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gdan29 wrote:
On a FWD vehicle the front wear out faster so how could you ever rotate the tires?
Although it probably hasn’t been made clear, we’re talking about a major difference between the front and back tread. (This question is usually asked here when someone has two new tires and two half-gone tires.) If you rotate the tires frequently, the difference will be minor enough that it doesn’t matter.
The average FWD car has 60% of its weight on the front wheels and 40% of its weight on the rear wheels. That means the front wheels have 50% more weight than the rears. Weight = traction. That means that the front has inherantly more traction than the rear. Wet testing has proven that when the rear tires have 50% less tread, the traction imbalance is exascerbated and the average FWD car loses traction in the rear and spins out more readily. Braking a vehicle with such an imbalance makes the problem worse due to the weight transfer toward the front. Hit the brakes on rain-slicked roads on a curve of an exit ramp with such a significant imbalance and you’re much more likely to have the rear end spin.
With the better tires on the rear, you’re also more likely to feel the car beginning to hit its limits through the steering wheel and back off before the rear loses traction. With the good tires on the front, you’ll not feel the rear breaking loose until too late.
I’ll add to that, insupport of Lion’s point, that if your tires fromt or rear are getting to the point where the wear bars are obvious, it’s time for new rubber. A few hundred bucks invested in safety is money well spent.
I know they’ve changed recommendations in the past few years, but I still run my better tires on the front if I have mismatched pairs, but I seldom drive above 55 mph on dry roads and usually not above 50 mph on wet roads and even lower on wet/curvy roads. I like knowing my better tread is on the drive/steering wheels.
I have three times lost control on ice. One time I did hit anther car. In that case I had a rear engine car and I was # 16 in a 16 vehicle accident including a double fatality.
The two other times I lost control was in was front wheel drive cars. I really really prefer being able to see where my car is moving rather than where I have come from. With the best rubber on the front, you tend to end up the wrong way.
If you have AWD, why are you only buying 2 new tires? Does the shop not tell you to buy 4 tires at the same time?
watch this video and see if you still believe new tires on the front
According to my Subaru’s owner’s manual, most of the power goes to the front axle; the rear kicks in only when the fronts start to spin. I live in snow country. I’m going to put the deeper tread on the front. I’ll be less likely to need the rears, and I’d much rather hydroplane the rear tires, which mostly just keep the rear of my car from dragging, than the fronts, which do my steering and braking, which I consider important. As far as buying four new tires at once, or buying four snow tires in the winter, go ahead if you can afford it. I live on a schoolteacher’s salary. I’d like to eat three meals a day, but you can’t have everything.
i bet if you looked closer, you’d see that subaru pretty much demands that you keep the tread pattern and tire size fairly close to each other; which means ALL 4 tires all the same tread pattern and circumference(replace all 4 tires at the same time).
You’ll find out soon enough how foolish an idea this really is when you get that repair bill for the damaged differential or transmission from running different tires on each end. You’re also a good example of why I refuse to buy used AWD vehicles.
@littlejohn1954 you need to keep your tires matched on all four. So replacement is in sets of 4 never 2 on a Subaru. Subaru’s have great AWD but at the same time this design limitation.
If you chose not to follow the idea of matched tires, ramen noodles for you. It costs about $800+ to repair the burned out clutch pack (AWD) in your automatic transmission. Search on “Subaru clunking backing up and/or turning” and see all the hits that appear.
Lastly Subaru with automatic uses 90% front/10% rear torque distribution full time. It moves the power to rear very quickly using that aforementioned clutch pack. The manual transmission Subaru uses approx a 50/50 split.