2 or 4 Tyres?!?!

[StuGoo]

Hello Guys,

 

So passed my MOT yesterday with an advisory my fronts are at 3mm. Obviously it’s approaching new tyre time but I just wondered what your thoughts were? Shall I just do the fronts or change all 4? The rears are at around 4.5mm.

 

Cheers,

 

Stu

 

 

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[Charles M]

Say, using back of a fag packet maths......

 

Tyres start at, say, 8mm and you change before the legal 1.6mm, say 2mm. Tyres do say 12,000 miles (or 2,000 miles per 1 mm of tread) 

A tyre costs £100 or 0.8p per mile. You change them 2.5mm "early" and that's the equivalent of 5,000 miles or £41 worth of tyre. 

 

Of course you may get more miles, and tyres are more/less expensive......

 

Me? I change earlier rather than later as when you talk about a few pounds worth (as per the above) I don't think it work compromising safety. But with yours, I would do another 2-3,000 miles before changing at about 3mm or a bit under depending on time of year.

[Paradox1]

What type of driving do you do? If its normal road driving, Id just do the fronts.

Then when the rears are lower, move the fronts to the rear and put the "new new" tyres on the front.

[Growmac]

I continue to be stunned by this forum’s inability to comprehend that new tyres need to go at the back, not the front.


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[slider09]

I continue to be stunned by this forum’s inability to comprehend that new tyres need to go at the back, not the front.


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Was just going to say the same.


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[Booth11]

If you want to get max wear out of your existing rears, then replace the fronts only, but have the new tyres at the rear, and current rears rotated to the front.  

 

If it were me though, I’d change all four at this point. 

[StuGoo]

That’s a great help. I do a fair bit of motorway driving and don’t tend to push the car hard. Think I’ll swap the rears to the front and get some new ones on the rear.


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[brettblade]

Apparently and according to testing, new tyres should ideally be placed at the rear... especially for only front wheel and only rear wheel drive vehicles, for 4wd vehicles, all tyres should be replaced at the same time, but these R's are predominantly going to be FWD therefore the fronts will wear faster. Seeing as you have 4.5mm left on your rears, you should put those on the front and get a new set of the same matching tyres to go on the rear, 4.5mm is safe in these weather conditions, plus we are heading into the summer, so if it was me, I would get my moneys worth out of them for now!!

This.

For reference, better tyres go on the rear as it makes the car more likely to understeer than oversteer (which is easier for the majority of drivers to handle).

[ellixtt]

3 hours ago, Growmac said:

I continue to be stunned by this forum’s inability to comprehend that new tyres need to go at the back, not the front.


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I made this mistake and almost paid for it 😂 my broscience thinking it would be a good idea to put new tyres on the front because of prodominetly being FWD

 

Pretty soon after I had a S3 on my tail and I had severe oversteer but got lucky and controlled it

 

Swapped them over that day 😂😂

[ellixtt]

I would have a look around at deal, black circles usually do offers on Michelin’s so buying 4 you’ll save more than if you buy 2

 

Something to consider at least... If you bought 4 you could use the 2 you have on now as spares just incase anything bad happens!

[SpursMadDave]

Swap them around for a month or 2 and then change all 4

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[SpursMadDave]

 
I made this mistake and almost paid for it my broscience thinking it would be a good idea to put new tyres on the front because of prodominetly being FWD
 
Pretty soon after I had a S3 on my tail and I had severe oversteer but got lucky and controlled it
 
Swapped them over that day

Exactly Why I prefer my fresh rubber on the front I am used to RWD cars and absolutely hate understeer, I rotate my tyres so don't allow my them to get much more than a mm or so difference either way but if I was forced to get just 2 new tyres they would go on the front for sure on an R

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[ellixtt]

44 minutes ago, SpursMadDave said:

Exactly Why I prefer my fresh rubber on the front I am used to RWD cars and absolutely hate understeer, I rotate my tyres so don't allow my them to get much more than a mm or so difference either way but if I was forced to get just 2 new tyres they would go on the front for sure on an R

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For the most part I found it great with the new on the front but I have to admit that oversteer was a horrible feeling 😂 is much prefer understeer

[gregozedobe]

I wonder how many people with a Golf R have actually experienced unexpected snap oversteer on a wet road caused by the front tyres having more traction than the rears because the front tyres had deeper tread depth and/or better grip ?  Not because the driver was trying to get sideways by cornering too fast and applying too much power (which is the case with almost all of the videos I've seen lobbying for "best tyres on the front", who also had really crappy tyres on the back and excellent tyres on the front)

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it is a very, very low percentage of total Golf R owners, given the way the VW chassis engineers have set up the Golf R with a strong bias towards plough on understeer  when pushed too hard.  On a slippery wet skidpan I had great difficulty getting my R wagon to oversteer at all, even when provoked.  Yes, I've seen all the videos of people oversteering their R on a snowy car park, but in that case they aren't actually following a set line like I had to on a skid pan, they are just letting it all hang out sideways (and probably on rock hard summer tyres with almost no grip on a frozen surface)

[Shug]

Get what @gregozedobe is saying above. But I would still put best tyres on the rear. I did an advance bike course a few years ago, and they reckoned a lot of bike crashes where the bike ran wide was down to the rider bottling it and afraid to take a tighter line, the bike could have done that corner, it was the limitations of the rider that were the issue 

 

Also I am always surprised at how some people try to eak out every last second of tread from a tyre, and then probably sell the car with loads of tread on, but drove around for months with limited tread themselves before changing.

 

Personnaly in response to OP I would just chuck 4 new quality tyres on (Michelin or others) and enjoy it. Not worth scrimping a couple of hundred quid on a performance car.