My 04 Forester has a nail on the edge of the tread.. so close to the edge that the tire place says they can't patch it They also said that with a Subaru, I have to replace all 4 tires because of the electronic all wheel drive system. HMM, I guess I sort of understand that as a single new tire will be slightly larger around then the existing tires. The tires I have on the car have about 24,000 miles on them.

 

Anyone else run into this situation? and thoughts?

 

I was thinking about buying the old fashioned tire plug kit (rather than a patch) from the local auto parts store and giving that a shot. Bad idea?

You cant patch a tire that is has a puncture on anypart towards the side wall or the side wall itself. the tire flexes the most at that point ans the plug would either get torn or leak. It's dangerous to plug a sidewall.

This being an AWD car, the tires must be within 1/8" circumfrence of each other to prevent from frying the AWD system. This is true for subaru, audi or any other quality AWD system.

SInce you have a rather large amount of miles on the tires, you have a few choices.

1- buy a new tire and have it shaved.

2- buy 4 new tires

You can also buy 2 tires and put them on one side of the car, but if and only if you dont have a limited slip differential. I really dont recomend the last one. I am just throwing the option out there since someone else is going to mention it.

 

nipper

You cant patch a tire that is has a puncture on anypart towards the side wall or the side wall itself. the tire flexes the most at that point ans the plug would either get torn or leak. It's dangerous to plug a sidewall.

This being an AWD car, the tires must be within 1/8" circumfrence of each other to prevent from frying the AWD system. This is true for subaru, audi or any other quality AWD system.

SInce you have a rather large amount of miles on the tires, you have a few choices.

1- buy a new tire and have it shaved.

2- buy 4 new tires

You can also buy 2 tires and put them on one side of the car, but if and only if you dont have a limited slip differential. I really dont recomend the last one. I am just throwing the option out there since someone else is going to mention it.

 

nipper[/quote

I agree with nipper on #s1& 2 !

Having a '99 Forester myself I have priced the all wheel drive components, and trust me, none them (OEM) are cheap. Think Merceddes, BMW here.

New tires seem like the least expensive way to go

I had to learn about this one the hard way.

 

When I got my car, and had just joined the board, I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it and why it didnt like turning. As I later found out, it was torque bind, and it was caused because one tire was replaced before the other which cooked the AWD components. Cost over $1k to fix it.

 

Trust me, four tires are a lot cheaper in the long run.

IMO, I would take it to another shop and see what they say. There is a fine line about when and where you can patch a tire ( or plug it). The tire shop I worked at recommended replacement if the hole was more than a 1/4 inch beyond the diameter of the tread at it's lowest point, or in different terms,from the bottom of where the tread starts plus a 1/4 inch into the sidewall but if the puncture is going into the tread even at it's lowest point it was repairable,this won't work on any kind of low pro tire though.Of course if it is in the sidewall at all fork over the bucks now before you regret it later .

I have used this philosophy on all my vehicles including my truck that pulls heavy loads( 9000 plus) and have never had a failure.

John

If you have more time than money check for a used one. My former AWD Jeep had this problem and since we have a giant flea market in San Jose I was able to find a pretty good match for wear. A lot of tires shops have used tires and Craigslist has tires sometimes.