I've just arrived at work to discover that one of my rear tyres has picked up a puncture and been running flat. (I thought the car was handling strangely, and it's a credit to the design of the tyre and wheel that it didn't come off the rim IMHO).

I'm guessing that the tyre ought to be replaced, although it is holding air and should get me home OK. The question is, how many tyres do I need to change? There's about 5-6mm of tread left all round.

Gut reaction is that I should change the two rear tyres, but I have a nagging feeling that I should change the fronts too to reduce load on the centre diff. Has anyone ever had any problems from changing tyres two rather than four at at time?

Another issue is what to replace them with; they're Bridgestone S-02PP's (215/40/17) which I gather are next to unobtainable - and I need the car sorted by tomorrow lunchtime at the latest. Rceommendations please?

Cheers
Andy.

I had one rear tyred punctured when in France last year. The french Subaru dealer replaced both rear tyres. The insurance company objected their engineer saying that only ne should have been replaced. However spoke to the dealer in the UK who said Subarus advice was unclear, and they would replace the tyres on the same axle.

Insurance company eventually agreed and paid for both tyres (was claiming as the puncture was part of an attempted break-in claim).

As regards the specific brand of tyre I think you'll have to take advice from the tyre dealer!

Chris

Andy

Had two new rears sometime back, got a punture in one after around 3K miles, could not be repaired. Because the OK tyre was pretty much like new, hardly any wear i just got one tyre of the same type/make to replace the puntured one, This was at a fitters who i really trust and know about Scoobs.

I can speak from personal experience on this one.....

A few years ago I had a blowout so I asked around and the concensus was to replace a pair - I was a bit concerned that I was wasting money, but I did it. I had the OEM Bridgestone RE010's on the back and put a couple Bridgestone SO2's on the front.

Everything was fine for several months, then one day I was out in the rain - it was the first rain following a long dry spell - and I was coming round a bend at a speed I felt comfortable at - well below what I thought was the limit (it was an exit off the A1 so I was also well under the speed limit). Half way round the fairly tight bend the back end just let go - very fast - I couldn't catch it - and ended up facing the wrong way after having belted the kerb - hard - with the back wheel.

I took a chunk out of the wheel and bent various parts of the rear suspension - but it could have been way way worse !

After that I simply pit it down to some spilt diesel or something on the road - got the car fixed which cost over £2k !

It was a month or so later that I went on the Wetter the Better course on the MIRA wet handling circuit. Don Palmer (the instructor) took my car out for a lap and then asked if I had any tread on the back - I had over 4mm ! The car handled so badly that it was all I could do to get the car round let alone learn anything ! The only person who enjoyed themselves in my car thad day was Simon De Banke because going sideways was especially easy !

I drove home slowly, put on 4 brand new SO2's the following week and returned to MIRA. It was a completely different car and I had a great day out. Thanks to Simon who persuaded Don to give me a nice discount on the second outing !

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense - different tread patterns & rubber compounds will give up grip at different levels. Therefore depending on your driving style you could be fine 99.9% of the time, but when you do hit that limit one set will give up before the others and what is a progressive handling car turns into a snappy monster.

I drive my car sensibly and well within the limits which is one reason it took me so long to realise I had a problem. However, I will never, never mix tyres again and cringe when I see or hear of other people doing it.

What is the point in having a high performance car if you can't trust it ? It really isn't worth saving a few hundred quid IMHO !

If you have to change just one - then it has to be the same tread pattern and preferably similar tread depth.

Ooh, ow!

I think, or at least hope, that yours is an extreme example - the OE Bridgestones are terrible compared to the S-02PP, so you did have a particularly unbalanced set-up.

I now have S-02PP on the front and a nice new pair of Toyo Proxes T1-S on the back; the fact that these are both highly regarded, sticky tyres gives me some confidence that the overall handling of the car shouldn't be too badly affected. That said, for another £200 or so, maybe it's not a bad idea to change them all.

A.

I replaced fronts only last time and I've had no probs, other than noticing that the original tyres give in before the new ones !

(Although nothing TOO dramatic!)

The dealer said that he'd never heard of anyone having trouble when swapping one axle only - the diffs seem to be able to cope.

Mark

Not really anything constructive to add, only looking for some sympathy. Put a new set of Toyo Proxes T1-S all round two weeks ago. Was in the States last week for work, so with only a couple of hundred miles to scrub them in, guess what?? Going to work yesterday along an icy backroad, rear end feels a bit loose, I put this down to the snow /ice, gets to work to go on a stress management course & rear off-side is nearly flat!! Self tapping screw in the middle of tread.
Thinks that should be easily fixed, back to tyre dealer to find that inside the tyre are 2-3 handfulls of black shavings & the answer that the tyre is scrap!!
Still, lets be philasophical - why replace only four tyres when you can do five!!
Jeremy - still feeling gutted

*sigh* consider sympathy administered as requested :)

I wouldn't have been so upset, had I not had five new tyres fitted to my Westfield the day before - I'm now rather good friends with my local fitter!

A.

Just a quick note to agree about the tyres. I've just bought a 99MY turbo with SO2's on the front and a SO3 and a re010 on the rear. The car refuses to brake in a straight line in the ice, with the rear swinging violently towards the side of the re010. All the tyres have at least 5mm on them but it didnt stop the car sliding down a shallow icy road for about 300 yds at a constant 10 mph. Unfortunatly the only thing that stopped me was the back end of a vw polo who was supposedly trying to warn me it was icy!!! Even in the dry, it doesnt seem a clever mix of tyres, as the car feels like it needs air in the rears, thought it doesnt. I think when I get the car back from the bodyshop ill try a set of Toyos

I've decided to err on the side of caution - two more nice shiny new Toyos coming next week.