I have 4 Michelin Symmetry tires on the RX right now, the front passenger tire has a flat. It looks like I won't be able to have it fixed. I'm going to be getting new tires at the end of summer or beginning of next winter.

The Question: Obviously till the end of summer I'll need a tire on the passenger side. hahhah. I have a Bridgestone tire, same size 225-70-16. Can I put that on the passenger side? I've done it before on other cars, but never a car with AWD. Will this cause any issues, I know that Subaru's can't have mix-matched tires on their 4WD or AWD cars, but what about the RX? LoL

If I did put on the Bridgestone, I'll be using it along with the 3 other Michelin tires for probably about 6-7000 miles, as I'm going to be making many road trips this summer, 2 times to Michigan, 1 time to Chicago, 1 time to Ft.Lauderdale, Florida, and 1 time to Atlanta, Georgia.

 

tOUGH QUESTION...Most garages now wont even sell you the single tire...something about liability if the transmission fails...I have been in this situation, Costco made me buy four new tires... If you do put the odd tire on I would suggest the rear as 90% of the drive is on the front...just my take..The rear axle is probably more tolerable than the front transaxle... good luck

 

How much tread is on the Bridgestone as compared to the others and is it the same type ie. touring, grand touring etc.. If the one is new and the others are half worn, it would not be good as it would be spinning at a different speed.

 

The bridgestone has much more thread, and it also has an agressive thread pattern, similar to the michelin cross terrain.
The symmetry's don't have much life left on the front tires, the rear tires have a decent amount of thread left.

 

What may happen is that you may notice on acceleration (say off a light) that the one particular tire will hop. I have had the situation in Mexico where I replaced to rear CrossTerrains and then didn't replace the front two (money at the time (they were $250 USD a piece down there), kept going to the track, driving for a few months, then go the new tires. I didn't have any real issue there, but I did take a look at the gear oils/transmission fluids regularly for any issue.

 

My neighbor is a mechanic for Toyota...I asked him about this and he told me just that "tire companies don't want to sell you just one tire". Basically, it is total BS that you can RUIN a transmission by having one tire with different tread on it. Think about it...how much sense does it make to buy 4 tires because one has been irreparably damaged?

Really??

 

I wouldnt risk it.

 

I tried to fix the tire, and somehow it worked! The patch was big enough to cover the leak, so it looks like i'll be keeping the tire. lol

 

I actually work in a tire shop and I would say I would never mix-match on a AWD or even FWD/RWD for that matter. Not so much about the transmission faliure which actually can be true in certain cases when mixing speed ratings. If you have a FWD or RWD the tires on the same axle should be identical and they are different typr of tyres this ones that one side is grabbing traction different from the other which can pull to one side or fight with the other side cause premature wear and ****ty ride quality. In a case such as using a spare donut trie they should not be used on the drive wheels unless necessary and only temporary. As for AWD vehicles 90% of the time they will come with a full size spare just because of the fact they should not use a different size nor model. If in the future you only have to replace 1 tire do yourself a favor and buy the same one matching the rest and not stinge out and get a single cheap replacement, its not worth it.

 

If you do change one tire put it on the rear...drive to the rear is only about 10% most of the time so any foreseen tranny issues would be eliminated...

 

It wont hurt at all space saver wheels would be proof enough.

 

I think every tire I have has different tread amount on it. They are all the same brand/size, but all of them have worn down differently and had one replaced with another used tire. So far, no problems.
I wouldn't run a different make/model tire on the same axle, but a little different tread shouldn't matter.
What happens when a tire gets a little low on air, is it going to pop your axle?