Bad couple of weeks with Legacy
 

2011 2.5i base. About three weeks ago I pulled into a gas station to fill up a canister for my garden tractor. I decided I would top off the Subie but when I pulled the gas door release lever the door didn't pop open. I took it to the dealer who reported a broken spring. Took them three days to get one and replace it under warranty. Fast forward one week. I get a flat tire from a nail in the sidewall. Go to a tire shop and they say since the tires are 7/32 that Subaru requires me to replace all four. Go to Subaru dealer closest to my work who says same thing. Car has 16k miles and Subaru insists on four new tires because new tires have 10/32 tread versus 7/32 of my remaining three. "it's because of the AWD" they said. BS. I drove a Wrangler for ten years and I know all about tire sizes and transaxles. I called the dealer I bought the car from and they said "not a problem at 7/32" except there were no Turanza EL400's anywhere locally. It took a week for one to arrive on order and they charged me $25 to install it. The tire itself was $145! Not any cheaper anywhere else. Total bill: $182. Really not happy with Subaru right now although I love the car.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=18

tire rack can also shave a tire to your desired depth

how is Subaru at fault for any of that?

Anyone who says putting one new 10/32 tire on an AWD car with three 7/32 tires will cause issues is full of sh!t. Subaru included. You can get more than 3/32 from tire pressure variation alone - not to mention the temporary spare which I had to use for a week. With all the shimmy issues in this redesign one would be flirting with disaster to use a non-matching replacement tire. Neither dealer had an OEM replacement tire in stock. They don't even carry the OEM brand.

Here's a link to how Symmetrical AWD works on a Subaru:
http://drive2.subaru.com/Win09/Win09_ItsWhatMakes.htm

There is a big difference between 4WD on a Jeep, which uses Transfer Cases and I think Jeep has several different versions, versus Subarus Symmetrical AWD. You DO need to keep all for wheels spinning at the same speed and revolution or bad things happen to your AWD system.

That was a great excuse to sell three turdanza's on craig's list and buy new treads. Many other four wheel drive cars a purely mechanical. Subaru has sensors on each wheel that determines wheel spin.

Youre right, that amount of variance can be done with tire pressure, that's why you should check them regularly.

The Subaru AWD system can't be damaged by 3/32 difference in tread depth. Granted you can't put one fifteen inch tire on with three sixteens, but 3/32 is nothing. I've got no complaint with buying a set of four at 4/32, but if the cost of Subaru ownership is $800 in tires every year due to typical road hazards then owning a Subaru isn't worth it.

Amen to that Mike.

Dealers and tire shops will push the issue just so nothing can fall back into their laps.

At the end of the day, ~3/32" variance is nothing.

I'd put a good used tire on it before I paid up for a new replacement to match the shiddy factory tires.

Dunno where you're located, but I've mail-ordered from BestUsedTires a few times with excellent results. Those guys are excellent.

Joel

3/32" difference in diameter is roughtly 3/10" difference in circumference. do you know what the acceptable variance is in circumference? ive seen 1/4" quoted on the forum FWIW.

my first subie was a used second gen leggy many many years ago when i was in college. It was purchased used and had three 205's and one 215 series tire w/ the same sidewall profile (55 i think) and it was enough to fry a diff(several thousand miles) before i realized that there had been a mistake by whoever mounted the tires

ditto

Joel, how have you liked your car since you bought it? My daughter has recently bought a new Legacy and I am interested in your opinion. Any gotta watch out for this? John from the Santa fe days.

PomanzAWD
 

Just came to this site and saw you Joel. Still own my 03 Santa fe, but my daughter bought a 2012 Legacy 2.5 recently and wanted to know if there are any gotta watch areas here. And what are your impressions of your Legacy. You should have owned it long enough by now to give me what you think. Was it a good switch from the santa? John from Colorado

Buying tires from a dealership?

This thread reads like a...

"BAD COUPLE OF WEEKS WITH MY NEW BUYER..." thread posted by a 2.5i.