Tyre wear

In message , MCC writes

Get your tracking checked.

That was done today at the Ford main dealer. Nothing untoward found.

In message , MCC wrote

My car is the same age [bought second hand at 9k miles - one lady owner who only drove to church :) - and I have just reached 19k miles. I will be shopping for new front tyres within the next few weeks. They are not down to the legal limit but, like you, for safety sake they will be replaced.

BTW, having the good tyres on the back didn't help much this week when the south/east of the UK had it's annual day of snow.

What kind of tires are those?

Strange, exchanged mine at about 50.000 km, the front was only

I suppose you are like those idiots here around with their summer tires mounted and wondering why they have problems in snow?

In message , Michael Heiming wrote

We don't get snow[1] so there is no reason why we should have two sets of tyres - one set of which would last a thousand years if the rubber hadn't perished first. When 60 percent of the (minor) roads are sheet black ice for a day or two it doesn't matter what tyres you have on the car.

We don't get much snow here too, perhaps 1-3 days a year, but then winter tires always have better traction if the temperature is below 7C, even on ice they have some traction. There are large traffic jams if there's a little snow, as people refuse to get winter tires...

If you search the group, you will find this a regular topic.

In my experience the wear rate you are getting is about right. I often get less mileage from the front tyres than you! Also, the outside wears more than the rest of the tyre. I kept going to different tyre dealers to get the tracking checked because I was convinced it was wrong. It was always OK. Eventually my local Ford Fast Fit dealer said that Focus tyres always wear like this. Checking on other (Focus) cars in car parks shows this to be so.

Others will report better life from their front tyres. It seems to me that using minor country roads with lots of braking and cornering (as I do) for most of your driving adversly affects the tyre's life. Fun though!

HTH

Chris.

This is about right in my experience. In the 20 years I've been driving front wheel drive cars, the front tyre wear has always been much heavier than with a RWD car.. I have averaged about 14K miles on the fronts. 90% of my driving is stop/start town driving, so I would expect higher wear. On my first Focus, a '99 model fitted with Goodyear NCT3's, the fronts were worn out at 12K (the rears by contrast lasted 34K). I replaced the fronts with Pirelli P6000's which lasted almost 20K. My present 2002 Focus came fitted with Pirelli P6000's. It's done almost 14K and the tyres look as of they will last another 5 or 6K. Not too bad IMHO.

Bob Hill

My Focus (1999) 1.6 Zetec model makes about 20-22k miles (P6000's) between changes. If you have the time, I recommend you switch the corners (front left for rear right, and rear left for front right) after about 10k miles. All 4 tyres can then be changed at once.

Chris.

I am disabled. The car is leased to me by Motability on a 3-year lease. Kwik-Fit have the contract to replace tyres as and when necessary. I will take the car in to them the next time I am in town. They can inspect them and report their findings to Motability. They will then get the go-ahead (or not, as the case may be) to replace them from Motability. No payment is required from me. I take your point about swapping tyres - I used to do that a long time ago. But surely it then becomes even more expensive to replace all four. It's easier on the wallet if only two need to be replaced at a time.

Hi Chris, You cannot change radial tires from corner to corner. They take a set and then can only run in one direction. Gerry

In message , Gerry writes

That's not true. There are a few uni-directional tyres about but most are not.

Rubbish, with any modern tire (>15 years) it is generally not recommended to change the direction once the tires did run for some km and set. I doesn't matter if the tire has a single direction to run or not.

Don't tell me, you got this from your much quoted driver security training instructor?

Nope, you can find the reason for that problem right over here:

"Why put new or less worn tyres at the rear ?"

Michael,

I'm intrigued to see that Michelin recommend you put your best set of boots at the rear. I can see that it's likely to reduce back end miss-behaviour, but surely in straight line breaking, you want to have as much grip from the front tyres as possible, so I'm not convinced by their argument. I would also have thought that having even wear between the back and front would be the ideal situation. Changing tyres just before mid-life will help do this. Changing corners (provided the tyres aren't uni-directional) also means you eliminate some sorts of un-even wear problems, such as near-side experiencing more wear than off-side etc. Changing corners can also be good for your wallet, as it is often cheaper, let alone more convenient, to get 4 rather than 2 tyres per trip to the garage. However, all said and done, I except Michelin are the experts when it comes to tyres, not me!

Chris..

( top posting fixed! )

Perhaps in your mis believe but in reality once they have set you shouldn't.

Quite likely, still you refuse to acknowledge that one should put new or less worn tyres at the rear.

BTW I love this ng!