I own a 2005 Camry. This winter we decided to get snow tires. we were advised that the snows should go on the front tires. It seems now that the car loses all stability in turns. This didn’t happen when we had all season radials. Any advice would be grately appreciated. Thanks
I think you should either buy two more identical tires for the rear wheels or take the snow (actually winter) tires off and put your all season radials back on. In the old days we put snow tires on the rear wheels because cars were rear wheel drive. With front wheel drive, it is imperative to have good traction on the rear wheels. You can’t steer the rear wheels. I think that with your winter tires, the traction is much better than the rear wheels and your rear end is sliding out.
The first advice should have been FOUR snow tires. ( the advice for two is only IF…
IF you had to mount only two. )
The grip quotient is now unequal front/back and you’re feeling the rear tires screaming the reason you bought snows for the front and they’re jealous now.
Kinda like wearing one snow boot and one sandal.
In the days of snows on the rear you’d feel a liitle slide from the front, adjust your driving accordingly, and the rears gave you the grip to follow through.
With grip only in the front you’re over driving the non grip rear only for it to be too late to adjust as the rear slides from centrifugal force when the front doesn’t.
One other thought: make certain your tires are inflated to the proper pressure. There is a placard on the left door pillar that gives the correct pressure. Your front tires may be over-inflated while your rear tires might be under-inflated.
Whoever agreed to sell you two winter tires was asleep at the switch, so to speak.
Modern technology winter tires need to be mounted in sets of FOUR.
Open up that wallet, buy two more of those same winter tires, drive more slowly and allow much longer distances between your car and the car in front of you (no tire allows you to defy the laws of physics), and then drive with the confidence that you have finally done what you needed to do in order to operate your car safely in winter driving conditions.
Get the same brand of winter tires on the back of the car. Whoever advised you to just put winter tires on the front, was dead wrong. You are testimony to the negative results, unbalanced handling.
It is an easy fix, just get 2 more winter tires.
You need FOUR winter tires.
The reason you’re losing stability is that the front end has much better traction than the rear, and the rear will slide all over the place.
You need equal traction at both ends. Buy two more winter tires.
Someone needs a dope slap. Everyone here agrees that the safest car is one that has the same traction on all four wheels. It’s safer NOT to buy snow tires at all than to put them just on the front or the back. Driving around with unequal traction front or rear is begging for loss of control. 4 winter tires on all fours or not at all.
If you bought only 2 winter tires for budget reasons, this is a case of how being cheap can be the most expensive mistake you can make. The loss of control in the turns can lead to an accident.
Watch this video for a demonstration:
Winter tyres only on the front will help you get down the road and will help you get out of the ditch. Winter tyres will help keep you on the road and out of the ditch.
[i] Winter tyres on the front keeps you moving.[/i] [b] Winter tyres on the back keep you safe[/b].“If you bought only 2 winter tires for budget reasons, this is a case of how being cheap can be the most expensive mistake you can make.”
Absolutely and for economic reasons too.
We mentioned this before in another post but you aren’t saving money in the long run with only two winter tires. You’re making the tire situation worse when you put your all seasons back on in the summer by adding tires that haven’t run with the ones already on and now have unequal traction all of the time.
With 4 winter tires, you can get more life out of your “summer tires” as you’re not trying to use them in winter. All seasons loose much of what snow grip they have when as little as 40% to 50% of their tread life is gone. Tire people know this and know you’ll buy all season tires more often for winter traction than snow tires if you try to use all seasons year round during the life of your car.
Winter tires will wear well if you pay attention to temperatures and change them in spring and fall and drive conservatively. Winter tires are more effective in snow down to their wear bars then most all seasons are new and will maintain effectiveness longer than all seasons in winter. It’s a no brainer and saves money to rotate 4 winter tires with rims.
You were advised wrongly. Get two more identical winter tires for the back before you spin out and crash. It’s very dangerous for the rear tires to have less traction than the front tires.
I have to concur with what others have said.
FWD vehicles you want 4 snow/winter tires…A RWD vehicle you only need 2 and they go on the rear.