Volvo V50 - mixing tread depths - Jon P

Mumsie has a Volvo V50 T5 AWD fitted with Bridgestone Turanzas which have been on the car for about 2 years and have covered 10,000 miles max. They are wearing well and evenly but are definitely "part worn".

Today, one of these tyres failed in operation and got shredded.

Question: Can a brand new tyre - with lovely deep tread - be fitted to the car without damaging the "four wheel drive" transmission system?

Volvo V50 - mixing tread depths - Paul G1pdc

hi. great car,,anyway the question...

I used to own a AWD impreza, and my boss owned a impreza P1 from new for 100,000 miles and now drives a freelander...pressure from the wife for a comfy seat..he said...

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anyway...tyres on awd cars should be replaced in axle pairs..ie both rears or both fronts...

i read this advice in impreza magazines, and on line forums for the model, as you can imagine you get difference rolling road radius with new and old tread (to a small extent but more importantly...) different amounts of grip, can add ware on the mechanical awd system. ie the lower tread tyre in the wet will want to spin, but the other side still has grip...hence ware issues on the awd system.

the subarus where also fitted with bridgestones as standard, my father in laws on his second legacy also awd, and hes also followed the advice hes found about tyres in axle sets...

paul.

now v40 phase 1, and hers v40 phase 2. brother in law owns a v50,

Volvo V50 - mixing tread depths - likerocks

I'm sorry - this is probably unhelpfully ambiguous but I once heard of someone who wrecked the centre diff on an XC70 by changing front and rears seperately. They were supposed to be done as a full set of 4, apparently.

This is 3rd hand info so maybe more people can comment? I also don't know how the 4wd systems differ? I would imagine (uneducated guess) that haldex-diff'ed systems would fair better than permanent 4wd?