Front or Rear?

I have always thought that power steering caused premature wear to the front and have found this to be the case on my vehicles (rear wheel drive and 4x4) I have always asked the garage to diagonally swap them because of this to get maximum and even wear. It has worked for me. Don’t know about extra wear due to wheel spin on front wheel drive but think it would not do as much damage as the wiping motion of steering, unless badly driven. Don’t understand why new tyres should go on the rear.

Ken

Other than the Prime Minister making an official announcement in parliament 'TF', you might have to make do with Kumho, Michelin, The AA and KWIK-Fit to name a few. I suppose with greater understanding and technology thinking changes, but its still a debatable choice.

Like you my tyres wear evenly (4x4) and I am never in that situation where I have to purchase two, but I personally think the change to the rear is advantageous only in adverse conditions.

Be mindful of swapping diagonally, as a lot of tyres are directional and fitting them to the opposite side will have the running backwards.

That’s a very good point John and well made.  My Freelander came with Goodyear Wranglers that are non- directional and I replaced them at 37000 swapping them around. Goodyear recommend non directional for this purpose. I don’t know how it affects these new pressure sensors though!

Ken

There are also asymmetrical tyres, I found this out when researching why OUTSIDE was written on the tyre wall

see here

Obvious really when you think about it Corners 😉 ...... the same tyre on either side of the car will go in opposite directions if 'outside' is visible on the outside of the wheel.

Just make sure you have more than 3mm tread, the tyres are matched on the axle, and the tyres are no older than 5 years with the correct inflation pressure. Peace and harmony will reign in the tyre department.

Initially you would assume that the tyres with deeper tread would be better on the front. The front tyres do most of the work, cornering, braking, dispersal of water and for the majority of cars also acceleration. However the vast majority of the tyre industry insist that the deeper treads should be on the rear. The reason being less weight and if rear tread is inferior to front tread, then rear end breakaway is a lethal combination. I used to teach on a skid pan. We always used rear wheel drive cars which replicated rear breakaway and my students loved every minute of it. Let them go on the pan with a front wheel drive car and they would be bored after 10 minutes and come off the pan. All tyres were smooth, no tread. IMO best treads at the rear. You are entitled to disagree, it is your car, your tyres and your risk assessment.

My Hyundai dealer recommended that I change all four tyres at the same time to avoid "wind-up" issues on my old Tucson. Shame they didn't recommend regular swapping around to maintain even wear in the first place. Given the choice I'd always put new tyres on the front, that's where the steering happens!