One new, three old tires

[Haldis Toppel]

A car ran into my right rear tire and it punched a whole into it. Their insurance replaced one tire. The remaining have about 4/16 tread left. Should I ask for the replacement of at least the other rear tire? Is it unsafe or undesirable to drive with different depth and age tires?

 

[mdram]

i usually replace at least in pairs

some AWD cars say all 4

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah - pairs is the standard. Your car is tilted now.

98% of the time you won't notice the difference but in an emergency you might have an unexpected handling problem.

 

[jlee]

4/16ths or 4/32nds remaining on your other tires? 4/16ths (8/32nds) is nearly-new tire levels of wear (the Michelin Premier A/S is 9/32nds brand new, Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S is 9-10/32nds, etc).

 

[JulesMaximus]

What do you mean by old? How many miles have you driven on them? When were they mounted on the vehicle? What kind of vehicle are we talking about here?

 

[ondma]

Most mechanics and tire shops, I think, recommend that all 4 tires be of the same age and model. Of course they have a vested interest in selling tires. I would be reluctant to have different tires on the same axle. 2 of the same on one axle is OK though. I have been driving my personal car with Michelins on the rear and Continentals on the front for nearly 2 years without problem. The insurance company really should have paid to replace both tires on the axle where the tire was damaged. However if you have already accepted the one replacement tire, it probably would be difficult to go back and argue for the other.

I would agree with Dave though. In normal driving you most likely wont feel any problem. However, there might be some loss of responsiveness in an emergency maneuver or in rainy of snowy conditions.

 

[Pacfanweb]

i usually replace at least in pairs

some AWD cars say all 4

Yep. Make sure the new one isn't on a driving wheel.

And having 2 old tires and 2 new can really foul up some AWD cars.

I remember seeing SUV's with AWD come in where they had 2 new tires on the front, complaining of a shuddering.

What was happening was the rear wheels were turning a bit faster than the front due to the worn tires, and the computer thought they were slipping so it kept kicking power to the front axle.

 

[Midwayman]

FWIW Tire rack offers (or used to anyways) a shaving service on new tires. They can match existing tread depth.

 

[JCH13]

FWIW Tire rack offers (or used to anyways) a shaving service on new tires. They can match existing tread depth.

This. Some tire shops do this as well. There's no reason to mis-match diameters if you don't want to.