My left rear has a nail in it. I was going to have the tire store patch it, then I realized that the tires are really worn (it has about 30,000 miles on it.)

I know that the ideal is to buy 4 new tires at once. But I don't have the budget for that now. So I'm going to buy 2 new tires this weekend.

Should I have them installed on the rear or rotate them so the old tires on the front go to the rear?

If it matters, my car is completely stock right now and I don't plan on doing anything fancier than buying the OEM tires (or something roughly equivalent) and having them mounted on the stock rims.

I'll probably replace the other pair of tires in about 2-3 months.

 

number one, DON'T buy the stock tires again, there are TONS more better tires out there for MUCH cheaper money

number two, how much do you have to spend on tires? you can get a full set of tires (stock size) for around $500 on the web

and number three, if you do decide to only buy 2 tires, put them on the rear.

 

In california (at least according to Costco) new tires must be mounted in the rear.
I'd vote for putting them in the rear as well since those will wear faster.

check out www.tirerack.com for some alternatives to OEM potenzas. (or dunlops)

 

I made the original post under the assumption that tires were $250 a pop. I later found the thread on the Kumho Ecstas and will be getting a complete set installed this Saturday for $115 each.

 

Kumho Ecsta's ROCK! Which version of Ecstas did you go with? I personally just put on some MX's and couldn't be happier.

 

Ideally you would put the best tires on the front, would you rather not be able to accelerate or not be able to effectively brake/steer where you are going?

As far as the stock tires, I actually like my RE040's and would buy another set if I could get it cheap from a member who took theirs off. They are overall quiet, comfortable and last quite a while. But otherwise I would just get the 225/45/18 Kumho SPT's (newer technology than the MX's) for less than 100/pop. I've tried the MX's on my M3 and they were good, but I think they are a 3-4 year old design now.

 

New tires ALWAYS go in the rear of the vehicle regardless of FWD/RWD.
More traction in the rear prevents oversteer.

 

New tires on front to prevent hydroplaning if it rains.

 

On point one...I agree.

Number two...I got a full set of 275/35's for $600 shipped to the door from onlinetires.com!

Number three...I also agree.

 

I put my new ones on the front because why wear down the new ones right away when i could wear down the ones with 3/4 tread?

 

Here's my answer: You tell me!

Put new tires in the front if you're thinking of your safety and the handling of your car. You'll steer better in bad weather if new tires are in the front.

Put them in the back if you're thinking of performance. You'll have better traction where the power is at, if your new tires are in the rear.

Here's what I'd do. Get two wheels, but one size thicker. Put them in the rear. Next time you rotate the wheels and get new tires, put those "old new" ones in the front, and get two more that are a size thicker... and put them in the rear. You'll be back to all four tires the same size, and you'll be one size thicker.

 

Don't do it. There are tires out there that will allow you to buy four at the cost of two of the oem. They are not the greatest usualy, but will be much better than mismatching tires. I was asked to try out an 8 because they felt something was wrong with it. I went over the usualy list of questions with them and took it out. The thing was horrible. It was so loose I almost spun it a couple of times. The handling was very unpredictable at speeds less than I just casualy lapped in my 8 with Nitto 555's! I got back and asked "are you sure that you checked the tire pressures?" I looked closely at the tires and he had the stockers on front, a different tire on the back right that was badly worn, and a different brand all together on the left that was new. I do not think that he believed in rotating tires.

When I asked him what was he thinking, he simply said that he could not afford to replace all the tires. He made his car very unsafe at speed and handle horrible.

There are options available that are much cheaper than 4 stockers and last longer. Such as the Nitto 555, Dirrezza, Ecstas, among the others mentioned. They are all better than a miss match tire. And keep them rotated so they will last longer and you can replace all 4 at once. That way you won't be caught in that vicious cycle of constantly replacing two tires.

If you have to replace only two, most recomend the front for safety. If you put the new on the rear, you will have less ability to steer in adverse conditions causing heavy understeer along with wearing out the new at a fast rate again.

This in just my opinion, so it is not worth much. Just, be a bit more careful with different tires please and don't try to hussle down that same section of curvy of road at the same speeds as before untill you know how the car is going to react.

 

Whats the point of being able to steer in adverse conditions when your rear end will slip out because the tires are worn?

 

seems like the whole question lies with resisting hydroplaning and that understeer is easier to control than oversteer.

Hydroplaning with worn tires in the front will be felt by the driver and more easily corrected. Worn tires in the rear will be more difficult to correct as it cannot be caught as soon and will cause the car to oversteer making it harder to control.

this is what tirerack & michelin have to say

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=52

http://www6.autonet.ca/Maintenance/T...09/511272.html

 

wow, i'm enlightened now... thanks for the great articles scoreo.

in the past, i used to always replace the fronts. but, in recent years i've been changing all 4 tires at the same time. just for ***** n giggles, i did a search on www.michelin.com, and yes- they do say to put em on in the rear.

here's the link:

http://www.michelinman.com/care/tip6.html#5

 

any time Detrich,
I used to work at Sears in college installing tires and we'd always put them in the rear.

I couldnt agree with changing all 4 at the same time. I just put a set of yokohama avs es 100's on the car. So far they are great, much better than the oem re040's.

I'm still in the "break in" period but I don't think I will be driving anytime soon, as there is 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground.