New tyres - on the front or back???

[Dobbs333]

Hi folks - just been reading an interesting post from Bodhi about where to put two new tyres.

Standard practice as I understood it is to put or rotate new tyres onto the front so that you had the best chance to steer out of any problems.

However a demonstration to Bodhi's dad showed that it was better to put the best tyres onto the rear.

Now I gather that the demonstration was showing when the tyre-grip was lost when cornering, but that's only one aspect of a tyre's function - there's also steering and grip under acceleration and braking, so I don't think that the test showed the 'full picture'.

Can any good folks out there in GTI land shed any further light on this???

Cheers in advance,

Dobbs.

[16v Matt]

Hi matey, I think it is down to personal preferance really. There are pros & cons for putting new tyres on the fornt & back. I would rather put new tyres on the back as loosing the back end on a wet country lane scares the sh!t out of me! I've tryed new tyres on the front & sh!t ones on the back. Not nice

Try both & stick to whatever you feel more comfortable with.
Cheers,
Matt

[S11EPS]

Unless I'm mistaken, Bodhi's dad drives a BMW. Which is rear wheel drive.

So its not surprising that new tyres are recommended to go on the back, as the driven wheels are more likely to break traction - the chassis dynamics of a BMW dictate oversteer, not understeer.

As a front wheel drive car, your GTi is going to understeer long before it oversteers, unless you drive specifically to provoke it.

Its even more important on a front wheel drive car, where not only are the front wheels transmitting the driving force, but are also trying to steer the car.

The fear is that if a front wheel car has too little grip to the rear, you will unwittingly create a fwd car that will easily oversteer, but to be perfectly honest if the tyres on the back of your car are so bad where you'll get oversteer during normal driving, you should be buying four tyres, not two!

[gibby]

I just got two new tyres as the back ones weren't too good, I got two continentals and was advised (as s11eps says) to put the new ones on the front as this is your steer and your drive, I then put the front two, which aren't bad, but obviously not as good as the new ones, on the back. I've had no probs and it certainly feels better to drive.

[vwsystems]

falken tyres recomend new tyres to be put on the back!

[Dobbs333]

Interesting - did they happen to say why put the tyres on the back of a FWD car, rather than on the front?

A mate said that one of the motoring programs did a test on front vs back about a year or so ago.  Only problem is that he can't remember which was best (useless!) - anyone else catch that program?

Enjoy Sat night

Dobbs.

[Dobbs333]

Interesting - did they happen to say why put the tyres on the back of a FWD car, rather than on the front?

A mate said that one of the motoring programs did a test on front vs back about a year or so ago.  Only problem is that he can't remember which was best (useless!) - anyone else catch that program?

Enjoy Sat night

Dobbs.

[Dizzie]

As a front wheel drive car, your GTi is going to understeer long before it oversteers, unless you drive specifically to provoke it.

mine f**king broke away on 4 4 hour old proxies and I ended up in the hedge needing a tow out  

that'll teach me not to run them in first. at least nothing was damaged. just 4 kerbed rims.  :'(

[mrwotto]

i lways stick my new tyres on the front of my cars, always have done for the steering / power reason

[gibby]

falken tyres recomend new tyres to be put on the back!

Why ? Unless it's a RWD, doesn't make any sense Did falken specify the driving wheels or are they saying on the rear for both RWD and FWD ?