Tyre wear

antodeco

Hi folks,
My front wheels are wearing a little more than the rear ones, so Im thinking of swapping thew around. On a FWD would it be better to have the better gripped tyres on the front or back?
Im due to change all four shortly anyways, so its purely just for a short time. Thanks

bbability

If they are nearly as bad as each other I wouldn't bother at this stage. Just go and replace all four if neccessary. I would have the wheels rotated at least once a year or every service. You will generally wear front wheels quicker on a FWD car.

rebel.ranter

On some modern cars it is not advisable to rotate wheels. There are 2 main reasons oyu should be mindful of:
1. Does the car have directional tyres? If so you are limitied to "rotating" the front and rear of one side only. Any other switches would mean that a directional tyres could end up rotating the wrong way serioulsy affecting it's ability to grip.
2. Does the car have different width tyres on the front and rear? e.g. on an e39 BMW 5 Series Sport model the rear wheels are 2' wider at the rear, they also use directional rubber. By rotating the tyres again you are compromising the performance of the rubber.

I would say that you need good rubber on all four wheels for FWD. On a RWD you definitely need to keep an eye on the rears.

antodeco

Thanks for the advice. The depth on the fronts are noticeably different to the rears. They are the same width all round. They seem to be unidirectional grip. Tag on the out the outside of the wheel, has an 'outside' marker, with arrows pointing either way at the end. They were never rotated, despite two full services in the past 12 months.

Alun

There was a thread on this some time ago, and someone in the trade popped in and pointed to an article on the 'net from Michelin, I think, that said that on a FWD car, contrary to popular belief, you should have the better (i.e. the ones with more tread) tyres on the back wheels. I can't quite remember the reasoning behind it, but I remember I was pretty convinced by it at the time

I'll see if I can dig it up ...

EDIT: Found it!

Here's the post http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=51892809&postcount=8
and the thread http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054975379

antodeco

Perfect! Thanks for that! I was aware of higher dangers on rear wheel skidding, but I thought it was explicitly on RWD. That post potentially saved my life, or at least a major crash. Thank you!

Esel

Yep, I picked up that advice a good while ago on some tyre website about putting the better tyres on the rear of a FWD car to ensure safer braking. Initially it sounds counter-intuitive, but is logical when you think about it.

E92

antodeco wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. The depth on the fronts are noticeably different to the rears. They are the same width all round. They seem to be unidirectional grip. Tag on the out the outside of the wheel, has an 'outside' marker, with arrows pointing either way at the end. They were never rotated, despite two full services in the past 12 months.

Any dealer worth their salt should swap the tyres at a service from back to front.

antodeco

E92 wrote: »

Any dealer worth their salt should swap the tyres at a service from back to front.

Nissan garages 4u!

E92

You said your car needed a full service twice in the last 12 months.

What kind of Nissan is it?

Most cars only need a service once a year, a full one this year, a minor one next year, and a full one after that, minor after that and so on and so forth.

Do you do some sort of astromonical mileage that your car needs 3 services in less than a year:D:eek:?

As for tyre swapping, in the owners manual, more specifically where the servicing section is they always have a list of whats needed to be done, and a tyre swap is always included(it is done so that tyres wear evenly).