pair of new tires; put on rear or front?
 

The dealer changed 2 of the tires on my 8 and they insist the best place for them is on the front. I would have thought it would be best to put the pair on the rear because they would wear faster there and catch up to my other pair of tires that are at about 30-40%. The dealer says that since the car's weight dist. is 50/50 tire wear is equal back and front and that it is beter to put the new tires up front. I would think that since it is rear wheel drive the rear's wear faster..........

Anyone one have any thoughts; I would like to eqaulize my tread wear so I can change all the tires together the next time.

appreciate it......

There have been tests done and you want more tread in the back...doesn't matter if it's front or rear wheel drive. Can't remember if was C&D, R&T, or maybe the TireRack, but it's been proven.

Read this: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...llnewtires.jsp

Even with a "mild" driving style the rears wear faster. I watch my tires closely and have noticed that.

That's it...just couldn't remember where I saw it...the last sentence says it all...

"In case there is any doubt, when tires are replaced in pairs, the new tires should always be installed on the rear axle and the worn tires moved to the front."

Not so fast.....

If your car has DSC this will affect the decision of where to fit the new pair of tires. The Tire Rack article is suggesting oversteer is more difficult to control than understeer, and therefore the new tires should be fitted to the rear.....However, if you have DSC, oversteer (rear end sliding out) is not a problem. In this case, fit the new tires on the front. Your braking (especially wet weather braking) will be much more effective and you will dramatically reduce your risk of rearending someone. Eighty percent of your stopping power comes from your front brakes/tires, makes much more sense to have the best tires on the front.

In fact, regardless of DSC I'd be fitting the new tires on the front. Depends I suppose on whether you feel you're more likely to lose the rear end, or need to stop quickly for a kid who steps of the curb. You can control the rear end by not taking too much speed into corners.....you have no control over the kid.

Gomez.

One theory is to put your best tires on the rear, since if you have a blowout going down the road, it's better to blowout on the front since you still have some control over the car by compensating with steering. Of course if you blow a tire doing 90 it's probably not going to matter anyway. Just a thought.

That is ridiculous.

There is really only one primary reason for placing the newer tires in the rear, safety. If you are in a situation where you have to use hard braking you want to make sure the the back of the car stays in the back and doesn't slide around. Hence, keep the highest traction level in the rear regardless of front or rear wheel drive.

The DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) system will not recognize the difference between one new tire or one worn tire. This system is designed to use the traction control and ABS to keep the vehicle under control in hard handling situations, i.e. ice and snow, hard fast corner when the inside front corner may have limited contact, or emergency braking. Basically it make sure that all wheel are turning at the exact same speed. Now if you try and use a taller tire in the rear so that the size ration from front to back is no longer correct you will have some problems. the DSC will think the rear tire is spinning to fast and will engage the brake to slow them down. The Acura NSX were the worst cars for this because if the front and rear size ration is not correct the DSC would lock all four caliper and the car would not move until the system was reset and the proper sizes were installed.

It is true that if you have a rear wheel drive car, especially a performance oriented RWD car you will tend to go through 2 sets of rear tires to one set of front tires. Normally people order tires to suit in that case, order two rears and the next time order all four. But, this scenario would not hold true if you were driving a front wheel drive car. the front would waer faster than the rears but you should still place the newer tires in the rear for saftey reasons.