Tread Depth And Swapping Wheels

[Phil 87]

I'm planning on swapping my wheels front to back at some point so the tyres wear down evenly, so I can replace them all at the same time (at 3mm). Am I right in thinking it's perfectly ok to just swap wheels front to back, keeping them on the same side of the car?

I haven't measured the tread depth yet but will do soon. Would the tyres have 8mm of tread when new? If that's the case, as an example say the front tyres are down to 5mm and the rears down to 6mm, that would be a good time to swap as they would both reach 3mm at the same time. Well that's my thinking anyway, what do you guys do about swapping tyres / buying new ones?

[Paramanic]

Aright mate aye and no you will see the complications here

http://www.ctyres.co.uk/tyre_info/tyre_rotation.html

[Phil 87]

Thanks for that, it's a good thing I asked first :). That's quite confusing, so based on their diagram I should switch the fronts to the back on the same side, but switch the backs to the front but swapping from left to right? And I guess that would work if the tyres don't have a specific direction of rotation.

When I had one of my old cars I took it to a tyre place and asked them to swap the tyres front to back, which they called a "front rear swap" I think, makes me wonder if they did it correctly.

[MattDRX]

Id leave the backs alone personally, I've never had to change a set of rear tyres they never wear out.

[Phil 87]

Id leave the backs alone personally, I've never had to change a set of rear tyres they never wear out.

It was the same with my last car, I bought it with about 14k miles on it so I assume the rear tyres were original, sold it with 29k miles and they still had plenty of tread lol. I might just change the fronts when they get to 3mm just to make it easy. On that site it says the rear tyres should have same or better grip than fronts for safety, but I guess with ESP that doesn't matter.

[MattDRX]

I do wonder what the real world difference is though, my Old Clio 182 had near bald back tyres after I swapped them as the fronts were worn and didn't fancy buying 4 tyres, they were expensive for that car too as an odd size, 204/40/16's. and it didn't affect the car, I always drive like a slag that's why I buy these cars and the Clio is buy far the best handling car I've ever had, the back end never ever ever even in snow and rain lost the back end, all the weight is at the front on these cars and that's what matters.

I'd keep the hundred odd quid if it was my choice tbh, and do not get Yokohoma Parada2's they are going very cheap at the moment but I don't rate them, wasted £130 on these, quite dangerous in the wet in fact.

Try some Kuhmo Esctas, pretty good for the money, the bridgestones that come with the car are pretty pants too,

[MarksST]

The manual (P173) says to swap the tyres front to back at regular intervals every 3000-6000 miles, it doesn't mention diagonally though.

Someone on STOC did this and recently changed all his at 18k

[Phil 87]

I'm at nearly 4k miles at the moment, and I can't decide what to do, but I still need to measure the tread. I'll ask at the Ford garage on Friday see what they think.

[MartynS]

I read something once that said you shouldn't change the direction a tyre rolls when it's been in use for a while. There may not be any truth to this but potentially worth considering before switching left to right?

I haven't ever swapped front to rear either, on my last car I had the fronts replaced and by the time I came to sell it one of the rears was just about at the marker so I got away with not having to do them :D.

Also remember to adjust the pressures if you do swap front to back (wonder how many garages bother to do this?)

[neil1jnr]

I do wonder what the real world difference is though, my Old Clio 182 had near bald back tyres after I swapped them as the fronts were worn and didn't fancy buying 4 tyres, they were expensive for that car too as an odd size, 204/40/16's. and it didn't affect the car, I always drive like a slag that's why I buy these cars and the Clio is buy far the best handling car I've ever had, the back end never ever ever even in snow and rain lost the back end, all the weight is at the front on these cars and that's what matters.

This is the kind of post that worries me. For the sake of a couple of hundred quid you put 'near bald' tyres on the back of your car...

[MattDRX]

Yeah course, just like slicks, rears are under very little stress of weight, a Clio only weighs 1080KGs it's nothing.

[MarksST]

That lack of weight at the rear is a reason why would need good grip at the rear, most tyre makers and fitters will recommend putting the newer tyre on the rear.

Couldn't find the fifth gear vid but this demonstrates the problem

[neil1jnr]

That lack of weight at the rear is a reason why would need good grip at the rear, most tyre makers and fitters will recommend putting the newer tyre on the rear.

Couldn't find the fifth gear vid but this demonstrates the problem

Agreed.

And in reference to slicks, they are only grippy when it is dry. I don't mind if some people prefer the tyres with the most tread at the front as long as front and rear has good tread.

Bald tyres, like slicks, are completely useless in the wet, BUT, bald tyres are dangerous all the time where slicks aren't. Slicks are made with soft compound rubber and usually a thinner side wall, they are made for racing and for the dry only. New slicks have plenty of rubber to wear down before they are at the limit like a bald tyre. A bald tyre only has the chord after the rubber and is likely to cause a blowout or accident, they are NOT like slicks!

I can't believe you would risk points, having an accident, or worse still, injuring or killing someone becuase you lost control as you wanted to save money and run bald tyres at the rear...