I have a 2016 e63s. I have flat. It's not repairable. My car only has 3k miles on it. Can I replace just one tire? The car is all wheel drive.

 

3000 miles driving like a grandmother on her way to church? Probably fine. 3000 miles 1/4 mile at a time? Replace at least 2- if your flat was the right rear, replace both rears.

 

Let's just say I am an enthusiast. Lol.
It was the right rear too.
Do I have to change all 4 since the car is awd?

 

I had right rear replaced at 9000 miles under my wheel/tire insurance

The dealer didn't think there was an issue and it's been driving fine, they measured existing tread and told me it was ok

I granny drive most of the time

 

Fwiw dealer just said changing one tire is fine

 

Looks like you got your answer, but going forward, it's worth spending $10 on a tire tread depth gauge.

My 2015 S4 got a unrepairable flat tire at 6K miles, but due to the rear LSD _and_ center differential, both the dealer and tire store said that my tires had to be within 2/32" of each other or I would risk drivetrain damage. Tire store and dealer both said that I would need to replace all 4 tires because a new one was 10/32 and the other 3 tires ranges from 5/32 to 7/32.

Fortunately, TireRack.com will shave street tires for $25, so I spent $265 on one tire (store in SF wanted $1600 for 4) and had them shave it to 7/32". Saved a bunch of money especially because I knew I was replacing it 2 months later with my E63.

 

Change one tire is fine. No need to waste good money.

 

All these years of 4wd and LSD technology advances in trucks and SUVs (think, soccer mums and dads driving kids around in X5s/MLs/Q7s and getting flat tires, using doughnut spares, driving around for weeks or months with 10psi or more differences from one tire to another), you would think manufacturers would have figured out a way to allow varying tire heights to not ruin a whole drivetrain.....Or maybe they have, and we are the ones letting tire shops sell us unnecessary hardware.

If it makes you feel better, buy 4 new tires every time you have a flat. Just remember anytime you turn the steering wheel of the car from off-center, the tires are travelling at different rates. Maybe we should only drive straight to preserve the drivetrain. Also with most cars, one tire wears out considerably faster than the other in the rear even with LSD. So for a few 1000 miles until you need to replace your tires assuming you did not have a flat, you are driving around with different tire heights

 

I think it's a scam too

 

There is a reason why these cars don't have front differentials and why the rears are LIMITED slip differentials. Manufacturers did figure out how to allow the wheels roll at different speeds when turning - that's why they are LSDs and not solid axles. If you have driven a 4WD (not AWD) on dry, clean pavement, you can immediately see what happens when you turn or have mismatched tires.

If your tires are mismatched on an AWD system, yes, you will be fine most of the time. What will simply happen is that the LSD and/or traction control systems will kick in earlier or more aggressively because you're already so close to the limit of different tire speeds that even smaller slips that would normally be ignored have a disproportionate effect on those systems.

[soapbox]
I like to save money as much as the next person, but I really don't understand some of the posts where someone buys a car ostensibly for its high level of performance and then cheap out on the MOST critical components: mismatched tires, all-season rather than summer tires, cheap solid rear brake rotors. I understand cheaping out on floor mats, door pins, stereo repairs, etc, but why not buy an E350 if you don't care about the basic elements of performance?
[/soapbox]

 

I was pretty much on board with everything until the all season tire comment. How is buying a high performance all season tire "cheaping out"?

 

Its not about saving money in this case, if so why do you add gas to your tank if you drive less than 10k miles a year? You should first drain the tank and put in fresh gas if you do not drive for over a week or more (the mentality not the actual act).

Also what does solid axles have to do with LSDs? LSD can are are equipped in both solid and independent suspensions (trucks, mustangs, older camaros, etc etc). And open diffs are in both setups as well

When I say mismatched tires, I do not mean 275/30/19s and 295/30/19s on each side of the car. I mean a tire with 5-10k miles needing to be replaced because you have a nail in the sidewall of the opposite side tire (assuming its not worn enough to be replaced to begin with).

Most cars wear one rear tire at a faster rate than the other, LSD or not. By the time you are past 5-6k miles, your tires are at different heights

 

Hold up buddy. My car had 3k miles. You're calling me cheap because I asked if replacing one tire is cool. Your also questioning my enthusiast credentials? This is funny.

 

In general, high performance all season tires perform worse than good high performance summer tires in all mid to high temperature conditions, including in the wet. In the cold, dedicated winter tires provide much better performance than all season tires, leaving all season tires in a no man's land of compromise. There's a reason why folks say "all season tires are no season tires". While all season tires are okay for a mid-range set of conditions, they leave a high performance car compromised in all conditions as compared to a good set of summer tires and a good set of winter tires. If you have the time, TireRack.com (among other places) has good info and comparison across different tire types.


While your example is extreme, an example that is similar and more relevant would be someone running regular unleaded rather than premium in these cars. I have certainly seen M-car owners claim to do this on BMW forums.

Sorry, I think my post may have been misinterpreted as "solid axle suspension", while what I was trying to refer to was an axle with a solid a.k.a. locked a.k.a. welded differential.

Understood, that was why I recommend a tread depth gauge. In my previous example above, after 1 year and 6K miles, my 4 tires that started at 10/32" ended up at 1 x 5/32", 2 x 6/32" and 1 x 7/32". Fortunately, that difference is within the acceptable tolerance of my S4 (max difference of 2/32"). One benefit of the S4 is that all the wheels/tires are the same, so you can rotate them to minimize wear differences over time. We unfortunately don't have that luxury in our E63s. I'm not saying you can't go outside of the range a bit, but you're simply going to get close to worse performance the larger the diffence is. And yes, while most cars will have bigger differences, most cars made today don't have LSDs and their traction control systems only kick when there is a significant amount of slip.

No sir, not at all! You asked a legitimate question because you wanted more info. In fact, if you read my original post in this thread, I actually suggest how you can safely replace only 1 tire IF it turns out that your new tire would not be compatible with your other ones. I chose the exact same option and DID replace only 1 tire, but I did it in a way to keep my drivetrain from getting damaged in the future (ordered a slightly shaved tire from TireRack).

My rant was actually to 1) others in this thread who say that it doesn't matter AT ALL what the differences are between tire tread depths, 2) some other recent threads that I have seen in this forum about cheaper brake rotors and 3) other threads where people buy wheels with the wrong offsets and then use 15mm+ spacers on stock lugs, etc.

 

I have to respectfully disagree about the all season tires. Not all (all season) tires are the same. I have had Michelin Pilot Sport A/S and Dunlop Sport Maxx DSSTs that were almost equal (9/10) to the summer variants in dry warm conditions and MUCH MUCH better in wet and cold conditions (my GT-R would have ABS kick-in in the wet with the summer tires..not confidence inspiring). These tires are also some of the more expensive tires on the market (more expensive than their summer versions). It isn't about saving money. It is mostly about convenience. I don't want to deal with mounting and storing another set of wheels/tires every other season. And with the rainfall in this area, I would rather have a little better wet grip. I bought the E63 S for its all season prowess. I do not intend on taking it on a road course. So if I lose a tiny bit of grip I will never see it because I wouldn't be going that fast around turns on public roads anyway. Currently the car has P Zeros but would be looking to get the Michelin PS A/S. I did the Conti Extreme DWS tires on my Audi and they felt too "squishy". There was a very noticeable difference in grip (which just wasn't the case with Michelins and Dunlops). So I can see your comments being valid for those tires in particular. But like I said, the other tires were so much closer to their summer variants. Which makes the Tire Rack ratings questionable since the Conti DWS tires are so highly rated, but the other two were significantly better.

Interestingly, Dunlop AS tires were on my GT-R. Those same tires were tested on Car and Driver's Lightning Lap and ran a 2:59 and a GT-R fitted with summer tires ran 2:55.6 that same session. So I agree there is a loss of performance, but I gladly gave up that potential 3+ seconds to have a car that would properly stop in wet conditions with my daughter in the car. And the Dunlop A/S tires performed very well in those conditions. I even ran a 2.82s 0-60 mph on my vbox and a 10.8 1/4 mile time at the track, both without using launch control (FBO mods) so traction off the line in the dry was not an issue.

 

....

 

No worries. I think for the most part people on this forum are pretty cool, but typically as the cars get more expensive the members get older and more respectful of each other.

This just kind of reminded me of other forums where I bought an automatic version of a car and had some Internet badass tell me that I wasn't an enthusiast when my first 14 cars were all stick shifts.

 

I think you have gotten a good reply to this already. Another example is my continental DWS, so close at the limits to the DW, I could not tell a difference except in cold rain where the DWS was much better

Agreed there

Gotcha, but the wheels spend a pretty significant amount of time rolling at different speeds if it has an LSD or open diff

That was the point to my post. It will happen and MOST people do not bother to check unless there is a flat. So after millions of miles with all these 4wd/AWD/LSD equiped cars, we should have stories that reflect excessive wear and tear on drivetrain components as a result. Simply cos most are not as diligent as you in checking thread depths especially when there is no problem

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I thought the stock rear rotors were solid to begin with?

I have used 15mm spacers, you simply CANNOT use the stock lugs, impossible so that's not something anyone can even do. You will not even get two full turns and the wheel will fall off if you as much as load the car on it.