MarcoNorthPolo

If a SH-AWD has three tires that are good with 7/32 inch tread on them, and one tire needs replacing due to a sidewall chunk missing, is it possible to replace just that one tire? A new tire has 10/32 inch tread, so there would be 3/32 difference between them. I wouldn't want to mess up anything in the driveline, but the tire shop has said that it won't affect anything due to the minimal difference between the treads. Just looking for your input. If tires were cheaper I wouldn't have a problem, but the 19" tires go for 394 a piece.

Crashmaster

I don't think the 3/32 difference is enough to make a difference. The first 1/32 of a new tire tends to wear off quickly, so that makes only a 2/32 difference. If it was me, I would go ahead with what the tire shop said and take the vehicle and keep your eye open for any problems. Keep in mind that it's not uncommon for tires to wear differently without causing a problem on your car. For example: say you forget to rotate your tires. Excessive tire wear will set in which also won't set a trouble light. I say go ahead and just replace one tire.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

you could also head to a used tire store to pick up two lightly used tires.

NBP04TL4ME

I tend to agree with others here and say replacing one tire is fine. For me personally, when I have had to, I have replaced in pair or sets. Just out of curiosity what tires are you looking at for 394?

deanoatkinson

To me your are fine to replace 1 tire. I have 1 at 10/32 and the rest are 5/32 or 6/32. Same thing happend.

The car has SH-AWD. Which means power is sent to each wheel independently. I could see a small issue if it was a locked 4 wheel drive setup where they all turn at the same time at the same rate. Even with that stated what happens when you turn the car... tires move at different speeds without any problems. So i personally think its BS who ever came up with that.

01acls

If you're whining about $400 then you won't like a bill of $2000+ for replacing a differential.

Whether 3/23 is ok or not I wouldn't risk it. Even if that is acceptable there will be additional wear due to the difference in circumference. Just not enough difference to cause damage to the differential. Keep in mind that excessive wear is cumulative.

I would do whatever it takes to keep the tires exactly the same including circumference... Shave the tire to match, two new, used but unlikely given it's not a common tire.

I don't think it's worth the risk to nickel n dime something like this. This is the price you pay for driving an AWD vehicle.
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losiglow

iTrader: (1)

It's not the same system, but my Honda Pilot seems to be fine with having different wear on tires. Reading on Piloteers.org, a ton of people have encountered situations where they used tires at different treadwears and none have had any problems. However, like I said, the Pilot 4WD system is completely different than the SH-AWD so it's not really apples to apples.

MarcoNorthPolo

It's a replacement OEM Eagle RSA. I'm not happy about the tire choice Acura went with for OEM, but until these are used up I'll have to live with them. The shop gave me a deal for $313, but it still hurts lol. Thanks for the replies. I ended up calling the local dealer and spoke with their service manager. He said it wouldn't be a problem at all, so that's what I did. The actual depth of two of the tires was almost 8/32, so it's even less of an issue.

deanoatkinson

I was able to pull this from a honda manual.

Tire Replacement Acura recommends that you replace tires in sets of four, or in pairs, front or rear. If you need to replace only one tire, mount the new tire opposite the tire showing the least amount of wear. For instance, if the left front tire shows the least amount of wear, mount the new tire on the front right side. The original tires on your car have tread wear indicators to indicate when they should be replaced. The indicators appear as bands about 12.7 mm (1/2 in) wide when the tire tread depth is less than 1.6 mm (1/16 in). When indicators appear across two or more grooves in a row, you should replace the tire.

In short, best tires go upfront.
In my cars case.
FL is 8/32 FR is 10/32
RL is 5/32 RR is 6/32

Secondly you can order a new tire and have it shaved down to match. If my 8/32 tire wasn't so new and was like the rear's then you could have it down to 6/32 and just replace the 1. Way cheaper than replacing all 4 after every pot hole.

Crashmaster

Keep in mind that your temporary spare tire is MUCH MUCH smaller and Acura says that you can use it up to 50 MPH. If it caused damage, Acura would supply a full size spare.

mlody

I hate to revive the old thread, but I am in the exact situation. Our TL has only 19k miles on the OEM tires. They are down to between 6/32 and 7/32 and we are in a need to replace one of the tires due to sidewall damage.

What did you end up doing? Did you go with one tire or two tires or all 4 tires?

mlody

The only thing with that is that you are not suppose to drive on the spare tire for few years, only few days and only up to 50mph like you said; hence, the tire is not the exact match cause it probably wont matter for such a short period of time and driving conditions.

dregsfan

I would have the new tire shaved to match the tread depth of the other tires. When I bought my car the dealer had replaced the 2 front tires with new OEM Michelins, likely due to the previous owner not doing any tire rotation for the 27k miles he or she had it, I had wet weather cornering issues with new on front and 27k used on the rear. Switching the new tires to the rear helped some, but didn't eliminate the squirrelly handling. So at 35k I replaced all four tires with Pirelli P Zero AS +. Solved the handling issues, and the Pirellis are considerably better tires overall, and cheaper than the OEM Michelins.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

The thing is, your tires are all now four years old, and with such low mileage, they may start dry cracking pretty much any time. Now might be a good time to replace all four skins.

MarcoNorthPolo

mlody

Thank you for brining this concern! Valid points given the limited information; however, in my case, this was actually my 2nd set of the OEM tires. The TL we got was CPO with less than 30K. The original tires developed nasty vibrations cause the car sat on the dealer lot for many weeks due to the Takata recall before the dealer was able to sell it. After going back and forth with the dealer, they agreed to replace the tires, so these tires are about 18 months old. If they were the original tires, I agree, I would have replaced them all without questioning myself

mlody

We also ended up replacing just one tires and the mechanic at the dealer said pretty much the same thing. After a week plus driving the new tire already lost 2/32 of the thread so now all the tires are within 2/32 from each other.