sailorman

I've read and heard that with 4 wheel drive or all wheel drive that when you replace 1 tire it is advisable to replace ALL 4 tires...to make sure that all 4 tires are similar due to wear and tear...or you will not get the same performance/handling. I have about 32,000 miles on my 2005 RL and although do not think I'll need to do it soon...with winter coming on and all that bad weather I want to know what I have to do.

nmariani

Tire wear depends on your driving style, conditions, the roads you drive on, and of course the type of tires you have. I would say that many AWD vehicles such as the RL require tire replacment more than conventional drive sedans of the same class. If one or more or your tires seems to be badly worn, or your wear indicators are bald, I would definitely look at replacement. Having good tires, especially with winter coming are much more of a safety concern.

GoHawks

Depends on tire wear. I had a similar situation with my Landcruiser recently. For those who don't know, Toyota Landcruisers are full-time 4wd.

Last summer I took the truck in for service and during the courtesy inspection they told me the tread depth was 8/32 (new is 11/32). The tires had 50K miles on them. We took a small road trip and I got a flat. The hole was in the shoulder of the tire and couldn't be patched. I could put a plug in it, but it wasn't advisable to use it full time. Since I have a full size spare, I figured I would swap out the spare and use the repaired tire as the spare, but was concerned about the difference in tread depth between the spare and the other three tires.

I called the dealer and they said that the 3/32 wasn't enough cause issues, namely overheating the transfer case or affecting the stability control. If my tires were down to 4 or 5/32, it may have been a different story.

Now that's the Landcruiser which is a heavyduty SUV. The RL might not tolerate much discrepancy.