I have a nail throguh one of my tires(close to the sidewall), so I am looking to replace the tire. I went to sears and the mechanic there told me that it would be wise to replace ALL 4 tires at once, because the difference in the thread wear(3 old tires vs the new) could potentially damage the Transmission in the longer run. My old tires have run 36,000 so far(I am not a very aggressive driver) & I think I can probably squeze another 1000-2000 miles on these old ones.
I know Im lucky that its almost replacement time(for the tires) even if I have to replace them all- but just out of curiosity, is the mechanics statement true, will the difference in the thread count actually affect the transmission?

Thanks for the time!!

 

the simple answer is, no it won't.
if you change the tire size and or rim size, then yes it is possible, but not if you are using the same tire sizes.

the simple fact of the matter is our cars are not AWD cars.
they are RWD cars that have a FWD assembly that is switched on and off as needed.

each axle has a differential which is specifically designed to handle variations in the rotation speed of each wheel.
the trans has a center diff to handle variations from front to back axle


if this was true then u would have to replace all your tires when the rears started to show a little more wear the then fronts. and no one does that

Audi and Subaru have true AWD.

 

Thats great.Thanks for the input snowcrossmxz