juruki

iTrader: (2)

How bad is it to just change one of the tires for a brand new one if the rest of them dont have that much life left? I know the tire shop recommends changing 2 at a time (front or rear) but im kinda short on money these days... Is it safe? Am i gonna get uneven wear?

TzarChasm

Safe, yes.
Uneven wear, yes.

stillhere153

iTrader: (1)

get another used one then, better than having 3 at 60 and 1 at 100, I would say 3 at 60 and one at 80 is batter

juruki

iTrader: (2)

But its hard to get used ones in 245/35/19

stillhere153

iTrader: (1)

aaaah I see I figured you were running stocks, now i read your signature and see you are running the hiros

see if you can get 2 falken tires new then, and put the 2 news in the rear
or put to 2 nexens in the rear, not great tires but hey when your pushed for cash what else is there, they don't provide exceptional treadwear nor wet traction, but for their price are decent enough
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-or-4-NEW-245-3...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/245-35-19-BRIDGE...QQcmdZViewItem

S PAW 1

Safe-absolutely not!
uneven wear- who cares if you have little tread left on 3 tires?
The handling characteristics between the new tire, and the 3 worn will be as different as night and day, especially on wet pavement, and cornering. One tire has traction, 3 have marginal traction.
It would be best for you to change them all IMO.

enigmaos

iTrader: (4)

check out craigslist.org for local deals.

Tripnbeats

safe? no, your alignment would be so off its not even funny..better off getting new ones all around.

AZN.M3NACE

it should be safe... im running 1 brand new michelin in the front right and the rest are yokohama all seasons. but since your short on money, replace the front 2 or back 2 first. before i had 2 michelins in back and 2 yokohamas in front.

KJSmitty

Please,,,,,,

Having the same size tire only new would have no significant effect on the alignment. Your only talking probably 1/4 inch difference in total diameter. You would/will definitely want the new or different tire on the rear and two like tires on the front - this would keep the minor difference in rotational speed/distance etc. constant on the drivetrain.


Juruki, I had the same issue as you with my PS2's. Ended up with a flat on the rear one night and didn't notice/get pulled over quick enough prior to damaging the sidewall. My tire shop gave me a used "non PS2" Michelin that was near new for free. Same issue, I didn't feel like waisting $225 on one tire when I would be replacing them all within a year. However, did not want to throw the remaining life of the other 3 away either. I really wanted to buy four new ones but I'm just not one to waste money under a non safety issue like this. Especially given how fast performance tires wear.

Bottom line, the Michelin I received however, not exactly like the others, was in perfect shape and was/is by no means a hazard or alignment issue to the car etc.. It's been on the rear of my TL for about 5K miles now with no effect. Does it bug me - it did for a week or so but now I don't even think about it. Besides, I will replace them all when the rain hits TX here in the next few months.


Cheers

Adobeman

"kinda short on money" <> (07 TL Type-S + ATLP CatBack Exhaust + AEM CAI + 19" AXIS Hiro)

At least get two and throw them on the back. Not the front unless you want to get all ass-backwards when your dicing it in the wet.

juruki

iTrader: (2)

Shhhh im saving up for the ATLP J-Pipe lol

I went to a tire shop and got a used yokohama for the time being till the rest of the tires wear out. Im gonna change all 4 tires together later on.
Thx for your help

avs007

It will effect VSA tho... It may think that one tire is spinning faster than the other... This happened to me when I had RE960AS on the rears and Pilot Sport A/S on the front. Apparently, the RE960AS are 1/10" bigger in diameter. Coupled with the fact that my fronts were already 2% smaller than stock. My VSA kept kicking in on even mild turns. It was braking my front left tire, such that it kept causing the tail to kick out. I replaced the front Pilot Sport All/Season with RE960, and my problem went away. (And no, it wasn't caused by traction differences, because taking a 35mph curve (that is rated 45mph) is not going to lose traction... Plus if I turned off VSA I was able to take that same curve at 80+mph without any problems)

Also, you don't want to run one new and one old on the drive axle, cause that may cause torque steer, among other things.

stillhere153

iTrader: (1)

^ that is why the vsa should be off when you are either running the donut or different tires

juruki

iTrader: (2)

Thats good to know. Thank you. I never thought about turning off my VSA when i had the donut.

KJSmitty

And you shouldn't have to...
If it caused a problem it would be noted in the manual. However, their are enough comments about driving speeds and distances when utilizing the donut to cover everything...

The VSA system "could not" be designed to "notice" or "react" to a 1/10" difference in tire diameter. Again, if this was "true", a statement in the manual would reference the need to keep tires "extremely evenly worn" let alone perfectly inflated on all four corners etc.. And even if the VSA was effected it wouldn't wait for a "corner" to kick in.

Bottom line, I understand what avs007 is considering. avs007, I'm not stating I without a doubt know my statements are fact either :-) - Just playing devils advocate not to mention my engineering mind etc. thinks differently.

I know for fact however that my right rear tire is at least 1/4" difference (larger) in diameter than the other 3 corners. I have had absolutely no VSA anomalies/activity since the tire was installed - and I like my 70 mph off-ramp corner each morning as well.. Nor did I have any issues while rolling with the donut for the 60 miles that I had to... Other than my ego

Drive safe!

avs007

Just to clarify, this incident happened on my G35 Coupe, not my TL. The tires are staggered. The fronts I had on were already 2% smaller than stock, becuase I went from 225/45-18 to 245/40-18. There was about 70% tread left on those Pilot Sport All/Season.

The rears were 275/40-18, which is the same rolling size as stock. The rears were bald when I replaced with 960AS. The new RE960AS were 1/10" bigger than new Pilot Sport A/S. I then had the problems mentioned above. I'm not alone, as many G owners had similar problems. It was mentioned many times on those boards that two tires that are supposedly the same size may not be the same size when you compare across manufacturers. When I replaced the fronts with RE960AS, the problem went away. It could've been a combination of the fronts being 2% smaller than stock, and the rears being brand new, and 1/10" bigger than new tires. Since the G is RWD, that could've affected the VSA when I was cornering, because if the VSA thinks the rears are spinning faster than the fronts on a curve, it could think the tail is sliding out, which is prob why it was braking the front left corner, to try to get the tail back in. But since the tail wasn't sticking out, it just caused the tail to kick out.

I don't think it's a stretch to think this is what was going on. The system is probably designed to take tread-wear into account, and since the fronts were already 2% short, that put the calculation on the lower end of the spectrum. The bigger rears probably threw it off...

If you think about it, Acura already recommends tire-rotations, which in and of itself implies even tire wear. In your case you probably didn't notice anyhting, because the rears are not drive wheels on the TL, so it didn't weight into the calculations as much or something.

But like I said, this is just my as to why you shouldn't mix tires (especially on the same axle).

benike84

The part about the donut and the VSA is noted in the manual if i recall correctly.

KJSmitty

You are very much correct!
Manual states the donut could activate the VSA.

I looked on the way home after thinking about it and my "manual" statement. Given the possible significant size difference - especially if not at the posted 60psi, I could see the difference effecting the VSA logic.

I never noticed nor saw the VSA light come on during my 60 mile embarrassing drive with the donut. However, after changing the flat I did drove all of a block to a gas station to pump up the donut given how flat it looked when I first put it on... I actually put about 70psi in it. Not on purpose but I didn't have my gage with me - probably had it pretty close to the tire size etc.

Good find!
I would also recommend everyone check their donut occasionally for proper inflation in the event you have to use it. I bet mine only had 15 psi for that first block...

Thanks for the correction benike84

Tripnbeats

u think it wouldnt make a difference in alignment dude ur crazy..... I had just bought type s rims because it was time for tires so i got rims n tires for 1000 brand new take offs. tread was at 100% i drove around for about lets say 9000 miles one tire blew pretty bad so i ordered a new one and put it on.... the car was drifting afterwards and it was a tire on the back not even the front.

KJSmitty

Fully understand,
I'm not saying you didn't experience strange "handling" feelings/anomalies with the different tire. I think what you are saying is the new tire made your TL "feel like it had an alignment issue". But it didn't actually change your TL's alignment for the worse etc.
Bottom line, "Alignment" is a mechanical adjustment. So unless when they swapped the tire they decided to mess with your "alignment settings," the tire and resulting "feel" had nothing to do with your alignment.

Now, tires "can" do strange things.
Even brand new tires can cause a car to pull to one side or the other. Has nothing to do with the alignment, rather the belts in the tire causing a pull. I've had this happen 4 times with new Goodyear tires. One of the reasons I no longer purchase Goodyear products.
Different tread patterns, sizes, sidewall rigidity, and different rolling resistance between tires can also cause strange effects. Top that off with some vehicle suspensions being more "tolerant" than others to differences and you may or may not feel it.

I'll finish by asking: How did you finally fix your issue? New tire/tires or did you actually go in for an alignment??

Cheers

Tripnbeats

r u kidding me bro??? the guys at acura wont even touch the car on the alignment machine if the tread wear isnt close and/or if the tires dont match. if you have a slow leak they wont touch it. the tech said to me it all makes a difference your adjusting the suspension to work the right way with ur tires n rims and everything else in association. you arent spinning around on struts your spinning around on rims n tires that have to keep going straight. take the rim off ur right side n put it on the left and put the left on the right on the front end and see what happens.

jtkoo7

don't forget the tire with more tread will stop faster than the other one. So if you have to floor your breaks with uneven tires you might end up ........... not where you expect.

KJSmitty

No I'm not kidding,, "bro"
- yet I am done trying to explain a simple engineering/mechanical issue to you.

"take the rim off ur right side n put it on the left and put the left on the right on the front end and see what happens"

NOTHING would happen!!

I could swap my tires/rims around from any of the corners and it would have zero effect on "vehicle alignment.


Sorry for the semi thread hijake Juruki...

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

This alignment vs tires/wheels/what-have-you debates have been discussed a lot before. The answer is, no matter what you wheels or tires you have, alignment won't change, just like what KJSmitty says.

I even asked Tirerack once to confirm this. His answer is somewhere in one of my posts in the past.

If Tripnbeats were correct, wouldn't you have to realign your car every time you have a flat, rotate the tires, etc? (Hint, the answer is NO).