Another rant on Car Stealerships

[Bogie]

Oh, yeah - Subies can be bought with hitches, and you can have the stealer install one, but... If you DIY or have an indy outfit do it, they dump you.
 
I've had several customers tell me about the tire thing - the service writers/stealerships interpret the tire thing as "you better get all four."

[Tuco]

>>>subaru 4 tire replacement scam
What dogmush said.  If there's a significant difference in revolutions between the 4 axles, the powertain management unit lights up the dashboard like a Christmas tree. 

My personal experience had a tire shop put 3 blizzak ws90s and 1 blizzak ws80 (all 4 the same size) on my WRX as we headed out of town on a 7000 mile cross country drive.  A few months after the trip it was no longer winter and time to reinstall the summer Dunlops.
I realized at that time one blizzak was different, checked the differences in specifications between the 80 and 90, and scoured the Subaru factory repair manual for reference or confirmation of this legendary "4 tires or carnage" myth. It did not appear therein. 

I made the call to the tire shop and took the wheel with the odd tire and the bill of sale and left with one brand stinkin new ws90.
The 0 mile tire, when installed with 3 - 10,000 mile snow tires (arguably 25-30% worn) ran flawlessly, and resulted in none of the promised metallic chunkage. 
The dashboard lights had no comment.
Single data point.

[RoadKingLarry]

Keeping your tires evenly worn by regular tire rotation works great. I do a 5 tire rotation on my Wrangler twice a year or every oil change. When I buy a set of tires it is 5 tires for the Jeep.
I don't put a lot of miles on it since I retired though.

[Bogie]

I've had the same good snow tires on the back of the Green Monster van for the past five years - they probably don't have 10k on them... The front tires had to be replaced, and I got them from an outfit called Bargain Tire here in South City... They do junkyard takeoffs.
 
The Hyundai is going to be going to Walmart for four new ones pretty soon.

[K Frame]

I'm pretty certain the federal .gov has ruled that the manufacturers CAN'T void the warranty if you change your own oil.

They can't unless you screw up materially like using the wrong oil and that is the root cause of the damage.

The Magnuson-Moss act is very specific about how, and when, a warranty can be voided and when it can't be.

The Magnuson-Moss act is what caused the rise of chains like Jiffy Lube.

[K Frame]

Subaru awd trannies are so wonky that if you need to replace one tire, you need to replace all of them.

It's not just Subaru. That's a recommendation from all AWD vehicle manufacturers. One missized tire (more or less tread wear than the other tires) can cause damage to the system.

I'm in the beginning throes of selecting a new set of tires for my Subaru. I bought it just shy of 4 years ago and it already had a set of Kuhmos on it, which MAY have been original equipment as it only had 34,000 and change miles on it when I got it.

[Kingcreek]

Well I got the axle seals done. $1110 for front seals and rear diff fluid change. $110 per hour shop labor rate. They charged me $11. (10 minutes) to check the radiator and tell me yeah you’re right, it’s leaking. Could have been worse I guess.
Leaning towards doing the radiator and thermostat and system flush myself.

[Calumus]

Leaning towards doing the radiator and thermostat and system flush myself.

If you’re doing it yourself and the oem part has known issues, why not look for an aftermarket rad that doesn’t have the issues and will probably be cheaper? As for tires on an awd car, as long as they’re within a certain percentage of each other you’re ok. When I had my R32 I hit a pothole and blew the sidewall out of one tire. The tires had about 30k on them but still has lots of meat left. So when I ordered one replacement from tirerack, I just told them the average tread depth on the other 3 tires and they shaved the new one to match. Much cheaper than replacing 3 tires that were perfectly fine.