New Tyres and rotation.

[Chuffmonkey]

My fronts are just about near the limit and I am going to replace the 2 front supplied Falken's with Conti Premium Contact 7's. The rears still have a good 4mm plus left on them. What's the best practice? Move the rears to the front to make them wear quicker? 

The fronts have done 26 thousand miles so I am more then happy with the wear. 

[Cyker]

It's basically up to you - There are arguments for and against rotating the tyres front-back when swapping in new ones.

Some say it's safer to put the worn tyres at the front, others say the new tyres should always go on the driven wheels, some say it doesn't really matter.

 

[Ian saunders]

A few years ago a poster in a tyre dealer had a poster by Michelin saying new tyres on the back to help braking? Also personally would want to wear the old ones out on the front. 

[TonyHSD]

7 minutes ago, tsikis007 said:

The best and safe practice is to replace all the 4 tyres. 

Absolutely 👍

[Chuffmonkey]

8 minutes ago, tsikis007 said:

The best and safe practice is to replace all the 4 tyres. 

Possibly but the rears have too much tread left to justify change. I don't push the car to the limits, I mainly drive A roads and Motorways, I am just surprised by the tread wear from front to back. If I move them to the front with my current milage then hopefully they will be due to be replaced by when winter comes again. 

Still really impressed with the wear range of these Falken's. I just want/hopefully a quieter tyre. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Tyre industry advice:

Uniroyal: 

Do you fit the new tyres at the front or back? Regardless of the drive type, we recommend not fitting the better tyres at the front, but always fitting them at the back. The reason is simple: The rear axle ensures the tracking stability of a vehicle.

Michelin:

If only two tyres are being replaced, MICHELIN generally recommends they be installed on the rear axle in the absence of a tyre service professional's recommendation or consumer's preference to the contrary. 

Goodyear: 

When tires are replaced in pairs, the new tires should always be installed on the rear axle, and the partially worn tires should be moved to the front. Driving with new tires on the rear axle can help the vehicle to maintain control on wet roads because the tires with deeper treads are more likely to resist hydroplaning.

Continental:

The tyre industry recommends fitting the new tyres onto the rear axle. This will provide greater grip to the rear axle and mitigate any potential oversteer condition or loss of vehicle stability on slippery surfaces.

[Chuffmonkey]

Thanks all, looks like Ill have the rears put on the front and change the fronts come winter.

 

[Niky]

17 hours ago, Chuffmonkey said:

Possibly but the rears have too much tread left to justify change. I don't push the car to the limits, I mainly drive A roads and Motorways, I am just surprised by the tread wear from front to back. If I move them to the front with my current milage then hopefully they will be due to be replaced by when winter comes again. 

Still really impressed with the wear range of these Falken's. I just want/hopefully a quieter tyre. 

Why Continentals? Just out of curiosity 

If you are not pushing the car and just want quieter touring tyres, which also last well, why don't you consider GoodYear EGP 2? They are cheaper too - very good money for value tyres. The Good Years egp 2 have been discussed and are highly recommended here already

I wonder why Tony didn't mention them already 😀😂

 

[TonyHSD]

26 minutes ago, Niky said:

Why Continentals? Just out of curiosity 

If you are not pushing the car and just want quieter touring tyres, which also last well, why don't you consider GoodYear EGP 2? They are cheaper too - very good money for value tyres. The Good Years egp 2 have been discussed and are highly recommended here already

I wonder why Tony didn't mention them already 😀😂

 

Perhaps because the car is GR Sport with 18” wheels and UHP tyres. Although Goodyear very likely to offer same efficient grip performance 2 in this size some people will not like them and say they are too soft and steering wheel feel vague and car doesn’t corner as before, there are are Eagle F1 for this type of drivers but if the Continental or Michelin are more favourite or preferred brand then there is nothing wrong with those. 
For me the Goodyear tyres are currently best ratio price-quality, and I will only replace all or nothing. If me I will rotate front to rear for the summer and then buy all 4 new tyres. 

[Cyker]

It does vary depending on the tyre profile - The higher profiles like mine get access to e.g. the Goodyear Efficient Grip Comfort, which is slightly cheaper and has incredible dry weather grip but IIRC only has 2 wide channels for water rather than the conventional 4 and it makes it rather more... exciting in heavy rain (Can you say aquapl-OHGODITWONTSTOPAIIEEE). Lower profiles get access to all sorts of high performance stuff normal and high profiles don't get access too like the PS4S and Cup2 which are some of the best tyres you can get, albeit more suitable for track use than the low quality road surfaces we normally drive on!

[Chuffmonkey]

To be fair, it was down to the Goodyear F1 asymmetric 6, Michelin Pilot Sport 5 or the Conti Premium Conti 7 due to the 18'' size. I don't think Goodyear EGP 2 came up in reviews even though I was aware of them.

I chose the Premium Contacts in the end due to them coming top in most reviews and an in-depth YouTube video covering 18 inch from Tyre Reviews. Also I found them for £104.60 a tyre at a local place which I don't think is bad.

I did ask the garage when I dropped in to book a slot about switching the rears to the front and he says I can't as the TPMS sensors are programmed to the each wheel on the car??? Sounded plausible but admit I have no idea 🤣

[Cyker]

If the system is like the one in my Yaris, it will figure out which sensor is on which wheel every time you turn the car on so there's no problem swapping the wheels over.

 

[Chainbreaker]

Basically the confusion between what to do with tire rotation is down to two different schools of thought.

First one is putting the newer tires on the rear axle. Contrary to posts above, this is not to do with braking. Rather it gives the car more of a understeer bias under loss of traction, which is easier for the majority of the driving public to deal with in extreme conditions.

Second one is putting the newer tires on the front axles. This will give more grip under acceleration and braking, but will also make the car have a bias towards oversteer under loss of traction, which can be dangerous in the case of inexperienced drivers. This is why most recommend option 1.

I would say it's up to you as long as you are aware of the risks associated with each option. 

As others have said, the safest option is always to replace all 4 tires with good quality tires (none of that cheap chinese cr*p).

[Talking Hoarse]

9 hours ago, Chainbreaker said:

First one is putting the newer tires on the rear axle. Contrary to posts above, this is not to do with braking. Rather it gives the car more of a understeer bias under loss of traction, which is easier for the majority of the driving public to deal with in extreme conditions.

Second one is putting the newer tires on the front axles. This will give more grip under acceleration and braking, but will also make the car have a bias towards oversteer under loss of traction, which can be dangerous in the case of inexperienced drivers. This is why most recommend option 1.

I would go further than this.  Newer tyres (ie those likely to have more grip) should be on rear.  For 2 reasons:

- Braking stability.  Very many years ago I used to have winter /knobbly tyres that I put on the front of my Mini and rather later on a MkI Fiesta 1.3.  These worked very well to provide needed traction in snow and ice, and never posed a challenge for me even driving enthusiastically.  I then used the same wheels and tyres from the Fiesta on my Ford Orion and was shocked by how the car wanted to "swap ends" so easily on a slippery road.  I fitted winter tyres also to the rear as well without delay.  

- if moved to the front the older /more worn tyres will then wear out ready for replacement (some tyres can start to crack after 5 or 6 years, and recommendation is to replace even fit tyres at 10 years - this copuld easily be breached on rear of a lowish mileage car.

 The 17" oe Falkens on my Corolla have now done 18k - and having swapped front to rear at about 13k I will replace all 4 tyres in a couple of months.  Most modern tyres are directional and so must not be fitted to other side of the car. 

[Saxmaniac]

I had some falkens all round which were specifically made for hybrids, about 80 quid a corner, main difference is the noise rating is quite low. They're noticeably quieter than the original contis and drive perfectly fine, I'd certainly buy them again, depending on how long they end up lasting, I got 50k out of the contis 

[Cyker]

Ironically I tend to look for tyres with higher noise ratings  

I find those tend to be quieter in the car, and also with my last two cars (The Mk2 and its buttery smooth 1.33, and this Mk4 hybrid) they were so quiet that the more road noise I can make the less likely phone zombies are likely to just step out in front of me!  

The wideband noise caused by tyres definitely seems more noticeable to otherwise oblivious humans than the weird spooky noise the AVAS makes (As opposed to the ADAS when it's going BRAKE! BEEEEEEEP!  )

[Chuffmonkey]

Had them fitted today to the front as per the garages conversation yesterday about not being able to rotate. The rears still have 5mm left according to the garage. I will run with the 2 Conti's on the front and the Falken's on the rear until winter comes again and Ill get the rears changed for Conti's so all 4 wheels are on the same tyre.

 

[MG95]

It is in Portuguese, but you can see the difference between new tyres front or rear.

In short: new tyres at the front significantly increase likelihood of losing control vs rear.

It is also the case that it is better to lose control of the front, which will cause the car to understeer and keep going in a straight line and perhaps result in a front collision (which is where cars offer the most protection), than losing control of the rear, which will cause the car to oversteer and crash on the side or, even worse, rollover.