Not a risk I’d take. This’d fry a Subaru…
Does the tire have damage that can’t be repaired? Unless it was a blowout, severely damaged by something on the road, or the tire was driven on a long distance it should be repairable. If it blew out I’d wonder about the condition of the other tires. I’ve never owned an AWD vehicle, but everything I’ve heard about them is that all tires should be replaced at the same time. Do you know what the mileage rating was on the original tires (40K, 50K, etc)? If they were only rated at 40K miles when new it’s likely they won’t last much beyond that which would only be an additional 13K miles. So 3 tires times 13K miles would be the equivalent of buying 1 tire you didn’t need. If that’s the case I would change all 4 and keep them rotated at even mileage intervals so they all wear evenly and it would need 4 new ones at the same time next time around. Another thing to consider is that winter will be coming around again in just a few months, putting all new tires on now would mean you had new tires which would give you better traction in inclement weather. Winter weather handling in itself might very well be worth the extra expense.
It has a full size spare …Right? Shave down the spare to match the others on the gCRV, then replace the spare. Whole problem fixed…
It’s true what Tom and Ray say - this is a terrific source of information! I went to the Dealership and got their written guarantee that changing two tires (rear) would not effect the performance of the car nor cause any transmission problems. Then I went to the tire place and had them replace the back tires. The tire guy wasn’t happy about it, but breathed a sigh of relief when I showed him the written note from the dealership. This car had a donut, and this driver had two blow-outs in three short (frustrating) days. The blowouts were due to evasive actions taken to avoid accidents. In both incidents I bounced off the curb only to have a big hole in the tire(s). No one could fix the original tires. The tread on the remaining two tires is about half down so in another month or two I’m going to have them replaced. May seem silly to not go with all four at this time, but I was in a stubborn mood knowing the tires should be good for 45K miles. Thanks again all!