Will the wear on these tires damage my differential(AWD)

98Explrrrrer · May 13, 2013

I have read on here that mismatched tires can damage your differentials with an AWD system would that also be the case for a tire that is worn out from someone neglecting to get proper alignment.

These tires and rims are available on kijiji @ a great deal 32x11.50 x 15 but from the picture 2 tires look to be worn more on the inside .

What are your thoughts ?

Thanks

98Explrrrrer · May 14, 2013

26 views and no answer help a newbie out.

R1dd1cK · May 14, 2013

It is just to hard to see anything with that pic. It is too fuzzy.

rookieshooter · May 14, 2013

Go ahead and run them. If your concerned just put the two tires that are worn about the same on the same axle. Then after awhile they may just start wearing more evenly. Then rotate them. Just my opinion.

general x · May 14, 2013

So after some searching online, my understanding of the tire wear issue is that different sized tires (due to wear) cause the input and output shafts of the transfer case to run at slightly different speeds which causes heat/wear to viscous couplings and/or center differentials. I suppose you could run one worn tire on one axle and the other on the other axle to balance out the wear and hopefully come up with a matched pair of tires on each axle. If they're worn that excessively then I suppose that would transfer the stress to the differentials in your axles but I can't think of anyone ever stressing about tire size differences across axles to any degree.

The issue seems to come down to overall tire diameter; if the wear is only on the one side and the tires are overall turning the same speed you technically should be fine? Please keep in mine I do not own an AWD nor have I played around with them, just trying to understand them better while giving you some info you can use to make your decision. I think some better pictures or measurements might help the better informed with a more official decision but I imagine the pic provided was from the ad and may not be easily availble

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=18 Was fairly informative, hopefully not too biased towards simply selling more tires.

IAmTodd · May 14, 2013

I believe you can have 1/4" difference in tire diameter before it becomes and issue. That might be a bit on the conservative side.

Runnin'OnEmpty · May 14, 2013

That amount of wear is negligible and should be fine.
There's a lot of tire 'slippage' with the road, especially
with front tires when steering, so I wouldn't worry
about slight wear differences.

The tread pattern looks like BFG A/Ts...???

Turdle · May 14, 2013

rookieshooter said:
Go ahead and run them. If your concerned just put the two tires that are worn about the same on the same axle. Then after awhile they may just start wearing more evenly. Then rotate them. Just my opinion.

With the v8 awd system being always engaged, all 4 tires must have the same wear pattern and overall diameter.

To the OP
Stand all tires up on the tread. Make sure they are all the same height. Use a level across all 4 treads to check for less than 1/4" difference.

Will the wear on these tires damage my differential(AWD)

98Explrrrrer

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98Explrrrrer

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R1dd1cK

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rookieshooter

general x

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Turdle

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