[CivicEM205]

I managed to pickup a nail in the sidewall of my driver side rear tire this past week. I ordered a new Goodyear LS2 OE replacement tire, but, I'm starting to question whether or not I should buy another to replace the rear?

As far as I know the tires may have as much as the mileage of the car, 13,200 miles. I purchased CPO with 9,200 on the odometer (so maybe they were replaced before sale). Either way, what are your guys opinions on just replacing the one tire?

BTW - as far as I can tell all 4 still have a great amount of tread left.

 

[jginnane]

I managed to pickup a nail in the sidewall of my driver side rear tire this past week. ... what are your guys opinions on just replacing the one tire?

BTW - as far as I can tell all 4 still have a great amount of tread left.

This depends partly on the tread design. If it's unidirectional, then each tire rotation swaps front-to-back on the same side. If it's bidirectional, the tires swap in a criss-cross pattern, right-rear to left front, left front to left rear, left rear to right front, and right front to right rear.

For unidirectional tires you may be wiser to replace as a pair -- both fronts, or both rears. The tire store will recommend where you put the new pair. (It used to always be rear, then they switched the recommendation to front a few years ago for best steering. Either way, you'll still rotate in 5,000 miles.)

Bidirectional tires which have been properly maintained and rotated develop less of a set so a single tire replacement is probably OK. But make sure they're all wearing evenly, when you're up on the rack! If the tires haven't been rotated in 13K miles, you'll probably see distinct wear patterns.

 

[Patronus]

I have heard that replacing one of two tires is OK if the older tire is in the first 20% of its life.

Measure the tread depth of the new tire and the old, subtract 2/32" (considered worn out) from each. Comparing the new and old results, if the old is 80% or greater compared to the new, you are golden. If less, replace the old tire, too.

 

[mkh]

Did it on mine for pretty much the same reason. Left rear with a nail in the sidewall. Wife had the E across town, took it in to Discount, but they had no OEM Goodyear in stock. The recommended replacing it with a Uniroyal with similar tread pattern, which is what we did. Drove it for 7K miles with no issues at all - until I just recently replaced all four tires due to wear on the other three tires (kept the Uniroyal for a spare).