I know we’ve had threads on this before but we’ll give it another go due to the season.
I’ve always been told that if you put just two new tires on a car you put them on the rear. That way you get better stopping traction in the back, which will keep the car from switching ends even if the front locks up. If the front has better braking power and the rears lock up, the car may spin which is bad for everyone involved. Some folks counter that with most front wheel drive cars it makes more sense to put the best tires on the wheels that give forward motion and the most braking power.
I can see the benefits of both, but have always sided with putting the new tires on the back end. Now, with the advent of ABS, I wonder if the if the argument against putting the tires on the front holds any water?
My wife is putting two old and two new snow tires on the car today and tire store recommended putting the new ones on the front. I wonder if the tide has officially shifted.
On a FWD car I’d take the best 2 tires and put them on the back, then put the 2 new tires on the front. The fronts do the most work and will wear the fastest.
Really on an ABS car none of the wheels should be locking up. That can be good or bad in winter weather.
I’ve always heard that the new tires should go on the axle that powers the car - so the front if its front wheel drive, or the rear if its rear wheel. If you have AWD you’re on your own!
The rationale for putting new tires on the back has to do with general traction (not just braking). It mainly applies to cornering and taking curves. The thought is that if the front tires lose their grip (understeer) it’s easier for most drivers to handle than if the rear ones let go (oversteer). While this is true, it’s generally not a concern unless the car is being driven vigorously or too fast for conditions (i.e. wet roads).
The thing is, as mentioned above the drive wheels will wear tires faster than non-drive wheels, and especially so on FWD cars where the drive wheels are also the steering wheels. If new tires are put in back and left there, the partly worn front tires will wear down to significantly less tread than the ones in back and require replacement sooner than if the new tires were put on the front. It really makes sense to put the new ones where they wear faster, as eventually the front/rear wear will even out, which is the most desirable condition.
A lot of tire shops insist on putting new tires on the rear even in FWD vehicles for fear of a lawsuit if someone drives foolishly, gets into a rear-wheel skid, and hits a tree or somesuch. It’s a decision made by lawyers, not by mechanics. The interesting thing is, if you pull into a shop with a FWD car that has less tread on the front and request a tire rotation, they’ll gladly do it. In fact recommending rotation in that situation is standard practice, the goal being to even out the tire wear.
Put the new tires on the drive wheels and drive with reasonable care and you’ll be fine, and won’t have to buy two more new tires very soon.
Yes, but that doesn’t always happen. Most folks I know never rotate their tires except when putting on snows in winter. And if you get a flat you’ll often buy a new pair of tires rather than just one.
For my AWD (Subaru), you need 4 tires that are so close that you can’t have 2 old and 2 new tires. Getting an unrepairable flat can easily mean buying four new tires. Not sure how it applies to other AWD or 4WD systems.
I’d put them on the drive wheels. Don’t be That Person who stops at a light on the slightest hill with a tiny bit of snow and can only get moving in time for just them to make it through the intersection before the red light. Asshats.
Provided something doesn’t ruin one of the tires. Recently I ran over something during a heavy rainstorm that punctured a tire too badly to be repaired. An exact replacement would have cost over $200 including shipping plus took nearly a week to get there. The OEM tire company stopped making them. Plus the original tires had 20K miles on them therefore a little worn out.
However I could buy 2 new tires of a different model for a little over $270 and have them installed the next day. I put the two new tires on the back mostly because that’s where the tire that went flat was.
Precisely my situation a few months ago, except different AWD car. Got a staple in the side of rear tire, slow leak, just high enough above the tread to make it not repairable. Tire shop refused to repair (rightly), and recommended replace two tires (gave me wear credit).
I asked them this specific question, and they stated with no uncertainly that two new tires should go on the rear, no matter which wheels drive. Explanation is as stated above - the front wheels have the weight of the engine and thus better traction to start with, and the back of the vehicle, being lighter, has less traction in general. He said the industry standard for safety now is to put better tires on the rear.
I would put the 2 new tires on the drive wheels (in front for front-wheel drive cars, or in back for rear-wheel drive cars) and the 2 best-of-the-rest on the other wheels.
If there’s much life left in the other 3 tires (ie, they aren’t close to being trash anyway), you just have the one new tire shaved down to match the 3 worn ones. Sure, you’re basically putting many thousands of miles of wear in a few minutes, but it’s cheaper than buying four new tires if the other three aren’t that old.
New ones on the front. Most of the weight and braking are done by the front and so is steering. They will do the most good there. Even for a rear-wheel drive car. So what if your rear wheel drive spins if you occasionally accelerate too fast.
From a safety perspective there is no question. New tires go on the rear. Doespecially not matterribly if the vehicle is front wheel or rear wheel drive. There is a reason all the national chains will not install new tires on the front instead of the rear.
From a cost effective perspective I’d do front on a front wheel drive car. They wear faster and it will get you to a point where rotating the tires is applicable again.
Stormcrow has the right of it to my mind, and experience. When buying only two new tires, put them on the drive wheels. If you have an AWD vehicle, look at where most of the weight is in the car and put them on those wheels (usually the front).
Mr. Goob, it depends on the kind of racing you are talking about. For road racing, they generally change all four or, depending on whether it is a green or yellow stop, it may only the tire that is losing air. Strategy, strategy.
*Intuition suggests that since the front tires wore out first and because there is still about half of the tread remaining on the rear tires, the new tires should be installed on the front axle. This will provide more wet and wintry traction; and by the time the front tires have worn out for the second time, the rear tires will be worn out, too. However in this case, intuition isn’t right…and following it can be downright dangerous.
When tires are replaced in pairs in situations like these, the new tires should always be installed on the rear axle and the partially worn tires moved to the front. New tires on the rear axle help the driver more easily maintain control on wet roads since deeper treaded tires are better at resisting hydroplaning.
<snip>
Members of Tire Rack team had the chance to experience this phenomenon at Michelin’s Laurens Proving Grounds. Participants were allowed to drive around a large radius, wet curve in vehicles fitted with tires of different tread depths – one vehicle with new tires on the rear and half-worn tires on the front and the other with the new tires in the front and half-worn tires on the rear.
It didn’t take long for this hands-on experience to confirm that the “proving grounds” name for the facility was correct. The ability to sense and control predictable understeer with the new tires on the rear and the helplessness in trying to control the surprising oversteer with the new tires on the front was emphatically proven.
<snip>
Ideally tires should be replaced in complete sets. However when tires are replaced in pairs, the new pair of tires (assuming the vehicle is equipped with the same size tires all of the way around) should always be installed on the rear axle and the existing partially worn tires moved to the front axle.*
When I took driver’s ed, the thinking was to always keep the best tires on the front. The logic went like this:
The fronts do most of the braking and all of the steering.
Since the fronts do all of the steering, a blowout or quick flat on the front is more likely to cause loss of control than a flat on the back.
I have had a flat (hit a chuckhole) on a front tire in a car with no power steering. The effort required to steer and get the car off the road safely was surprisingly high. It could have been a real problem if I were on a highway at the time. I have also had blowouts on rear tires. The steering was pretty much unaffected. Granted, the driver’s ed course was in '76. There were many more cars around back then without power steering, and blowouts were more frequent due to lower-quality tires.
I am not disagreeing with the fact that slick rear tires can cause oversteering problems or end-switching.
Surprisingly to me, the place that recommended my wife put the new tires on the front was a Goodyear dealership. I thought all dealers would always recommend new tires on the back like the Tire Rack quote.
