horrible. Never again will I buy a red car.

[waldguy]

^^^ ya my white car has no vibration

 

Actually at first I was going to order red and I do like it still.

 

Glad your tire problems are solved!

[sunny5280]

I saw you make a comment about selling your Limited wheels. Let me say, I advise you to hang onto them. You already have a complete set of replacement wheels if something should go wrong with your current in use set. Give it some thought, if you cut a tire or broke a wheel, how long would you be down before you got your car back into service? How many miles might it happen? Would you have to shave a new tire? Buy four new ones suddenly and unexpectedly? With a spare set of wheels ready to go, only as long as it takes to jack up the car and replace them.

 

This is the situation I find myself in and why I'm tempted to buy your wheels. Truth be told, if I hadn't just broke the bank with taxes and new tires I would. I'd much rather have a spare set of ready to go wheels in the back of the garage than have to deal with what I did this last weekend.

 

As it is, I kept one of the old tires and plan to buy a spare wheel to assemble it on so I'll have a full size spare. But even this plan isn't the best because I still can't account for a different amount of wear on the spare wheel against the ones on the car, should this happen again. But at least I'll something besides the donut. The dealer advised only 150 miles on the donut, no more than 50 miles at a time, and not over 50 MPH. I drive WAY to much to deal with that.

 

My biggest concern now is a planned trip that's coming up. If a Subaru is hundreds of miles from home and a tire goes down, what's a guy to do? Can't wait days to have one shaved so would be forced to buy a whole set on the road where the local tire shop may not be the best, carry the right tires in the right sizes, or even have all of the right size in stock. And I already found out dealers can't shave tires so that leaves them out unless, again, you buy a set of four.

 

I haven't figured out the best way to handle this situation yet and I'm open to input. At this moment, the spare wheel I'm about to assemble is going with us on the trip, as much of a PITA it's going to be to haul it around. I can't be hundreds of mile away running on a donut that's rated for 150 tops, and I can't drop $800-$900 every time something in the road nicks a side wall.

 

This topic comes up a lot when discussing run flat tires (as many vehicles that use them don't even have a spare tire and the RFT has similar limits as a doughnut spare).

 

During one of these discussions someone asked how often one has a flat which requires the replacement of the tire (many RFT manufactures state an RFT should not be repaired even if the damage is in a place where the tire can be repaired). This got me to thinking when was the last time I had tire damage which required the replacement of the tire.

 

My thinking is, should this occur, just replace all four tires and be done with it. If a tire requires shaving in order to maintain similar rotational properties of the other three then it might just be a good idea to do so any way. Tire stores are recommending replacement at 5/32" - 6/32" anyway so it might not be as crazy as it sounds given many (most?) tires have 11/32" tread depth when new. It doesn't feel natural to replace tires that still have serviceable life in them. But I guess my point is it doesn't happen often and the cost can be offset by the tire dealer giving you credit for the used tires.

[hkshooter]

I contacted SOA about the diameter difference as asked for advice. They referred me to section 11-30 of the owners manual (which says zero about allowable diameter differences, only says they should be "the same") and advised the tires need to be a minimum of 1/4" diameter of each other. That's a lot, in many cases over half of new tire life.

So, I know as much as I did before I sent the email. "The same" and 1/4" have a mile of difference between them so that information helps me absolutely zero. One could interpret the above as "don't use a new tire with worn out tires" and probably be just fine.

[sunny5280]

I contacted SOA about the diameter difference as asked for advice. They referred me to section 11-30 of the owners manual (which says zero about allowable diameter differences, only says they should be "the same") and advised the tires need to be a minimum of 1/4" diameter of each other. That's a lot, in many cases over half of new tire life.

So, I know as much as I did before I sent the email. "The same" and 1/4" have a mile of difference between them so that information helps me absolutely zero. One could interpret the above as "don't use a new tire with worn out tires" and probably be just fine.

 

Given how long Subaru has been selling AWD vehicles and the length and mileage they see I suspect driving with different tread depths isn't catastrophic. I can't imagine every beat up, high mileage Subaru has all their tires the same tread depth.

 

Personally I'm not willing to risk it and will buy all new tires if there's any doubt. But then I can afford to do so. I know many people cannot. Hence my above statement.

[crisscross]

Ironically, yesterday I noticed the front right tire was totally flat. I filled it with air and looked at all surfaces and saw no puncture and heard no hiss. I drove it to a Canadian Tire that I trust and they showed me that the sidewall was cracked, probably the result of a local pothole. The tires are the OEM Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max things that I find have poor handling compared to other tires I have had in the past. We measured various tread depths and concluded that it would be possible to match within the tolerances the store has for AWD with a new tire. The car is two years old. The OEM tire costs more than twice what a better tire on sale would be, so I saw this as an opportunity to get rid of the OEMs (v-rated Motomaster SE3 - made by Cooper). There was no warranty on the Goodyears but the new ones are covered. The manager said that if one of these gets a sidewall break, he would replace all 4 if it occurs within the next five years. So I went for it.

[sunny5280]

Ironically, yesterday I noticed the front right tire was totally flat. I filled it with air and looked at all surfaces and saw no puncture and heard no hiss. I drove it to a Canadian Tire that I trust and they showed me that the sidewall was cracked, probably the result of a local pothole. The tires are the OEM Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max things that I find have poor handling compared to other tires I have had in the past. We measured various tread depths and concluded that it would be possible to match within the tolerances the store has for AWD with a new tire. The car is two years old. The OEM tire costs more than twice what a better tire on sale would be, so I saw this as an opportunity to get rid of the OEMs (v-rated Motomaster SE3 - made by Cooper). There was no warranty on the Goodyears but the new ones are covered. The manager said that if one of these gets a sidewall break, he would replace all 4 if it occurs within the next five years. So I went for it.

 

Are you certain they'll replace all four tires? I have not seen a warranty that will replace all four tires if one suffers damage. Typically they'll only replace the damaged tire. If so that's a pretty nice warranty.

[crisscross]

Are you certain they'll replace all four tires? I have not seen a warranty that will replace all four tires if one suffers damage. Typically they'll only replace the damaged tire. If so that's a pretty nice warranty.

I was surprised as well. Yes - the normal no-charge warranty doesn't cover damage to sidewalls. But for $40 total fee ($10 per tire) the guarantee lasts for 5 years. so it does do that. I have the policy in print. By the way, I saw that the Motomaster SE3 is made by Cooper and it is similar to one of their premium V-rated tires. The store clerk thought the tire could be from Michelin or Goodyear models but they sell tires as private labels with those brand names but with different model names than the general market. So the name Goodyear Allegra is only at CT. With Cooper, they are always labelled as "Motomaster."

[sunny5280]

I was surprised as well. Yes - the normal no-charge warranty doesn't cover damage to sidewalls. But for $40 total fee ($10 per tire) the guarantee lasts for 5 years. so it does do that. I have the policy in print. By the way, I saw that the Motomaster SE3 is made by Cooper and it is similar to one of their premium V-rated tires. The store clerk thought the tire could be from Michelin or Goodyear models but they sell tires as private labels with those brand names but with different model names than the general market. So the name Goodyear Allegra is only at CT. With Cooper, they are always labelled as "Motomaster."

 

Very cool. I'll have to see if something like that is available for the next set of tires I'll purchase.

[hellreturn]

If you have Subaru Gold warranty or I think Gold Plus (either one, I don't remember exactly) tires should be covered under warranty.

 

Subaru paid 400$ for my tires and I paid another 350$ for all 4 tire replacement when 2 tires developed cracked on side walls. The amount is cut from new tires based on how much your old tires used.

[Paradox]

If you have Subaru Gold warranty or I think Gold Plus (either one, I don't remember exactly) tires should be covered under warranty.

 

Of note, in case others think otherwise, the Gold Plus warranty only covers the original OEM tires that came with the vehicle when it was sold by Subaru. It does not cover any other new tires purchased or even the replacement tires, once covered and repaired/replaced under the warranty.