I've been extremely slack about rotating the tires on the '98 OBW (5MT.) The fronts are much more worn than the rears, but all the tires still have quite a bit of tread left.

 

There's no torque bind or any other symptoms. I will measure the circumference of the tires and change them if they are more than 1/4" off, but assuming they fall within that spec, do I rotate the more worn tires to the rear, or will the car be dangerously tail happy in wet/ snowy conditions?

 

The current tire industry recommendation is to always have your less worn tires in the rear, regardless of the drive configuration (i.e. FWD, AWD, RWD.)

 

Any experience or thoughts on this?

 

Nathan

Are the worn tires worn unevenly?

What is the difference in tread depth between front and rear?

I'd just rotate them and go with it. I don't think you'll do any major harm to the transfer unit if you rotate the tires now and leave them for a while so the less worn tires catch up to the more worn ones.

If you had half tread on one end and brand new on the other then there might be reason for concern.

Manual transmission's are not nearly as troublesome with regard to tire size. It's the automatic's that have to worry about torque bind typically.

 

I would just rotate them and call it good.

 

GD

non-issue, you're fine. rotate tires front to back, this is standard subaru stuff here, done all the time.

You should be fine, as long as they are fairly close in size. I corded two front tires in an autocross and replaced them, I never had any problems even though the fronts and backs didn't match brand and were just under a 1/4 inch off.

Thanks to all of you who chimed in. I'll measure the circumference and rotate if they're within 1/4"

 

Nathan