Jamesemt

I've heard that I can't do this... is it true??

I currently have Bridgestone Potenza RE050s on the car but need two fronts - there seems loads of tyres cheaper, as the Bridgestones are looking around £100 each - was hoping for about £75 each...

Could I buy a different brand, and put the current rears at the front? Would that make the car slightly understeer as opposed to swapping ends??

If I have to get Bridgestones do I need RE050s or can I use any Bridgestone branded tyres??

Jerry B

Ideally they should all ne the same brand and model, and have similar tread depth - all round. Rolling resistance varies between models, as can rolling circumference, and has been said to increase the chances of differential 'wind-up', that is stress being put on transmission components as they have to cope with different speeds of rotation or amounts of torque required to rotate the different tyres. Opinions vary here, and of course every time you turn the steering the differentials are working, but unless you go round in circles it all evens out, whereas on a motorway run with odd tyres the difference is constant.
I'm not comfortable driving different tyres on the same car as I'd rather know that it's not going to significantly change characteristics at each end when the road surface conditions change, but that's my opinion. I'm a bit picky when it comes to what's holding me to the road!

AvalancheS8

I've never heard of any transimission damage occuring on Scoobies due to different tyres, they seem to be a lot more robust than the Vauxhall's etc that suffered from problems with this.

However, I recently got a puncture on a rear tyre and got the 2 half worn rear replaced with new tyres, still the same kind though (Goodyear F1s). The car immediately felt nasty at motorway cruising speeds when changing lanes, didnt feel like it had a solid grip on the road, you would have to keep making small corrections, it just felt nervous. I actually stopped and got out to walk round and look for flat or soft tyres or anything else wrong the first time I felt it. At first I put it down to release agent on the brand new tyres making them slippery but it didn't go away after several hunderd miles. I checked and tried everything else to sort it but it was only fixed when I put new fronts on to replace the slightly over half worn ones that were on. It now feels fine. There was never any nasty noises or anything, the diffs are still fine and it always felt fine if you actually leant on the grip hard, but it was nasty when going quickly in a straight line.

I can only conclude that at that speed the rotation of the centre viscous diff was enough to start putting significant load into making the wheels turn at the same speed, so it was fighting itself a little bit.

My conclusion therefore would be that you are unlikely to damage anything but if you care about how the car feels to drive, keep them all the same.

ukjesters

iTrader: (3)

I had bridgestones all round on the car but the rears were down to the wear indicator level so i put goodyear F1s on the front (didnt have any Bridgestones) and put the bridgey fronts to the back-decent tread left on them.

I have just been made aware that the front set up of the car has some natural camber on it and so i shall rotate my tyres front to back.

Surely doing this cant have any "real" serious implications to the diff or are these road going "rally" cars more fragile than i first thought?

Only had the car since Feb 05 and i am loving it but some of the things you read on here certainly do make you sit up and think "bloody hell", especially if youre not mechanically minded like me and do take note of other peoples postings...

So anyone had any negative side effects to having different brands between the front and backs, ie damaged diffs etc

Ta
Rick