Replacing Front/Rear Tyres MK7 GTI PP

[ROF1984]

Hi Guys,

Long time lurker, first time poster, a lot of super information in this forum. I have a late 16 plate manual Mk7 PP GTI,absolutely love it from day 1. Its a great driver's car, i love the nimbleness of it and of course its practical for everyday for my uses!

I am currently running 19'' Santiagos with Pirelli P-Zeros 225/35/R19 Y88 all round but I want to give the Michelin PS4s a go. The time has come to change fronts (down to 3mm thread wear) but the rears still have a good 6.5mm left. It seems a bit of a waste to not keep the rears(maybe move them to front?)

I suppose budget constraints at moment only dictate I can replace a pair at the moment.
Would there be any issue mixing front and back from different manufacturers? I plan on getting same threads 225/35/R19 Y88 for the PS4s.

Or should I just suck it up and bin all the P-Zeros if I am changing manufacturers?

Any advice is much appreciated

[Watts]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I would (in fact did) swap all four at once when I moved from p-zeros to PS4S. They are a much better tyre IMO, better ride, grip and comfort. Quieter too. If I were you, I'd swap them around and wear them down a wee bit more and swap them in the Autumn. Unless you see a really good deal in the meantime.

[madstaff]

I would do as Watts suggests and swap them around and even the wear out, then change all 4 at once.

I had Yokohama 520s on my old mk2 gti and it handled beautifully, had to have new fronts on and the 520 had been replaced by Parada, IIRC, and it upset the balance.

[Crockers]

Big mistake having better grip on the fronts to rears. Best way to end up with an oversteer into a ditch.

[Watts]

Big mistake having better grip on the fronts to rears. Best way to end up with an oversteer into a ditch.

Not necessarily. Those good people at Michelin reckon differently - "Reinforcing our test results, recent independent studies have reported that there is no demonstrated link between accident rates and tread depth. And of course, thanks to the 6,000 people Michelin employs in its Research and Development activities, today’s tyre technology makes it possible to have high levels of grip right down to the last millimetres of tread."

[mcmaddy]

Big mistake having better grip on the fronts to rears. Best way to end up with an oversteer into a ditch.

it's usually a lack of talent and not knowing yours or your cars limitations as to why you end up in a ditch.

[baka]

Pretty sure the 'most tread goes on the back' mantra you get from all the tyre shops is to do with aquaplaning.

A tyre with less tread depth can potentially displace less water before aquaplaning, so you want that tyre to be on the front, so you get fairly benign understeer, rather than the back aquaplaning first and spinning out.

[Finglonga]

Big mistake having better grip on the fronts to rears. Best way to end up with an oversteer into a ditch.

You are in a front wheel drive car, that was the excuse people used years ago in the rear wheel drive cars when they ran out of talent.

[Rudedog]

Have to agree which goes against many motoring forums....

Lift off oversteer is frightening when experienced but far better that which can be corrected than terminal understeer which, as it says, is terminal!

[willni]

As the temperatures start to drop and the wetter weather is inbound, I don't think we'll be rallying about the same so I'd imagine our driving styles won't be indicative of under or oversteer.

But yes I also agree swap the tyres to the front and let them wear down a good bit, bit of a waste to throw away perfectly good tyres. On the next set regularly rotate them so they wear consistently.