Noel Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 My sister drives an 06 astra coupe which is front wheel drive and also front engined.... she needed 2 new tyres recently and asked my opinion, so while at it i said to put the new tyres on the front for more grip to the driven wheels.....other 2 wheels on the car have 7-8 mm of rubber left anyway she went to get her new wheels and asked them to put them on the front like i told her.... but they refused and stated it was safer to put them on the back.... who's right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 I always thought the new tyres went on the rear to prevent oversteer as they wouldn't of been scrubbed in. TBH though I've never bothered doing that and have never had a problem. May be different for 4WD though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 A very subjective topic. Technically replacing worn front tyres on a FDW with new tyres could lead the driver into an over-steer situation. So moving worn rear tyres to the front technically could calm the possibility. In addition...... And this is between us. The fast fit industry see's this plausible explanation as an excuse to "balance" the rear wheels before they are fitted to the front! I think it makes little difference since the additional tread depth only becomes valuable in the wet.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MondeoGhiaX Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 when i needed 2 new rear tyres last year, i asked fastfit to move the front wheels to the rear (half worn tyres), so i could have the new tyres on the front. they showed me a directive from the company not to put new tyres on the front with worn tyres on the rear, for the reasons already discussed. i dont know whether they would have charged me anything for the extra work of swapping the wheels, but i agreed to just have the new tyres on the rear as they advised. so maybe their motives are genuine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 A very subjective topic. Technically replacing worn front tyres on a FDW with new tyres could lead the driver into an over-steer situation. So moving worn rear tyres to the front technically could calm the possibility. In addition...... And this is between us. The fast fit industry see's this plausible explanation as an excuse to "balance" the rear wheels before they are fitted to the front! I think it makes little difference since the additional tread depth only becomes valuable in the wet.... That's interesting...so why would they want to balance the rear wheels? When I bought some tyres online and got them fitted at croxley tyres they didn't ask if I wanted the wheels swapped over. I asked for them to be fitted to the front and they did just that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark H. Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 It usually takes 1-200 miles for tyres to start gripping correctly in my experience when they are on driven wheels. As far as i'm concerned the new tyres will have less grip at first so your more likely to get the back end out when they have just been put on. I just replace the worn ones, (nearly always the driven ones). They will wear in much quicker on the driven axle. The turning wheels will wear in quite quickly if they are pushed abit from the start though. In my experience. I ran 8mm look like new 3 year old not very grippy if there is any water near the road Michliens on the rear with Goodyear F1's on the front that were very grippy wet or dry and never had any problems in my Astra. Maybe having grippy tyres on the front and older ones on the back is a problem if you drive way too fast for the conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon Posted June 27, 2007 Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 The biggest reason is standing water. If you're only going to have one end of the car floating you damn sure want to make it the front. You will be amazed if you're not done a skid pan how utterly impossible it is to control a car with no rear grip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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