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all tires of same tread necessary??

is it true that on all wheel drive cars all 4 treads must be the same??

Can the front be of 1 tread and the back of another tread??

Reply to
catherine mason
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No, but the front should be the same, and the back should be the same.

Father Guido ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I plan on living forever... so far, so good

Reply to
Father Guido

With AWD they have to be the same or you will screw up your AWD system

Reply to
GC

It is claimed that the circumference must be the same front to rear, but why would the tread need to be the same?

Reply to
John Varela

As long as they are of the same circumference there's no problem.

Reply to
Richard (UK)

Without any scientific evidence to back this up, I've never felt comfortable with putting different varieties of tires on a car due to their different driving characteristics. Nature seems to appreciate symmetry.

Reply to
BBB

please, please, please!!! use the same tires front and back on an AWD. few years ago I had to put (actually, the insurance company) different pairs front and back on a 1997 2.2 Sport Impreza MT. few thousands miles after, the car started to make small sudden pulls with every shift.... it spent more time at Subaru Service than anything else.... after several attempts without results, some guy at the garage noticed the tire difference............

problem solved!!!

and just to be more energetic, the 4 tires were same brand, same size, same specifications, _only_ different tread! Subaru didn't cover it, and I didn't want to go back with the insurance company. but the service did cover evreything else they tried ;-)

cheers,

MO

Reply to
Matias Orchard

Subaru uses two types of AWD systems, one for the 4EAT and one for the 5MT.

With the 4EAT there is a hydraulic fluid shift within the transmission that transfers power from front to rear and back. If you have different tires on you may overheat the transmission as well as not get the benefits of AWD. (If you are using the small spare, there is a place for a fuse to disable the AWD or VDC so as to not harm the transmission with the doughnut)

With the 5MT you need to still use matching tires all around to get the benefits of AWD but there is less likelihood of damaging the AWD system on your vehicle.

Marc S Natick Subaru Sales snipped-for-privacy@rcn.com

Reply to
marc

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