Nail in tire . . . replace all 4 tires?
 

2013 Q5 with a nail in the shoulder. Being told all 4 tires need to be replaced. 24K miles on the tires. Can I just replace the affected tire?

Quattro generally requires all 4 tires to be of the same brand, size, tread pattern and approximately the same remaining tread depth, otherwise the center differential can be compromised as it steps into action even driving straight and heat up. The tolerance for difference in wear of individual tires is 4/32". A new tire starts at 10/32", so if your remaining tires are below 6/32" then you'll be outside of the recommended tolerance if you only replace one tire. Tirerack and other places offer tire shaving services. They will shave down a new tire to the desired thread depth before shipping. That's one way to avoid having to change all 4 tires.

I wouldn't replace the remaining 3 tires yet either...unless they have significant treadware (sp?).

I've replaced a single tire on my SQ5, when I had an unfortunate blow-out, but they were relatively new tires. I had no issues.

But, if you only expect to get 30K-35K out of your tires, then maybe it's time to simply replace all 4.

Remember that the contact patch of each tire (which is only a bit larger than the size of your palm) is the only thing that keeps you stuck to the road. If your tire is old, then it's stiffer and doesn't have quite the grip it had when new.

Just saying,

Jason
New York

I just went through this to about a month ago. I ended up replacing two tires so that both tires on the same axle were the same. I'll live with that for now.

Lemongello get your tread depth measured, any competent garage can do this,heck even my dog could do this.If you've got a 2.0L Q5 you might have tires that can reasonably be expected to live for >50k miles, so you might just be Ok in terms of the variation, it's gonna be close !

+1. Had to replace all 4 of my tires with about 24K miles on them.

I went thru this with a ml350. Measure remaining tread. Go online find used tire from reputable seller with similar tread ware.

As Superswiss said. An honest and professional shop can shave down one tire to match your other three. At 24,000 miles...you are probably throwing away more than half of the life on that new tire. So the question is really, how much life is left on all of them?

I'm totally unimpressed at the original tires that came on my Q5, and having seen the way many similar tires are shot at 30-35,000 miles...If one new shaved tire would cost you $175? All in all? (Tax, shipping, mounting etc.) That's probably worthwhile if you can get another 8-10,000 miles out of the set. OTOH if you plan to keep the car and want better tires, it might just be worth your while to replace them. Price it out.

Same answer as usual... First place I look is EBay to see if there is the same tire available with similar wear used. For a high volume vehicle/size like many for Q5, you might find one.

Exactly.

I was working at a shop where the customer replaced 2 tires with new rubber and left tires on with just a little tread on the other axle. Ruined the diff
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