Costco did not want to sell me new tires...

You're legal in Iowa until the you hit the wear bar indicator.

Seeing with a quick search that 4/32" is the recommended point to replace in order maintain wet performance. 6/32" is about half worn for most tires. Some start at that new.

Nice of them to double check with you, and now your Falkens are on someone's beater.

 

Still good for several months sounds like a dangerous game to play

 

If 2/32" can wear away in a couple months, that tire would go from new to bald in less than a year.

That amount of wear is more like one to two years for non sport tires.

 

You might want to consider a different tire rotation plan that cycles tires a pair at a time. This can still ensure quality rubber while getting the maximum life from them:

• Rotate drive wheel tires left and right to even the wear.
• Rotate the non-drive wheel tires left and right to even the wear.
• When drive tires get too low:
  • Buy new replacements for that pair
  • Rotate non-drive tires front and back with the new tires

This approach means the worn out pair are the ones replaced by the new tires. They get rotated to the drive axles. The other pair of tires handle drive wheel wear until they get thin enough to replace.

Bob Wilson

 

Falkens in the gen 2 prius size are very reasonably priced. I had a set on my 2007 Touring and I was very happy with them. At 2000 miles per year, these tires will likely need changing due to age/sidewall cracking prior to wear.

 

They were probably running late on their appointments and were hoping to make up some time by postponing you. Costco also has free rotation and repair appointments to fit in.

They always have a sale but they change the sale brand every month.

 

Bob Wilson

 

So what tires did you get?

 

Did you ask if you can pay the sale price today and wait a few months to install? That's what I would of done... People waste so much money on replacing tires too soon. What's worse people don't practice how to recover from losing traction in inclement weather, usually overcorrecting from losing traction causes someone to crash, not having 1/32nd or more or less tread.

 

That sounds more like a plan for "southern winters". Many "northern winter" drivers prefer matched tire conditions all around, for more predictable and controllable handling in poor traction conditions.

I'm also unsure if this post concerns her Prius, or her Subaru, of even if both those cars are outdated and gone. But if it concerns a Subaru, than the "replacing tires in pairs" plan is simply a no-go. The AWD system has a limit for how much tread depth mismatch is allowed.

Personally, I would have kept those tires longer, re-checking tread depth the next time I swapped with my winter set. But then, I haven't experienced the severe crash injuries and recovery process she has unfortunately suffered. Even though those weren't related to her tires, such experiences change one's priorities.

 

Decent price for arguably the safest all season tire out there. I went with them last year after three Central Texas ice storms in the last three years.





I did get a Michelin $110 rebate as well. You might want to check on a similar rebate.

 

I replaced tires yesterday. I was at the dealer in the morning for my 105K service, just a tire rotation, and they reported right side tires down to 3/32". My last replacement was in December 2022, Bridgestone Turanza Quiettrack. They are an OK tire. Warrantied for 80K but I only got 38K out of them. I think the clincher was a 4 mile drive at highway speed on a recently milled lane earlier this week. Like driving on number 4 grit sandpaper. I've been a hardcore Goodyear driver all these years, but I listened to the Discount Tire salesman who showed me the Treadwell recommendations again after I had just been looking at them. When I walked in, I was thinking the Goodyear Assurance MaxLife. Settled on the Falken PRO G5 Touring A/S based for various factors, including the price which is middle of the pack for a good performance tire. The ride back home was certainly smooth and quiet.

 

How'd you check that, by attempting to loosen, with a torque wrench, incrementatlly increasing the torque setting? Not sure how how accurate that would be.

As a test:

Loosen the lug nuts, then torque to spec (76 lb/ft, for gen 2?). I'd suspect if you then try to loosen with torque wrench (per above) it'd take more than 76. Due to vagaries of friction?

I've a hunch they did them accurately, or 80 at most.

 

Some of us still have beam torque wrenches.

 

Ok, so tightening, to see if any would budge?

I've never taken a tire shop up on that offer to retorque. Would think they just set torque wrench to spec and turn clockwise to click,or beep nowadays.

It's actually been decades since I've had a tire shop install tire on car, just bring in loose rims And the last couple of times, with Costco, they've managed to mess up the mounting of directional tires. You should have a couple of the directional arrows going clockwise, and the other two counterclockwise. First time it was 3 and 1, and I was about 5 km's away airing them up more when I noticed. The latest time, it was 4 and 0 (clockwise). And they wrap them in plastic, put them in the hatch. I just about drove off, then thought "Check...".

Interesting:

Beam Type vs "Click" type Torque Wrench | BobIsTheOilGuy
(Looks to be a post by our @The Critic )

I've always shied away from beam, but might be good to acquire one; they're a little harder to use, but maybe more bullet-proof..

Similarly, I got tired of my digital caliper eating batteries, got a dial style. I suppose slide rule style, while maybe not quite as accurate, is the bullet-proof equivalent to beam torque wrench.