2002 4x4, and spare tire questions...

[jrford]

ok I am driving x with limited slip rear diff. So my qustion is if you got spair tire that is not as much worn as the other four and you need to use it. How is the best way to do it? Take the 4x4 fuses out? use it at front or rear?

imho - i would treat it like the little donut spare, that is usually is no more than 50miles and 50mph. Taking the fuse out or relay would work for 4wd (switches on the dash) for longer.

If it has LSD and mismatched rear tires it would cause the LSD clutches to heat up and wear out prematurely. Same as AWD, it has a viscous and is always on, no way to disable it other than removing the front driveshaft.

I'm also doing a 5-tire rotation just to avoid this problem. With 5 tires in rotation and say one blows out at half life you can switch to a 4wheel rotation and i would think the 50/50 rule would be OK for the remainder of the other tires life.

 

[jrford]

I think he was just trying to sell me tires. What effect would that have?

Not necessarily as there have been problems in doing that, owners manual says it too.

The effect would be the 4wd drive engaging when it shouldn't, binding in turns etc. which can cause damage to the drive train. Search on something called a 'Chalk test' which will tell you how far they are off or if they are close enough. post the results.