Hi all ,
im going to ask a stupid question that will get a few people heated up I’m sure but I just want to see if anyone has input. So I replaced the tires on my old lady’s 07 rx350 awd 0ne year ago . The Toyo celsius’ on it were at 50% but I got bulge in one of the rears so had to replace them all of course. Got the Michelin cross climate 2’s on now and I love theses tires but unfortunately I was having a little fun in the snow yesterday and bumped into the curb at about 10-15 kph . It was fun till it wasn’t and I had that thought “ I hope I didn’t just cost myself money there “ . Well now I’ve got a wobble, shimmy , whatever you want to call it . Gets going at about 70-80kph I know the possibilities of course and naturally I’m hoping a weight came off the wheel and it just needs a rebalance. BUT here’s my question: If I have separated the tread on the tire , is there an acceptable amount of wear loss or lack of therefore where someone could replace just one tire ? Obviously it’s a very bad idea in almost any sense but what if the tires are at 95 % tread? These have 5k on them . Is that still going to mess up the drivetrain? Any thoughts?

 

I wouldn't worry about replacing just one tire especially since they have 95% of their tread left. I got lazy and didn't rotate my tires when switching to my winters twice in a row and with a good 2mm difference between the tires, there was no issues with the car until the set ran low and I replaced all four. Generally, the car has pretty close to equal wearing tires unlike my '14 RX which usually runs in FWD, unlike our cars that use the (superior) 50/50 split full-time AWD. This was on my 2002 Highlander which has the same viscous coupling transfer case, rear differential and AWD system as your 07 RX. Having a flat or different-diameter (eg: 225/65 on one side, 225/60 on other) front tire on one side would probably screw the VC t-case up because it wants to keep both front wheels spinning at the same speed. If you're worried about it, you could put the two 95% ones up front, and one 95% and a 100% new one at one of the rear corners.

 

I did the same last winter, got 4 new Cross Climates, then hit a kerb in the snow, which deflated the tyre. On refilling all seemed fine at first, but it became apparent there was a slow puncture. I too had done around 5k on the tyres and just replaced the one, so I wouldn't worry about it. Hopefully though in your case you just knocked a weight off and will only need rebalancing.

If you do need to replace one, and it bothers you, then just make sure you have the best pair on the rears, but at that mileage I wouldn't be too bothered. Also remember that Cross Climates are directional, so if rotating you can only rotate front to rear, and not across the axles.

 

If the tread separates the tire looses air, I don’t think the tread separated but you may have damaged the rim.
you should take and post pics.

 

The wheels/tires are likely out of balance after that BUMP you hit while doing donuts in the snow. have them re mounted and re-balanced. If thats not the problem, then you're looking at more money to solve this and a headache. Like a cracked rim..

 

Already great posts.
Having a chance of a cracked rim would scare me.
It would be easy for a tire guy to pull the wheel and inspect rim on BOTH sides and then spin it up on the High Speed Wheel Balancing machine and see what's going on.

They can also see if it's "out of round" when it's spinning up on the machine.
So much for guilt free fun in the snow. haha
Cheers!

 

Thats one of the negitives of directional tires vs asymmetrical tires as you can xcross rotate the fronts them & drop the fronts to the rear as well as have the same type of spare tire as well.......Sounds like a few of you guys need a truck or Jeep project....

 

Not a big deal for me as I don't rotate tyres, in fact it's not a very common practice this side of the pond. If the fronts wear quicker then I just replace them when needed, and then move the rears to the front and put the new ones on the back. That way I'm only shelling out for two tyres at a time, instead of a set of four. Spare is a space saver, which in some ways is better than an expensive full size tyre that may never get used.