Replacing 1 snow tire?

[wallaceg]

Today on the way home from work the right front tire on my 97 Imp wagon (125k, 4EAT) blew out. Put the spare on the right rear, moved the right rear tire up to the right front, put in the FWD fuse, and drove home. The tires are Bridgestone Blizzaks with ~5k (one winter) on them.

 

Here's the dilemma: I just put the snow tires on for the winter two weeks ago. I do this at Thanksgiving since my parents are kind enough to let me store the tires off season in their garage (no place to store them at my apartment). As far as I can tell I've got 4 options:

 

1) Replace the blown out tire with an identical match. I'm aware of the risks of mixing non-matching tires with AWD, but perhaps the tires are new enough to not cause a problem? The rule of thumb I've heard is that the tires must be the same brand/model/size and tread depth must be the same to within 1/32".

2) Replace with 4 new snow tires.

3) Drive 3 hours to my parents' house on the doughnut and put the all-season tires back on. These tires have ~35k on them already.

4) Replace with 4 new all-season tires.

 

Option 1 seems most cost effective unless it trashes the transmission. Options 3 and 4 leave me without snow tires for the winter (AWD helps you go in the snow, but it doesn't help you stop---snow tires do). Option 2 is the safest, but expensive in the short term.

 

What would you do?

[subiemech85]

option 1 is probably the best option, have it shaved if necessary

is the blowout a warranty issue?

option 2 is also good, consider the firestone winterforce

option 4 walmart has some nice meaty "all season" douglas xtra-trac a/w, did I say meaty?? loads of traction, especially in gravel and muddy roads

 

made by goodyear

NT COMPANIA GOODYEAR DEL PERU LIMA PERU

 

 

Douglas Xtra-Trac

 

The Douglas Xtra-Trac A/W features an all-season tread design and good resistance to hydroplaning, said the company. Available in 12 whitewall sizes ranging from P155/80R13 to P235/75R15, the Xtra-Trac A/W is constructed with two steel belts, has a polyester cord body and carries an M&S rating. DOUGLAS TIRES, Cumberland, MD

 

some info may be outdated and not applicable to every tire

[jp98]

Depending on how many miles you put on last winter I would believe that you should be ok by just replacing that one tire. I would however have the tire shop check the diameter of the new tire vers the old ones and then make the decision. With tires going 50,000+ miles now there might not be that much of a difference.

 

Jim

[CNY_Dave]

The tire size difference allowable is the largest tire must be within 1/4 of an inch in circumference of the smallest tire.

 

 

Dave

[forester2002s]

nice meaty "all season" douglas xtra-trac a/w, did I say meaty?? loads of traction, especially in gravel and muddy roads

 

Don't be misled by the look of the tread on 'all-seasons'. They may be good for mud, but they lose grip at low-temperatures.

 

Best to get proper 'snow-tires', which are made with a softer rubber which grips the road better in the cold (below about 5C or 40F).

 

You can do the fingernail test yourself: bury your fingernail into the rubber, and you'll see the difference between the softer snow-tires and the harder all-seasons.

[msmithmmx]

I had this same dilemma on Wednesday. I have 98 OBW all 4 tires are the same make and model. The fronts had 40% left and the rears are at 60%. I had a front tire go flat do to bad tie rod and inner tread went bald. No way I was dropping 400 on 4 tires. I got one new tire and went on my way. I have a 200 miles with no issues and no torque bind. I will address my worn suspension issues later.

[StructEngineer]

I'd take a tire gage and measure your remaining Blizzaks and if a new tire would be out of the 1/4" threshold for your transmission, then order a blizzak from http://www.tirerack.com and have them shave it to your specified diameter.

 

There's no reason to buy 4 new tires unless the 3 you have are trashed for some reason. 5000mi could be a significant amount of wear on Blizzaks depending on how warm it was when you drove on them.

 

And in the meantime, you want worse traction up front to prevent tailspinning. It's easier to slow down when making turns (front end sliding). Therefore I'd say move your spare to the rear.

 

 

 

Don't be misled by the look of the tread on 'all-seasons'. They may be good for mud, but they lose grip at low-temperatures.

 

True, but also to add winter tires are misleading because they give you poor handling 100% of the time for gains only in on-the-snow and below 15 deg conditions. For most of the US, this is not a good tradeoff.

[CNY_Dave]

I had this same dilemma on Wednesday. I have 98 OBW all 4 tires are the same make and model. The fronts had 40% left and the rears are at 60%. I had a front tire go flat do to bad tie rod and inner tread went bald. No way I was dropping 400 on 4 tires. I got one new tire and went on my way. I have a 200 miles with no issues and no torque bind. I will address my worn suspension issues later.

 

The fact that you had such a difference in treadwear means you've been flirting with torquebind for a while. Hopefully, you continue without problems.

 

Dave

[zyewdall]

True, but also to add winter tires are misleading because they give you poor handling 100% of the time for gains only in on-the-snow and below 15 deg conditions. For most of the US, this is not a good tradeoff.

 

My snow tires don't handle significantly differently than the all-season's I run in the summer. Gas mileage goes down a little, and they are noisier, but other than that, not a whole lot of difference. You sure can tell the difference in snow though -- the all seasons are useable, but pretty easy to put the car into a slide. The studded snows you have to try to put the car into a slide (it's still possible, but you have to try). My commute usually has portions that are packed snow and ice (with no guard rails on the cliffs... gotta love Colorado's guard rail theory) for at least four or five months a year, too.... down in Denver I probably wouldn't care quite as much because snow melts in a day or two and it's flat.