Different tires in front and back?

[maniac_2oo4]

Hi everybody, snow's finally going away up here in Montreal, so I have a question.

would there be any problem in using two different sets of tires for the front and the back?

My stock dunlops are completely worn out in front, but still good in the back. I was planning on getting Ecsta SPTs for the front in the same dimensions (195/50R16) and keeping my dunlops on the back.

Any issues with doing this? Any suggestions?

[Tom03es]

No real major issues. Is it ideal? No. Do people do it all the time? Yes. Do people crash because of it? I doubt it. From a handling perspective, it's not desireable. From a "this is my street car and it doesn't see any hard driving" perspective, you're fine.

[maniac_2oo4]

It is my street car, but I do like to push it sometimes. I'm curious, what kind of handling issues does this create, and how big of an issue is it when I do decide to push the car around a little?

Are we talking understeer/oversteer/spinning out here? Sorry, I don't know much. :)

[2000VRsex]

WOW for a second i thought someone was gonna try do a staggered set up(screwy)...haha but ya i can say ive done thins numerous times (im cheap only buy shit when i have to)..

[maniac_2oo4]

WOW for a second i thought someone was gonna try do a staggered set up(screwy)...haha but ya i can say ive done thins numerous times (im cheap only buy shit when i have to)..

Hahah nah, I might not know much, but at least I know not to go screwy.

[2000VRsex]

hahaha thats good...i think its like rice when somethings not funtional but sometimes staggered set ups look nice just for looks as well but i personally wouldnt do it

[RABID_MP5]

+1. Yeah just make sure you consider the Dunlops on the back to be solid. People intuitively put the new good rubber up front with the weight, drive wheels, most braking & wear etc. it makes sense. But the other theory is that for a blowout, you'd rather have it on a front tire where you can exert direct steering control, versus the rear. Then I'm thinking start with it up front, since I've seen a few premature tire failures that show up real quick.

The other question is the relative stickiness of the two sets. I'd say keep them about the same, so far as you can judge. This is where odd handling could show up.

[davidjs]

+1. Yeah just make sure you consider the Dunlops on the back to be solid. People intuitively put the new good rubber up front with the weight, drive wheels, most braking & wear etc. it makes sense. But the other theory is that for a blowout, you'd rather have it on a front tire where you can exert direct steering control, versus the rear. Then I'm thinking start with it up front, since I've seen a few premature tire failures that show up real quick.

The other question is the relative stickiness of the two sets. I'd say keep them about the same, so far as you can judge. This is where odd handling could show up.

There was an article in one of the car magazines a while ago by a TireRack engineer, who said the biggest potential problem with putting the "bad" tires on the back would be hydroplaning... since the rears (shorter tread) would hydroplane much more easily than the fronts, you could go into snap oversteer if you lost the rears before the fronts...

[RABID_MP5]

yeah excellent point. I once drove a tail-heavy Porche 911 in the rain and just about learned about abrupt oversteer the very hard way.

[8ender]

As others have said the main problem with unmatched tires is that the tires on the rear will have different slip characteristics than the ones on the front. This is really important in the winter and less so in the summer unless you're doing a lot of hard cornering.

[P-Funk!]

Not real important to the daily driver. If you only rotate (and you should rotAte more so you don't get in this situation ) the fronts to rear you are okay. For the next rotate you will have to knuckle down and buy the same as the new tires.