I went ballistic------almost..

That's Bullshit. Go elsewhere. I've never heard of that.

 

Did your friends truck NOT have an oil gauge or a functioning idiot light?

 

Ok here we go and no one please take this the wrong way.
Yes on a 4wd and AWD all 4 tires must be the same.
Why rolling resistance tread needs to be the same on all 4 tires
and can not be more them 4/32 of tread from tire to tire.
Look at this way some one does do the two tires for you
and you will always find someone that will but lets says
after its done something goes wrong with the trans or
the diff you take it to a trans shop or the DEALER.
He says look at this all 4 tires are NOT the same.
SOOO now you go back to the tire guy and want him
to pay for a new trans bc he should have know better.
Beleve me guys i see day after day.
We would love to sell you just two tires its better them selling
none. It should say this right in your manual
It does in the ones for Audis and BMW

 

They probably got sued at some point. If it's their policy they should still have at least a waiver releasing them from liability. I just bought tires from wal-mart and in fact they had a sign with a picture that showed if only 2 tires are replaced they need to be put on the drive wheels. If this is Wal-mart it must not be company wide policy.

 

that's rediculous. call up the 1800 number for that company and complain.

 

The issue is with the overall circumference of the tires which if I remember correctly have to be within something like 2% of each other front/rear or you will be have drivetrain binding issues when 4x4 is used on pavement because the axles will want to spin at different speeds and there is no slippage in the drivetrain to accomodate this. If you only engage 4wd on lower traction areas (mud, etc.) then this becomes less of an issue because the tires are able to spin more freely. The same issue is common on 4x4s built with mixed axle brands where the gears sets are not the exact ratio (ie. 4.11 gears in the front and 4.10 in the rear.) where the same sized tire will spin at slightly different speeds. Personally I think that people who use 4x4 as a crutch rather then a tool deserve to grenade their drivetrain.

How does this apply to duallies and larger trucks that are still 4x4? Duallies commonly run a different model steering tire and driving tire and they are not required to be the same, even on a 4x4.

 

I use to buy 2 tires at a time with my Expedition all the time. How can the person there tell you how much money you want to spend that day.

 

I drive a Suzuki SX4 AWd car for work and regulary get tires put on. Never once did the garage try to put on all 4 new tires. Many times they just installed one new tire.

 

That's what I think. Costco has weird rules.

 

screw that its a bunch of BS i would have went insane if they had told me that

 

I worked at Discount Tire for a little over a year.. and never heard of someone having to get all 4 tires done.. unless the back two were "unsafe" to drive on.. and then its kinda like we cant let you because we can be held reliable for not replacing tires with belts showing.. etc

 

It's definitely a liability issue... I worked as a tech. at Les Schwab for awhile and they had a policy like this (or similar): If a customer came in to buy new tires and did not want to replace all four, we had to check the wear specs. on all the tires. If the customer wanted to leave a tire on the vehicle that was past the max wear, it was considered a liability for the company so we would do our best to talk them into replacing all for. If a customer only bought tires of their choice and drove off with a tire that was unsafe and was involved in an accident, they could pin it on the company. IDK about dually or the 4x4 situation. A prior post kinda makes sense about the abs system though.

Now, if the customer insisted on doing it their way I've seen a number of times where they would just go ahead and give them what they wanted, but inform them of any safety issue.

 

I work at a BMW/MINI dealership have never heard of this I see the BMW tech change out 2 tires all day long on AWD cars....only policy we have is is not patching Run Flat Tires.

 

I'm calling SHENANIGANS!

 

sorry, don't know. B.C. has some weird laws

 

OK, what if you only need one tire due to a blow out? The other three have, say 25k on them. Will they force you to buy all or even 2?
Also, they sold you the tires, why did they not inform you of that policy at the time of purchase?

I'll call it BS.

Yuma Taco,

 

I've heard of the differential issue before on 4X4's, can't say whether I believe it or not. But when I've had 2 tires replaced on my work van, they put the new ones on the front, not the drive wheels. Their reasoning was to prevent hydroplaning.

 

and or going into a turn that is right

 

Oh no! Not that again. How does this keep happening? Damn shenaniganuristas!

 

I'm just going to throw the bullshit flag!
If this was true, how come cars come with a small donut tire ?????
as for 4x4s, if there the same size tire, there fine.
This is just how tire sales make more money - period.