Tire wear

[Thundercat]

In a previous post, I wrote a long story on my Vue. Here's the short version and a question. I ended up with severe tire wear, and my front tires wore down to 4/32". The rears still measured 13/32", basically brand new.
With the Vue being fwd primarily, I switched the worn tires to the rear, and the still-new ones to the front. Since the AWD kicks in when the front loses traction, the rears are otherwise completely along for the ride, correct?

As long as the tires with the most wear are on the rear, there should be no issues with the drivetrain, am I right?
The wear occured over about 6000km, and I've since put another 6000km on the Vue, with no more wear :)

[far2grumpy]

Thundercat ... there's excellent information regarding AWD tire size at this link:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=18

I have a Vue maintenance dvd and will search to see if Saturn has a size tolerance.

Basically ... the Vue AWD system compares drive-shaft speed with rear tire rotation. If the drive-shaft speed exceeds rotation expected to match rear tire rotation speed - AWD momentarily "locks" the rear tires to the drive-shaft to engage AWD until the rear tires turn at comparative speed.

The AWD on my 05 Vue instantly engages and disengages to provide traction as needed. It operates efficiently and noiselessly. However, I understand other Vue's might not operate as well.

You can see how different sized front and rear tires could change the AWD equation.

[far2grumpy]

Thundercat ... I didn't find any tire dimensional difference data on the DVD.

You can find a really neat tire size versus AWD discussion using this link:

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1217293&highlight=awd+tire+match#post1217293

[Thundercat]

You can find a really neat tire size versus AWD discussion using this link:

http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1217293&highlight=awd+tire+match#post1217293

Thanks for the link!!!! :D
--Graeme