My front tyres need replacing. However I hear its wise to change all 4 corners to stop knackering the differential?

Any truth in this??

 

Depends how worn the tyres are.

when I got the car (jap import) the fronts were somewhat worn, after about 6 months the fronts were very bald and the rears were not much better, so I replaced all four of them with a nice set of toyo's

I remember asking the same question after I got a puncture and wondered if I needed to change the whole set.

I think, that if there is more than say 4 or 5mm difference in tread depth between front and rear then you want to change them all, otherwise you *might* be ok changing just the fronts.

You could of course swap the rears over to the fronts to eek out a few more miles and then replace the lot.

 

I have rotated my tyres so hopefully they will all wear out at the same time enabling a decent upgrade to be made. If I wanted to keep the same type of tyre indefinately though, I would not be worried about putting new fronts on with part worn rears.

Incidentally, swapping front and rear over at around 7500 miles seemed to make a significant improvement in handling, although there are a lot of roundabouts here and you get unusual wear on the fronts.

 

After a puncture, I have three worn tyres and one new one!

After reading an article in Autocar, where a Volvo C70 had to have it's gearbox replaced because the owner had exactly the same condition, this is starting to worry me a bit!!

A puncture could get very expensive - having to by a complete new set of tyres every time! Well it will be for Volvo C70 owners!

Alex

 

I have learnt the hard way to ALWAYS replace all 4 together.

Bottom line is that 99.999% of the time you will be OK, but when they let go, they will not behave the same so instead of a bit of drift you get a violent spin.

I got caught out on a wet bend and I didn't think I was anywhere near the limit. I didn't realise what the problem was until I went on the Wetter the Better course and the car was crap. Went back a few weeks later with new tyres and it was a completely different car. Never again will I economise on tyres - it's just not worth it for a few hundred quid.

If you can't trust your tyres, you cant drive fast so you may as well buy a Cossie ;-)

 

I agree alistair, but do you have to replace ALL the tyres, if you get a un-repairable puncture in one tyre! We are not talking badly worn tyres here and on the edge safety - just a new gearbox/diff!

Alex

 

I don't buy the diff/gearbox thing if tread levels are similar, but I'd be careful of even hjaving different compounds in different batches of the same tyre !

I was badly burned once and for the sake of £400 or so I personally will always replace all 4 together in future. Actually it's probably less money than that if you take into account you're replacing part worn with new and you would have to replace one of them anyway........

 

Nah i dont agree with that gearbox thing either, i wouldnt hesitate to use new tyres with part worns, the only time i would replace all 4 is when they are down to the legal limit or just off the limit, or there was 4 mm + difference between the worn rubber and the new ones.

 

Just remembered - a guy at Lavender Hill Subaru dealership actually told me not to bother swapping tyres round when I asked them to do it at a service. He said it works out that two sets of fronts lasts about as long as one set of rears for most people. Still, I swapped them myself when I got home because I wanted to, but the point is he would have been forking out for a new gearbox under warranty if it was going to bust so I expect he didn't think there would be any danger.

 

you have nothing to worry about here.

Have done it before myself with no problems, also checked it with Prodrive not that long ago.

 

Thanks for your comments - feel more relaxed about it now!
Feel sorry for the Volvo drivers though ;-)

 

There is absolutely no way that Subaru would sell a vehicle that was not capable of running with a mixture of new and worn tyres (of the same size, obviously).

 

May 2002 WHATCAR? Mag, page 58.......

SUBARU have never known of a car to suffer with diff wear due to different wear tyres!

I'm gonna swap my worn fronts with OK rears, replace the rears with F1's, then replace the fronts with F1's in a few months time........just to spread the cost!

 

Don't say I didn't warn you .............

 

Don't think you'll get diff problems, though take heed of mixing tyres...

Some 4x4s, including I think Volvos, maybe old Sierra's, Calibras (?), have a more primitive centre diff (IIRC) that couldn't handle significant tread differences front and rear. I remember reading a poster about it at my local tyre place a few months ago (specifically mentioned some Volvo) that said they should replace all four at once.