Replacing only 2 tiers in a car, which are the best to replace (front or rear)?

If I can replace only 2 tiers in my car, which of them should I replace?
I hard few different versions on how to arrange the tiers in a car after replacing 2 of theme
Like, it is best to replace the 2 front ones, because it is crucial to your steering
Or it better to replace the rear ones, because if one of them goes flat, you’ll go flying in your car.
Is it depend on the type of the car, or just if it have front or rear driving?
Thanks

I’m no expert, but the easy answer is “whichever ones are the most worn”. Even if you have 4 tires that all started life together, chances are some are more worn than others. Personally, when I had this problem I replaced my two front tires, then a few months later replaced the rear ones. I’m no expert, but I figure steering in the front was more important than the rear ones. Obviously if they’re all worn, you need to replace them before they get dangerously bald…I couldn’t afford to do them all in one go, so I did the front ones first.

Also, I’d recommend having them “balanced” when they’re put on.

Just a thought -

Since the question has already been answered, I just thought I’d do my anal-retentive duty and point out that the word you’re looking for is tires, not tiers (which is a completely different noun altogether).

I say replace the most worn ones and rotate them if necessary to put the new ones on back. If you lose traction in the front, your car will go straight. If you lose traction in the back, your car will start spinning. I opt for the former. Just make sure to replace them before they wear completely down though.

Just to emphasize the new tires go on the BACK. Doesn’t matter if its front or rear wheel drive, always put new tires on the back. The main advantage to having new tires in the front is less hydroplaning, which is really not all that dangerous as long as you don’t crank the wheel or slam on the breaks. It also helps if you don’t regularly tailgate.

The advantage of putting them on the back is it prevents oversteer. In other words it prevents your rear end from breaking traction and slamming into other cars, the divider, a tree when you go around the corner…very dangerous.

THe smart thing to do would be to replace all 4 tires. If you can’t afford new tires, then you can’t afford a car. Tires are probably the number 1 safety item you can purchase for your car. Well maintained wheels and tires help with breaking, accelleration, steering, wet weather traction, dry weather traction, and fuel economy. This is not something you should neglect.

Put the new tires on your drive wheels, front on front wheel drive, rear on rear wheel drive. That’s the reccomendation of all tire companies and 99% of the employees at tire stores. If you are a normal law abiding driver, you don’t have to worry about understeer or oversteer on the street, that is something only drivers on a closed course race track should worry about.

And here I was (going by the thread title) hoping for a thread on restoring triple-decker buses.

Not according to Tom and Ray or Goodyear. I haven’t checked any of the other manufacturers, but I think that the industry has made a shift to recommending rear axle for 2 new tires.

I’m - or rather, was - somewhat skeptical about this, because the articles didn’t give any good explanations. Besides, front wheel drive cars can handle a little loss of grip from the rear if the front keeps pulling the car in the right direction, but if you lose grip on the front, there is really nothing you can do in most cases. You can rarely regain grip by steering wheels that have lost grip. The danger for rear-wheel drive cars is that you accellerate, lose grip and spin out - that’s the most likely thing to happen to a rear-wheel drive car when losing grip and therefore important. But for Front wheel drives?

Then I went googling and the first link provided some good background on the reason why best grip on the rear is recommended. The grip situation that is weighted most is braking on a wet surface. Aquaplaning of the rear tires will cause the car to start spinning around, as the front tires have more grip and the rear will swivel around it.

Source:
http://autonet.ca/autonetstories/Stories.cfm?StoryID=3691

Usually there is a good reason for braking, and so this causes dangerous situations. Also, it is suggested that with front-wheel drive, you feel better when driving when you lose the rear, and not the front. I guess that does go for soft-springed cars, other than that I’m not so sure this is true.

For holding the line in a curve with an FF car though, I think front grip is still more important. Certainly in my car (Alfa Romeo 155), which can start drifting a bit when (seriously) pushed in a turn, with the rear braking out but the car staying in balance and on line because the front pulls it through. In this circumstance, I think that if the front tires would have less grip, the car would lose the turn and fly off the road. But I do see how that would typically be in a less dangerous situation than when braking on a wet surface.

But as a general rule of thumb, it looks like rear axle is the way to go in nearly all circumstances, so thanks for this question as I learnt something here too.

And, if you drive a VW Golf, like I do, you’ll know that there is NO chance of oversteer in this car on any slippery conditions. Unless you’ve got the emergency brake applied. Studs would be good on my front tires this week in New England. I’d say this would be true IMO for most/all front wheel drive cars. I’ve only ever had oversteer in rear wheel drive cars, where the lateral traction is broken by a forward “slipping” on wet conditions. YMMV, IANAperformance expert.