HI all. Can I replace just the front tires on my 2018 IS 300 F Sport AWD? Your thoughts? I live in Colorado and do both highway/city driving and need to get around in the snow. Thanks.

 

You could replace them, but only if your rear tires are not very worn. Also, you would want to use similar tires (i.e., stick with all-season if your rears are all-season).What tread depth do you have remaining on your rear tires?

I've replaced even individual tires before, but my decision was predicated on the other tires being relatively not-worn.

 

Yes, you can replace just the front tires only, no issue. You can also replace them even if the rears have almost no tread.

My front to rear ratio on a 2014 AWD is fairly substantial (255/45/18 rear and 225/50/18 front) with no issues (even tho the tires are fairly oversized for the car). If there is an issue, the dash will give you a warning light that tire diameters are not within the tolerances that the transaxle can manage. This is a built in "fail-safe" that Lexus has on our cars. I've been running this set-up for 45K miles.

Finally, I run different tires front and back. backs are Continental DSW's and fronts are Continental PureContact. Very different tread designs.

 

Great info thanks I had also always been curious on this as well...tire places will swear up and down all 4 must be replaced if they're not within 1/32 in my area for an AWD vehicle due to the tires having a different circumference and thus spinning at different speeds

 

For an emergency situation yes. But personally I think as long as both fronts (or rears for this matter) are the same (brand/thread life,size of course), you will be good.

I'm guessing the rears' threads are still good that's why you're only doing the fronts?

Some here might say if it's AWD then all 4 tires needs to be replaced.

 

Tire and other car theories abound on all car forums, with many folks simply repeating what they've heard or Googled. I've been running this setup on several cars for over 15 years with no issues.

Best of luck!