The tyres on my my02 are getting low on tread at the front plus the outside edge is suffering. The rear tyres are fine. I asked my dealer to swap them at the last service but he reckons you should keep the best tyres on the back.

All four tyres were purchased at the same time and my logic says that if the front tyres are wearing quicker than the rear it is because they are taking more stress - and therefore need to be the better tyre.

I also think that I would get significant improvements in braking, particularly in the wet, if the tyres with the most tread where at the front!

Thoughts ?

Also, what do people set their tyre pressures to for mostly motorway driving ?

 

Was is 5th gear last year had a feature on tires? If i remember they drove a car though some water at speed, one run with good tires on the back, bald'ish on the rear and then the other way round. Among other tests. It surprised me what an effect this had! Put them on the rear m8. Must be because the rear is your anchor. I'm sure some one will give a tech answer.

 

On a mototing porgram (orignal top gear or 5th gear) they did a test on tyres - typre pressures worn tread and quality of tyre makes (michelin, Bidgestone,goodyear etc

the concluded if you need to replace two of the four tyres, the put the new ones on the rear (your dealer is right). this is because in the wet when braking you don't want the rear of the car to aqual plane out of control, thats why you want the maximum tread at the rear ot stop this.

 

spot on i saw it too
the rear it is

 

Thanks.

 

Alawys best on the back if one on the front goes down or bang you have steering to keep you in a straight line its much harder to control a rear flat tyre just another reason to put them on the back.

 

Too right... I used to think putting the worn ones on the rear would be best (especially with a FWD). Changed my mind when going round a two-lane roundabout in the wet and some **** pootled on in front of me - naturally I steered into the other lane only for the rear to whip round quick style! Very lucky to catch it, spent a second or two facing the barrier in the centre of the roundabout first though

Just replace the worn ones then rotate them so the new ones are on the back. Thus the tyres should get a chance to wear on both front and rear at various points.

 

The AWD split in normal driving conditions is 35 % front 65 % rear ,therefore
most driving power is normally delivered to the rear and thus best to the rear .Make sure you do not have more than 2 - 3 mm thread difference between front and rear axels or you will over load the centre diff viscous coupling which is an expensive repair . I would recommend if your fronts are shot replace all 4 !

 

Be a little careful though. If you're putting the same make and model of tyre on the car you should be OK.

I recently ended up with ecocontacts (spit) on the rear of my AXGT (due to a cockup). It did NOT like wet weather. I went out thinking I was being a wus and provoked it. Big, big oversteery moments resulted.

They're now on the front of the car so I can wear them out quicker.

J.

 

Only true if you have a car equipped with an adjustable centre diff man.

A UK car is ever so slightly FWD biased. So a search on here, you'll find endless amounts of info regarding the front/rear drive ratio.

Shaun

 

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/imprez...tml#mechanical

found this on the web.

55 rear 45 front

 

But it doesn't actually say that though....

 

The front and rear tyres will wear in a different pattern. If you change front to back in this situation then the tyres will have to wear again to suit the axles they are on. You would be better off to wear the fronts to legal limits and get them changed for new ones. You could put the new ones on the back of course but I don't think that would be such an advantage since the present rears would have to adapt to the wear pattern of the front axle.

Les