Morning all,
Do you find that the rear tyres wear quicker or slower than the fronts?
My rears are evenly worn, more so than the fronts and I was going to rotate them but I can’t decide whether to or not… I’d have imagined that the fronts would generally wear quicker as they handle most of the braking and obviously the steering too.
I don’t thrash it or do burnouts and I keep the rear inline most of the time 
What’s your experience with this?
Hi Chris, back in the day, tyre rotation was a normal ‘thing’ to do 
including the full size spare wheel into the mix. I guess back then steering geometry wasn’t as high tech as nowadays. 
I read somewhere that uneven tyre wear on rears, causes issues with traction control? TBH, I’ve never done that many miles where I’ve swapped the tyres around? Generally, I’ve just replaced all four, or, more likely swapped out the wheel/tyre combo completely for new all round! 
can’t imagine any harm if evenly worn front pair are swapped for evenly worn rears?
Barrie
On a rear wheel drive car, the rear tyres will still wear out quicker than on a front drive car. This is because the very act of putting power on the road puts additional stresses on the tyre. The power forces the tyre blocks to bend slightly as the tyre fights for traction whilst forcing the car forward. This creates wear… the front tyres will also wear as you say, there is a steering action which creates a similar wear to the blocks, but in a different direction (across the tyre in various directions as the steering direction changes).
How quickly they wear depends on how you drive. The more power you put down, the quicker they will wear, but they will still wear.
To be in a position to use the brakes, which work on all 4 wheels, you have already had to put the same energy through the 2 rear tyres just to get there. As well it is very normal for the front left to show more wear than the right because of the roundabout effect.
It’s on my to do list, swap fronts to rear for even wear. Do it on my daily driver too (FWD) that way I replace with a full set on both cars when needed.
Is this worth doing? I would rather replace 2 tyres at a time as it reduces the amount of the outlay at any one time… I presume that over a period of time, all the tyres will be replaced at a similar point? ie if yoou take 50,000miles, you will need x number of tyres and this will not change? I suppose it works better if you want to change brand, as you get all 4 of teh new brand, where at the moment I always stick to the same brand as I do not want 2 different brands…one front, one back - I woudl ALWAYS keep the same type of tyre on one axle.
I’ve got Kumho KU39, they’ve now changed to PS71, just had a set on my daily driver.
I suppose it doesn’t make that much difference (NickD??) but I like having a uniform patterned tyre/brand all the same.
I was thinking about swapping them out for some decent summer tyres with minimal tread… Mainly for aesthetics.
Any suggestions?
mazda handbook reccomends swapping front and back, but no interval i could see
Same as Mick.
Rotate once a year then you “generally” get the best wear out of them and then buy 4 new ones at the same time.
Also, if you pick up a puncture or whatever it doesn’t hurt so much in the pocket! (as you have had some decent wear from it).
If you don’t, you tend to always have an older set on one of the axles.
Compounds do tend to “go off” after a period of time anyway. (For many reasons).
Quite often, even with a brand new set they will have been made and sitting around for a while.
You can always check the “WEEK AND YEAR” MANUFACTURED ON THE SIDE WALL.
As an example just had 2 new tyres on our other car.
One was manufactured 0120 and the other 0720.
Exactly the same tyres, but made in different weeks.
So already 5-6 months old.
Just the way it is.
Brands tend to be a personal preference.
Personally, I will always stick with a “Premium or Mid Range tyre”.
What suits one person does not always suit another.
Attached tyre chart to see what is what brand wise.
https://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/
Edit- No offence to the seller of some tyres on the forum, but if you read the spec and reviews you will see why they are up for sale. (So be careful what you buy, in the main for safety reasons).
On my ND the rear Bridgestones were replaced with a new pair of Bridgestones at 11k miles by the previous owner. At around 17k the fronts were down to 2mm and the rears down to about 5mm. I replaced all 4 with Kumho PS71 as I didn’t want mixed tyres.
I would say if you are keeping the car for any length of time and doing a few miles 2 front pairs will last as long as 3 rear pairs.
Stop it, stop it, stop it! It will not make a blind bit of difference that your tyres are manufactured 6 weeks apart and it will not make a blind but of difference if your tyres said 1018 and were fitted last week.
This “knowledge” is driving me mad on the Internet with people demanding tyre made yesterday because…
This mainly came about because of a law suit in the US (where else) when a tyre was held at a manufacturer for a number of years, then went into the wholesale network, again for a number of years, and finally to a depot where again it sat a while. It then went on a vehicle which did a number of miles before the accident that prompted the law suit. And that clearly is wrong. I have tyres manufactured in 2017 that have just won class, and out qualified the eventual winner of the race, also on tyres that I also supplied that were far newer.
Think of this way. The clock starts ticking when you put them on the car and drive on them, not when they come out of the mould.
Why am I posting this? Because I have people phone up and ask for tyres that have been manufactured last week. When asked why, the answer is "because they read on the Internet it was important.
Beyond the fact that most tyres are manufactured overseas and there are lead times, of weeks, if not months, a tyre machine can only produce around 60 tyres per day. If you want 5,000 tyres then that is 12 weeks production for a single machine. Of course multiple machines are used but it is still would be 10 days for 10 machines.
When I last went to Bridgestone’s central European distribution warehouse in Zeebruge they held 3.5 million tyres and were doubling capacity. It would be a physical impossibility for Bridgestone to have manufactured all of those tyres within the last 12 months yet alone the last 6.
If your new tyres say 18, worry more about what you do to them after rather than what has happened before. I have quite frequently changed tyres at national rallies that are 18 or 20 years old and are cracked to pieces, but “good tread.” That is what you need to worry about, UV and exposure to road contamination not that they have been in a dark, dry warehouse for 3 years.
Oh dear!
Well, you are entitled to your opinion just as much as anyone, but that does not mean that your answer is right or indeed my answer is right.
I am merely giving an expert professional opinion, based on many years of knowledge of examination of tyres, not supplying them.
If people wish to fit old tyres then that is a matter for them selves not for you and I to judge.
I have stated what I have said not because what I have read on the internet.
I have stated that because I was a Professional Vehicle Examiner and a Vehicle Prohibition Officer for many years.
Likewise, I have City in Guilds qualifications to prove it. Part of which had an in depth knowledge based examination, both written and practical.
I also attended the Michelin vehicle tyre course and was indeed shown some horrors.
I have also given evidence in various Courts including Crown and indeed Coroners Court where vehicles have crashed and killed people due to having defective old tyres fitted.
You will also have seen that I stated for “various reasons” and felt it not appropriate to start lecturing people on the pitfalls etc of older tyres. I stated the week and year merely for peoples interest that did not know.
Good people on here have asked for peoples “Opinions” which is what I have tried my best to do.
Likewise, it is also correct that those good people should make up there own minds on what to do having read all the replies.
So please do not insinuate that I have just quoted something I have read off the internet.
Thank you for your time.
The online ND manual states:
rotate the tyres every 10,000 km (6,250 miles), or sooner if irregular wear develops
I noticed the same wear (more on rears than fronts) before rotating them and have since replaced the full set anway.
For reference, this is the suggested rotation sequence:
My original Bridgestones are still ok (4mm+ tread) at 22,000 miles. Am I not thrashing my car hard enough?
So I think I can conclude that they do need rotating, and that the rears will wear faster than the fronts!
Regarding the age of the tyre argument… My opinion has always been to not buy part worns, but aside from that, the age of the tyre if new when fitted is mostly irrelevant… I’ve never known anywhere not store them correctly and so rain/UV etc aren’t going to be a factor really. Similarly I’ve also got a friend who insists on getting ones made yesterday, if he could have them made to order he would - I tell him he’s being ridiculous everytime the subject comes into conversation.
Most places also do not stock pile tyres and so the stock is rotated fairly frequently in the grand scheme of things… I’ve never personally bought a pair of new tyres and found them to be ‘too old’, the oldest I’ve ever had were 13 months old when fitted… I gave them a thorough going over (my daily driver does 20k miles a year up and down the country at 70+ mph, I like to be confident in my tyres), and safe to say they were absolutely pristine and never gave me a minutes trouble, lasted as long as they should have and aside from being just above the legal minimum tread amount, were actually still in pretty decent condition when I changed them… Nothing other than very minor cracking on the sidewalls, normal and expected.
This rearward cross pattern should only be used for non-directional tyres. Otherwise the rears after swapping sides will be running opposite to the arrow indicating rotation direction.
Just to be controversial - I know plenty of people shuddder at the thought of buying part worn tyres but still happily join the people who do buy the thousands of these that are sold every week. There are at least four and perhaps five part worn tyres on every used car. Unlike tyres off the rim you’ve no chance to inspect those tyres internally. Not advocating it, just making an observation.
I’ll throw in a comment about tyre rotation. Many cars have quite different suspension design front and rear (e.g. strut front, swing arm rear). Tyres develop wear patterns related to the suspension design at their location. Moving them to a different end of the car means they are sub optimum for a while until they develop the wear pattern of their new location. That wear rate might be slightly higher.
JS
Mine wear pretty evenly front-rear on the ND, as they did on my NB. Like most people, especially those who live around Milton Keynes, I find the front left probably slightly worse than the others. I move them round now and again to spread out any unevenness and replace them in fours.
It’s an error to believe the fronts steer and the rears don’t. Either end can slip which tells you the grip matters and is transferring forces. Reductio ad absurdum, if you put casters on the back you wouldn’t get round corners at all.