# subaru tires



## pliaco

i got a flat tire on my subaru and i was wondering if im supposed to change all 4 tires ?? i also herd that i could shave the other 3 tires and taht would save me a bit of money. any one have any tips on this?


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## yustr

If you just have a flat, first see if it can be safely fixed. If not, then evaluate the wear on the old ones. If there's substantial wear, i'd go ahead and replace all of them before i tried having a new tire shaved. (Maybe there's a way to do this that can ensure the diameters are within a very narrow band :4-dontkno )

I just got done replacing the viscous coupler in my 99 Legacy. I can't say it was caused by uneven tires because I did replace all 4 at once. But i hear that uneven tires can cause this problem - and at $1K to fix I wouldn't take the chance.


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## Midnight Tech

Never heard of shaving tires to make them even....I just replace them as they wear out.
Yustr...just HOW MUCH of the car did they have to take out to replace that coupling?


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## yustr

From what they told me it involved removing most of the exhaust manifold. Then part of the trany. The part alone was $500 :SHOCKED:


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## johnwill

You need to, at a minimum, insure that the two tires on the same axle are the same, or very close. If you check the boot, I think you'll find they recommend replacing the tires at least in pairs.


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## JamesO

Agree with John, it is not wise to mix and match tires on an axle. Could become unsafe in extreme handling situations. 

As for shaving tires, this can be done, but hard to find someone with the equipment. I have only seen 1 tire shaving machine in my lifetime. Typically done to reduce the tread depth on new tires for road racing purposes. Can also be done to correct cupping and uneven wear problems. 

Best to keep tires balanced and rotate more often when tires are new and have deep tread depth. As tires wear, the tread lugs flex less, so you can typically extend the rotation mileage quite a bit.

Also watch tire inflation. Typically 1 psi change per change in 10 degrees F. You would be surprised how much pressure changes from cold inflation to operating temperature. Tires typically run about 20-30 degree hotter than outside temp at highway speeds with full sun on the road in summer months. 

Just drove 6000 highway miles on new tires. I was surpised how tires wore in this distance. But on reflection, I forgot about all the hot dogging and hard corners I ran through the mountains. They definitely need the 7500 mile rotation NOW!

JamesO


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## ALVERONI

*Something to remember*

Something to remember with radial tires is to only move the tires from front to back on the same side,don't X them,since they need to roll in the same direction once you've driven on them a while.You can cause some real problems with belt seperation if you run them in the opposite direction.Your right on about the pressure being important too,that seemed to be something that came up alot when Firestone and Ford had problems with the Wilderness HT's on the SUVs.


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