How important is it to have both your rear tires have the same amount of thread?

[Lundqvist]

okay well stupid question, im sure its important they both have thread and have it be the same amount.

but i guess my question is lets say.. one of your tires has 90 percent thread in the rear and the other has 20 percent thread..

does this physically hurt your car? like your differential for example or axle..? or just does it hurt only the tire it self?

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

It can because the clutches in the diff are constantly creating friction then, burning the fluid and ruining the plates.

 

[Martin]

Possibly not, but it depends on how fast you're going to be driving and which rear end you're using. If you have one wheel turning faster than the other, your differential is going to 'see' that as one wheel slipping or 'see' it as you going around in a circle. Might not be a problem, but there's the potential there for your clutch packs in the limited slip differential to overheat and burn up. I don't know exactly how tolerant the various rear ends are in these cars are, but I do know of situations where the differentials in some other cars actually caught on fire because they heated up so much. Those were situations where the car manufacturer provided a space-saver spare, and the owners of the car used them at speeds higher than the listed 'safe' speeds, and drove for longer than the 'safe' distance.

If it were me, I'd keep the rear wheels the same diameter as each other...

 

[ILLSMOQ]

It can because the clutches in the diff are constantly creating friction then, burning the fluid and ruining the plates.

I agree with Mark

 

[ROCKET62]

So a follow-up question would be - what would cause an imbalance in tire wear . I ask this as when I was changing the fluids in my Viper earlier this year, there did seem to a substantial difference in tread wear on my rear tires - say 60% wear on the left and 85% wear on the right. These are PS2's with approximately 13,000 miles on them.

I did change the differential fluid and it did seem to be pretty nasty. Friction modifier was added and I used Lucas 75/140 synthetic gear oil.

The wear seems to be consistent across the width of the tire, and I do plan to have a 4 wheel alignment check done before replacing. I have been debating on if I would get new tires before or after VOI - but may drive out on the old set and have a fresh set installed right before the fun begins on the track out in Salt Lake City.

(My situation seems to be different than the person that started this thread as it sounds like he blew a tire on the freeway. If I blew one of my rears, I would definitely change both, but I'm a bit of a tire freak - and why risk it?)

 

[Black Moon]

Also interested. Pulled off PS1's recently and the LEFT tire was 80% gone while the Right was only about 40%. I would have thought the right would wear out first?