The tin top is six months old, it's a FWD TDi and I've done 14,000 miles.
The front tyres are approaching the wear markers, not illegal but certainly not new!
The rears are almost as new.
So do I replace the front pair, in about 2 months, or swap the fronts for the backs now, and do all 4 in 6 months time?
Cheers
Mike
If you are happy with the existing tyres and intend keeping with the same make & type, I would replace the fronts and wait to replace all four the next time. I prefer to keep all the tyres the same to avoid any handling problems.
change them now and spend 1/2 the money, put the back on the front and the new on the rear.
[Edited on 14/2/08 by graememk]
A lot of tyre repair places will refuse to replace front tyres on their own. You'll need to (or have them) move the good rears onto the
front.
But personally I'd rotate them if I were happy they were safe.
I think id rather just have 2 to replace at a time. I havent done the maths but does it make a difference cost wise to rotate them.
I know people used to rotate the tyres before but i would have thought the fronts and rears wear differently across the face aswell. Is it possible
that sticking the bedded in rears on the front could actually accelerate some wear? It sounds like your rears may outlast 2 sets of fronts. Maybe you
should ease off the loud pedal
You are doing the miles for work - no need to rush about.
Rotate them. Easy choice 
Then again, there is a bit of debate as to which end you want your best tyres on. I'd say front end so that you know you've got good
braking. Other people say you don't want a laterally slippy back end.....
quote:
Originally posted by iank
A lot of tyre repair places will refuse to replace front tyres on their own. You'll need to (or have them) move the good rears onto the front.
But personally I'd rotate them if I were happy they were safe.
when you drive, tyres rotate anyway 
but if you mean swap front and rears, nowadays with the majority of cars being FWD, it is the fronts that wear most (both driven and braked) and it is
frowned big time on swapping front/rear becasue you don't want the back end stepping out.
If you are happy with the almost worn fronts, then leave them on front and replace when needed.
Replacing tyres is an expensive business but remember it is the tyres that keep you stuck to the road
And even then in my mind, its debatable which is prefrable, understear or over stear.
Recently ive come to the conclusion the best route is to put the rears to the front, and then put new on the rear. And just keep doing that each
time.
The argument for that was that on a fwd car the rears basicaly dont wear out, so if you dont do some form of rotation you will eventually find
yourself replacing them due to age if your not carefull.
- However in the time that the fronts wear out, theres very little degradation
- So you affectivly have good tyres all round each time you buy a new pair.
- And you always have mildly better tyres on the rear, preventing overstear. With understear being correctable with lift off overstear. (well, in a
306 anyway).
But thats not hard and fast rules, just somthing ive come up with, ive only been driving three years.
Daniel
As ^^^ they are your only contact with the road.
I seem to remeber a tv article which showed the danger of new tyres on the front and older - but not well worn, tyres on the back very unstable in the
corners. Their advice was replace the worn fronts, but put the new tyres on the back and the older ones on the front.
Rgds.
Pete.
quote:
Originally posted by iank
A lot of tyre repair places will refuse to replace front tyres on their own. You'll need to (or have them) move the good rears onto the front.
But personally I'd rotate them if I were happy they were safe.
If you follow the rule of running your tyres in, then new front or back won't be an issue as you should be driving conservatively for 100+ miles
first
rotating your tyres does stop the rears going out of date, but you do end up getting 4 worn tyres at once (expensive), also directional tyres hamper
the rotation as well.
quote:
Originally posted by Delinquent
Now changing just one tyre on an axle... I've had that refused before.
Since there appear to be some doubters of my frail and weak memory
I've personally been refused changing fronts without rears by Costco (very cheap for Michelin, don't sell any other brands). The was even a
little sign on the wall.
It's a liability thing especially for the big US chains, as I found out with a bit of google. It's a classic understeer good, oversteer bad
argument based on a wet corner performance. In the current era of FWD trained drivers I think I probably agree with the reasoning for most people.
Here is a bit more info.
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTiresRear.dos
Kwik-fit also have it as a 'recommendation'
http://www.kwik-fit.com/tyre-rotation.asp
quote:
Originally posted by onzarob
quote:
Originally posted by Delinquent
Now changing just one tyre on an axle... I've had that refused before.
Never understood people getting one new tyre with part worn on the other side, causes excessive wear on the diff!!! as well as poor handling.
We could all get the crossply's out...thats fun driving
my local tyre place was in line with the experience of a couple of people above: advice for FWD is to chuck the worn out fronts, put the old rears on the front and put new ones on the rear.
So reading the kwikfit link, tyre rotation must mean swapping lefts and rights rather than fronts and rears.
Both links recommend putting the back tyres on the front and new tyres on the rear (assuming its the fronts that need raplacing).
quote:
Originally posted by iank
Since there appear to be some doubters of my frail and weak memory
I've personally been refused changing fronts without rears by Costco (very cheap for Michelin, don't sell any other brands). The was even a little sign on the wall.
It's a liability thing especially for the big US chains, as I found out with a bit of google. It's a classic understeer good, oversteer bad argument based on a wet corner performance. In the current era of FWD trained drivers I think I probably agree with the reasoning for most people.
Here is a bit more info.
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTiresRear.dos
Kwik-fit also have it as a 'recommendation'
http://www.kwik-fit.com/tyre-rotation.asp
It's more to do with the grip levels. Having good grip on the front and poor on the back create oversteer on a wet corner taken too fast.
For a driver brought up on FWD shopping trolleys oversteer will put them in a hedge or worse backwards. In the US that will cost the tyre fitter a
lot of money, therefore the policy.
I'd hope most 7 drivers could handle a bit of oversteer
quote:
Originally posted by iank
It's more to do with the grip levels. Having good grip on the front and poor on the back create oversteer on a wet corner taken too fast.
For a driver brought up on FWD shopping trolleys oversteer will put them in a hedge or worse backwards. In the US that will cost the tyre fitter a lot of money, therefore the policy.
I'd hope most 7 drivers could handle a bit of oversteer
Put new tyres on the front. Recent test showed tyres with 2.5-3 mm (so still legal)on them took up to 8m more to stop from 70mph in the wet than new
tyres. Most police forces change at 3mm. Remember everything your car does, steering, braking, suspention, acceleration, all depends on the tyres.
If you are going to swap front to back then keep the tyres to the same side so same rotation. Radials can do funny things when swaped cross-corner.
adrian
quote:
Originally posted by Delinquent
I've had a irreparable puncture on a tyre that's done less than 200 miles - I'm not about to throw money away replacing the other tyre that has less than 200 miles on it!
GUINNESSSSSSSSSS - NOW LOOK WHAT YOUVE GONE AND DONE!!!!
Bad boy.
im just off out for the popcorn.
Darren, I know! It's not like I asked bec or cec!
I've just been looking at prices for the replacements and am going to buy a pair! Then stick them on the back, with the backs coming
forwards!
Cheers everyone!
Mike
or asked if you can make them from aluminium!
I have always rotated the tyres on an FF car and on our vans and had the best tyres on the front as they do all the work.
quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
Darren, I know! It's not like I asked bec or cec!
I've just been looking at prices for the replacements and am going to buy a pair! Then stick them on the back, with the backs coming forwards!
Cheers everyone!
Mike
?
Its tyres industry practice to always have new tyres on the rear and worn on front irrespective fwd or rwd. Trust me i no this as i test tyres on all sorts of cars for a living as i work for Goodyear tyres.