195/65/15 on front 205/60/15 on rear

[THAWA]

on those cars that were badly damaged, did you stick a fuse in the fwd thing and see if it made any difference?

[ciper]

Well the ones that still could power the rear wheels may have helped, a few had no power at all and on two of those I tested the FWD fuse to see if the dash light would come on (to see if it was shorted) and it did.

One had a used transmission installed and the owner never knew it was only powering the front. I had to prove it to him after he grabbed a jack from the garage! I sort of suspected he may know but whatever.
The other had high mileage so it wasnt surprising that worn tires on the front and thick tires on the rear killed it.

After that I started not to care, I was spending so much time test driving cars I just wanted the people to hurry up and purchase one so I could go test drive them for myself.
(yeah, test driving different cars is sort of a hobby for me. dont tell anyone)

[FrmRgz2Rchz]

I finally got 4 new tires put on on Wednesday, but I think the damage has been done. I hear one of my diffs whining and it's coming from the front. My last legacy's diff whined, but it was a FWD model. It ran fine for almost a year with it whining until reverse went out in it.

I noticed when the tires were changed that there was a considerable more amount of tread on one of the 195's compared to the other one. It seems like if you ever blow out a tire, you have to get all of them replaced or you'll mess up a diff. How are we supposed to get around the whole mismatched treadwear crap so we don't have to get all new tires?

[vrg3]

Some shops do have the capability to bring a new tire down to a wear level similar to your other tires. I don't know if they shave it off or abrade it off.

[rallysam]

If you need to buy one fresh tire on an AWD car, Tire rack advertises a shaving service to combat this exact problem. Delivered to your door with supposedly the right amount of tread (although I can't believe their tolerences are that good.