The reason a four wheel drive car is fussy about tyres is arithmetic rather than anything mysterious. A tyre with eight millimetres of tread rolls slightly further in one revolution than the same tyre worn down to four, because the extra rubber increases the radius. Over a mile that small difference adds up to several turns of the wheel.
On a two wheel drive car nothing cares. On a car sending power to all four, the centre differential or the coupling behind it spends every mile absorbing a speed difference which is never going to end. That component was designed to cope with a difference for a few seconds in a corner, not permanently on a straight road.
Which is why we gauge all four before anything gets ordered for a car like that. Where the remaining tyres are close, a matched pair can go on. Where they are not, the honest answer is a full set, and you should hear the reason rather than be told it is simply how it is done. Handbooks set a limit on the permitted difference and the figure varies by manufacturer.
What is actually on the van decides whether this works, so it is worth saying. It means a set can go on in Morden Hall, in Morden Park or at a kerb in between to the same standard as a workshop, and it means nothing has to be booked in for a second visit. A St Helier cul-de-sac or a Ravensbury main road, tell us which. A tight terrace in Ravensbury or a narrow bay on Central Road is usually workable.
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Four wheel drive and all wheel drive cars are ordinary in Lower Morden and around Morden Park, doing school runs and one long trip at half term rather than anything rugged. That use pattern is what hides the problem, because a mismatch never announces itself in town. Fitting on your own driveway means all four come off the ground and get measured.
An all wheel drive estate needing one tyre after a sidewall cut. The other three measured within half a millimetre of each other and were barely worn, so a single matching tyre was the right answer and we said so.
A car booked in for a pair turned out to have one front tyre four millimetres deeper than its partner, with a different pattern besides. Left like that, the front axle alone was feeding the transmission a permanent disagreement.
A family in Lower Morden with a heavy 4x4 and a long trip booked replaced the whole set at once, in the middle of a quiet week. Matched size, matched pattern, matched depth, and the spare given a look while the tools were out.
Not always, and anybody who says always is not measuring. If the other three are near new and match each other, one tyre is fine. The moment there is a real difference in depth across the car, replacing in fours stops being a sales line.
That belongs to the maker of your car rather than to us. Most handbooks state a maximum difference, usually expressed in millimetres of tread depth across the vehicle, and they vary between makes. We measure all four and work to what your handbook says.
Yes, and arguably more so. An on demand system spends its life reading wheel speeds to decide when to engage. Feed it a permanent difference between axles and it either engages when it should not or wears out the clutch pack doing it.
It is smaller on purpose, which is exactly the problem, and it is why those spares carry a speed and a distance limit printed on them. Treat it as a way of getting somewhere, not of finishing the journey.
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