Hi All,

So I recently purchased my first Evo about a month ago and noticed that the right rear tire does not match the others (in size only) previous owner put new tires on it before i bought it. They have around 5-6k on them. Kuhmo escta ast. 235/45/17. However, the right rear is 245/45/17. This is my first AWD vehicle I do understand you want the tires to match as close as possilbe. Question is 1. How big of a deal is this? 2. Recommendations...get all new tires? get 1 to match the others ect ect..Please advise! Thank you.

 

IMO, that is a pretty big deal. Ideally, you would like to have all 4 tires the exact same size AND tread pattern. At the very minimum I suggest swapping out that right rear tire for a 235/45.

Even though it might not be immediately noticeable, you could be doing damage to your drivetrain.

 

get all new tires

 

You should have 4 matching tires on any car for best handling. On an AWD, it becomes even more important to save the drivetrain. Get 4 matching tires asap...

 

You need a tire that is the same circumference as the others. How big of deal this is can be exaggerated. For example notice the size of the spare. The differentials are running any time the car is steered anything but straight the same or more so than having a slightly differently sized tire. Still, it is additional wear that can be avoided by having matching tires.

How this different tire affects handling depends on how well the characteristics of this tire matches the others.

I had the tire installers punch a hole in the sidewall of one of my snow tires which I had gotten a good deal on because they were recently discontinued. So, there was no replacing that. Since snow tires are kinda weird anyway, I decided to go ahead and buy another new set. $$$

 

Thanks fellas for the responses. I appreciate it! Seems the best move for the car is to get 4 new tires. Wallet won't be happy lol.

 

Best for the handling and more importantly your drivetrain. Having the different overall diameters working against each other can damage internals over time.

 

Your rear differential was probably freaking out over that mismatch. Get yourself a new set of tires and enjoy the car better.

Evo 8/9 rear diffs plates were assembled incorrectly from factory so I wouldn't worry now about any damage that is already done back there.

My guess is that the previous owner blew just that tire and wanted to save money while loading off the car so he bought whatever tire looked like it fit. Now you're stuck with the real bill, but at least you can fix it properly.

-pal215

 

I will say the 245/45/17 does look much better on the vehicle so I will probably go with that size on the new set. Thanks for the input! One a side note..Pal215 is that something that can be or should fixed regarding the plates on the rear diff or were you just mentioning that since they are already messed up so no harm no foul thus far?

 

See what difference in price the 245 is from the 235, also are you sure it's not a 245/40?

 

Mitsubishi, thinking of putting their precious car in the hands of stupid (in their mind) Americans, decided that a working rear LSD would make noise and send every owner to the dealership for repair. To avoid that they disabled it by incorrectly stacking the plates. All 8's and 9's came this way. It is up to the owner to put it back to normal.

 

Yes to both.

Luckily we have found a way to rearrange the clutch pack to make the rear diff handle as it should.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...y-factory.html

-pal215

 

Thanks Barney and Pal I was not aware of that. Very interesting read at the very least. Although I don't have the mechanical experience to tackle that on my own I may have to get that fixed at some point!