Hi, Somewhere along the line somebody told me to always put the best tires on the back because in case of a blow out, you have some control of the frount through the steering, but on the back you have none. So that's what I alwasy did. Today, at a tire store, in conversation, the salesman told me I had it wrong, and that you should always do the opposite of what I was doing, and put the best tires on the front. Any 3rd opionions much appriciatee. Mike
On a Miata, I'd put the best tires in back, because they wear twice as fast as the front ones.
Personally, I replace all four as a set, and rotate every 3k miles so they all wear out together.
I think the correct answer is that worn tires should on the truck that is hauling them to the recycling facility. Does that count as being "on the back"? If tires are so bad that you spend excessive time worrying about which sort of catastrophic tire failure might be less lethal, do yourself a favor and get new ones.
My thoughts also.
If I was living in like North Korea with no access to new tires, let alone other basic human rights, my choice would be to put the bad tires on the rear wheels with the thought of the result of an exploding front tire. Also I'd rather have to use a soft right foot than battle understeer but each to his own I guess.
Kind regards Bruno
Plus, a mine would probably take out the tire regardless of wear. More likely to hit mines with the front.
miker
Well, the tire rack article states it emphatically; new on the rear (for car control reasons). I'd agree with Lanny that they should go on the back for wear reasons but I'd have thought on the front for control reasons. I was thinking that while the fronts have to clear allot of water as they go, they also clear most of the water for the rears to follow thru. I guess this may be somewhat true on the straight sections (where it's not as important) and maybe not so true in the curves where the rears may take a somewhat different track thru the corner and of course, traction is muck more critical in those moments. I'll take their experience over my flawed logic, I guess. Good to know.
Chris
99BBB
The article that Chris M. linked to was referring to FWD cars, I saw no reference to RWD or AWD, just mention of how the fronts do the accelerating and the steering. One reason to put them on the rear is that all-season rear tires on a FWD car can last "forever" and tend to lose adhesion properties much faster than tread.
It sounds like rear tires first in any case if only doing two, whether RWD, FWD or AWD. Like John said, if it a a matter of which set is "less lethal", get a full set of 4, even if it means riding the bus for a while.
I have gotten good at rotating them often enough that it has been a long time since I have bought less than a full set at a time unless I was replacing a damaged tire.
Pat
What I had alway heard was to put the best tires on the rear with the logic that spinning out of control was more dangerous than some understeer.
Gus 91 BRG
More dangerous perhaps, but much less fun!
Pat
But Pat, it's the 'out of control' part of the spinning out that has the lower fun quotient!
Personally, the oversteer problem would have to be pretty abrupt for me to prefer to understeer. I just don't feel it's as benign as most people do. But then, I'm an old 'yankee' who has never been convinced that fwd is an advantage over rwd in the snow or especially in icy conditions. This tends to generate what I'd have to call (coining a phrase) 'nosteer'.
Chris
99BBB"Chris D'Agnolo" wrote
Chris,
Same here. Although, 'nosteer' can be corrected with appropriate application of the parking brake (or should I call if the 'attitude correction handle'). Once you get the nose pointed in the right direction, a little gas and off you go. This technique worked great on the ice-covered roads in West Lafayette Indiana (the city kept the snowplow blades 1" off the road since they couldn't afford to buy new blades each year). The real fun was watching the garbage truck/snowplow drivers turn the steering wheel full lock about 1/2 block before a turn, grit their teeth until the extreme understeer turned into oversteer snapping the truck around the corner.
Back to the original topic, I think the advice of best tires on the rear truly does apply to the typical driver (e.g., picture the snowbird loosing control of his motorhome as the backend slings around a corner in a winding mountain highway), but maybe not so much to the typical Miata driver who is very comfortable with their backend hanging out there.
Gus 91 BRG
You are 100% correct, I remember the tech guy from some tire/tyre company stating that (for both front and rear wheel drive) Although there,s a belief by many to the opposite
4wd may need 4 new tyresGood points Gus! I never thought about that; if you've got the nose pointed even slightly in the correct direction, the rest can be adjusted with the 'lever'. I've played allot with the handbrake for oversteer in fwd but never thought of it for understeer 'correction', hmmmm.
Chris
99BBB
Chris,
If it ever snows in Houston, we can go out in my Mazdaspeed 3 and give it a try.
Gus
I think that regardless of the wheels being driven, it's a simple understeer/oversteer-type of situation. If the front wheels lose traction for any reason, you're going to experience severe understeer, which is much easier to correct than the severe oversteer that will occur if the rear tires lose traction.
Ever since I was a kid, the standard RWD wisdom has been better tires on the front. If you lose the front, you have no control whatsoever -- you can't correct at all. All you can do is lock ';em up and pray. If you lose the rear, you can still steer the front and attempt to give the rears an opportunity to regain traction.
That said, I always replace my tires four at a time, and I never get more than about 16K miles out of a set on my sports cars.
-- Larry
Except the rear tires wear faster. If you always put the more worn tires on the back, you end up with half the set worn out a before the other half. If you put the less worn tires on the rear, the set wears evenly, and then you can replace them all at once.
If you're letting you tires get so worn that you can't drive on them safely, then you've got problems no matter where you put them.
That is true, but I pretty much don't care about wear. I care only about performance and safety.
True. And I don't ever let them get that worn.
-- Larry
Don't listen to me--listen to Goodyear:
Ditto and ditto. I think I got 9k miles out of the last set of Toyos on my Miata, though I can't blame the car.
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