Tires

I had a flat tire last year and had to replace the tire (rear) Went to a tire dealer and he installed two Bridgestone tires on the rear. When I went to the dealership where I bought the car to have it serviced I was told that because I have 2 Cooper tires in the front and 2 Bridgestone tires in the back that this could damage my transmission. Is that possible or are they trying to sell me 4 new Coopers? Thanks,Joan

If you have AWD and if the tires are mismatched then yes…check your manual for tire specs.

Subaru says that you need four tires of same tread type and near-equal in circumference. Odds are these four tires don’t meet that guidance. See you owner’s manual for more info, to include how to measure the circumference, to see how close you are. transmission damage is certainly a posssibility. Do the measuring soon to determine the risk you may have unintentionally placed your vehicle in.

AWD’s are VERY touchy about tire SIZE. They don’t care about BRAND. The circumference of all 4 tires needs to be very close, ideally within 1/2-3/4 inch of each other.

You can jack up one side of the car and measure the circumference of the Coopers and the Bridgestones…AWD has been a BOON to tire sellers…

On Subaru AWD the tolerance is 1/4"-1/2" circumference between tires. My Subaru independent tech has seen transmissions with broken internals when tires had a difference of 1" between each other.

Make tires have proper pressure and have it measured.

Not sure about transmission, but the transfer case of the AWD system on your Forester could.
If your front 2 tires were pretty worn down last year and you put those 2 new tires on it, then you’re looking at a problem down the road