AFAIK, FWD cars have higher wearing rate on front tyres compared to rear tyres.
What contributes this higher wearing? More weight on them and/or more braking effort?
What happens in RWD/AWD cars?
Last edited by: movilogo on Wed 15 Aug 12 at 10:32
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>> What contributes this higher wearing? More weight on them and/or more braking effort?
The driven wheels will wear down their tyres quicker than those just there to keep the car off the ground because they are the ones putting the power of the engine onto the road.
FWD - front tyres wear quicker.
RWD - rear tyres wear quicker.
AWD - depends what percentage are the main driven wheels, how the differential is set up, etc.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 15 Aug 12 at 10:43
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Diesel wear fronts faster than petrol due to extra weight at front.
Front generally wear faster than rears due to more braking/steering effort, so in RWD many cars actually wear around the same rate F-R.
Suspension type seems important too - anyone ever managed to wear out the rears on a Citroen ZX/Xsara before they dissolved due to ageing?
My Forester AWD wore front and rear evenly to the nubbins in 20k miles.
CRV (part time AWD, so mainly FWD) very slightly wore the fronts faster than rears.
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Don't forget on a FWD car, the front tyres are dealing with both power and steering. Rear tyres on a FWD car don't really do any work at all in normal driving conditions.
I've had to replace rear tyres on FWD cars through age related sidewall condition rather than treadwear before. My 8 year old, 100,000 mile Cavalier SRi mk2 had what I swear were its original Pirellis on the back. The sidewalls were like sponges, but there was still about 2mm of tread left. By contrast, the car would eat a pair of fronts in about 8k if you drove it with any enthusiasm at all.
EDIT: My 306 XSi would wear the shoulders of the rear tyres in about 20k. Passive rear steering and lots of lovely lift off oversteer. :-D
Last edited by: DP on Wed 15 Aug 12 at 11:23
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Remember that any car's front tyres also do nearly all the braking, unless you drive backwards.
The RWD LEC had about 6mm all round when we bought it, although they'd evidently been fitted as two pairs since there are two different (sub-optimal) makes. I'm expecting the front ones to wear out first but we'll have to wait and see.
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Tyre wear on both my Focuses has been relatively even.
The fronts may wear slightly faster, but by the time they are due to be replaced, the rears are well on the way, so I buy four at a time.
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Fronts on the Xantia last about 20-25k, rears 70k+ I took off a tyre at about 110k that may well have been an original. One on the other side I put on soon after I got it and I only recently replaced, so it must have done at least 70k - and that was an Avon ZV5 - a type which I had on the front at one time and wore out in less that 20k, so it must have been 'soft'! Hydraulically spring Cits have been gentle on rear tyres....
Many modern cars with ESP wear out front and rear at the same rate if driven enthusiastically.
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Xantia and Berlingo both wear fronts faster than rears. Usual process is fit new set at rear and move rears to front. Last time we did that on Xantia discovered one of rears was worn oddly and, on front, made handling downright dangerous.
Just about to take 'lingo for a test drive as not convinced it's nott demonstrating same symptoms. No good asking Mrs B her 'second opinion, on Xant was that it was 'fine'.
Like ZX the BX refused to wear rears. Had two or possibly three pairs have casings start to fail while still carrying 4-5mm of tread.
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Usual process is fit new set at rear and move rears to front.
Of course, Bromp, but be careful or you'll wake the Won't Be Tolds.
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>> Of course, Bromp, but be careful or you'll wake the Won't Be Tolds.
>>
Purely to even up the wear The rears that went forward on the 'lingo had 7mm on them so I doubt they were presenting any danger.
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My ZX didn't wear out its rear tyres, it ate front discs though, IIRC they needed replacing at 12K miles, 36K miles and 64K miles - I ended up considering them as consumables.
Otherwise a great car IMHO.
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>> Tyre wear on both my Focuses has been relatively even.
>>
>> The fronts may wear slightly faster, but by the time they are due to be
>> replaced, the rears are well on the way, so I buy four at a time.
>>
On wifey's Honda Jazz they're not far off even too. Terrible mileage life from the original fit Dunlop SP2030's - I reckon they'll do about 18K.
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>> I've had to replace rear tyres on FWD cars through age related sidewall condition rather
>> than treadwear before. My 8 year old, 100,000 mile Cavalier SRi mk2 had what I
>> swear were its original Pirellis on the back. The sidewalls were like sponges, but there
>> was still about 2mm of tread left.
Another reason why new tyres should go on the back. ;)
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Is it time already for another "new tyres on the front or back" discussion?
I can sense Numbercruncher waiting to do his bit-part, pointing out that all 4 wheels take an equal share of the steering forces.
Only 90 days left until it's "Winter Tyres Discussion day".
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>> Is it time already for another "new tyres on the front or back" discussion?
>>
>> I can sense Numbercruncher waiting to do his bit-part, pointing out that all 4 wheels
>> take an equal share of the steering forces.
>>
Normal steering forces you would expect to be shared more or less in proportion to the weight distribution - except for the abuse from twiddling the power steering when stationary. That really shreds front tyres.
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>> ........... - except for the abuse from twiddling the power steering when stationary.
>> That really shreds front tyres.
>>
It also damages tarmac surfaces.
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>> Normal steering forces you would expect to be shared more or less in proportion to
>> the weight distribution
Yes!, if the steering forces were not exactly in proportion to the weight distribution, there would be an unbalanced yaw moment, and the car would begin to spin.
Phrased another way, at speed, steer angles are tiny.
Steering does contribute strongly to tyre wear both via the PAS problem, and also by steering angle error at large steering angles - most steering linkages don't do a good job of maintaining true rolling conditions - as I've mentioned before, a commonly drawn Ackerman layout isn't very good at all.
Rear wheels are usually kept very close to parallel running by the rear axle, and so, don't tend to fight each other.
That rear tyres on FWD cars do nothing other than support the back end of the car is clearly twaddle.
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On the Sharan the fronts last 15 to 18 k, but think I've only changed the rears once at somewhere between 50 and 60 k.
On the C5 I replaced the fronts at 22k, but the rears were almost as worn having 2mm left by 25k? Not sure why it was almost as hard on the rears
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The wifes Sirion manages to eat a full set of tyres every 25k. The rears wear on the outer edges but everyone ive spoken to says its standard for the model. Still she does 7k a year so its hardly going to break the bank at £70 a tyre every 3 and abit years.
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My Skoda Octavia SDi 68PS diesel with PAS would wear its front tyres down in 22k miles, rears in 70k. Driven spiritedly with occasional thrashings in between. Never twirled the steering on the spot.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 15 Aug 12 at 19:25
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Merc E seems quite gentle on its tyres. 30,000 miles on it and they're all fine. Just as well really. Back ones are 265/35/18 and the fronts are 245/40/18. Pretty pfennig to replace no doubt.
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>> Merc E seems quite gentle on its tyres
Reminds me, I picked up a 6,000 mile CLK 320 once where the rear tyres were worn completely slick. No tread left at all.
Dad's C270CDI auto MSEC on 17s gets through a pair of rears in just over 20k, but his commute is quite hilly and peppered with roundabouts. I would imagine the majority of your mileage Humph is covered with the cruise control on.
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Don't actually use cruise much north of Dover or south of Preston but I know what you mean Dave. Lots of motorway miles certainly.
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I imagine creeping around in heavy traffic wouldn't cause a lot of tyre wear.
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One doesn't "creep". One wafts...
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...One wafts...
After a curry the night before.
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That's the trouble with the thick leather seats with side bolsters actually. No where for it to go. You just end up momentarily levitating. With the Mondeo it was never an issue. They were perforated.
Anyway, tyres...
:-)
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Perforated AND heated so you can delight everyone else in the vehicle....
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Waft is a good way of describing that lovely big car feel that you just don't get with a hatchback.
I would like to own a wafter one day.
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The C5 was a wafter, not something I can say about the Volvo
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Audi's A7 looks like a serious Waftwagen too. It's still on my One Day list.
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Panda Cross, part-time 4x4 with drive mostly to the front wheels, curiously wears the rear tyres faster than the fronts.
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...Audi's A7 looks like a serious Waftwagen too. It's still on my One Day list...
Followed one home tonight - seriously big piece of kit.
Plenty of road presence, which is another quality of a wafter.
It's got the long third brake light across the top of the rear window like the baby Bentleys.
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>> Dad's C270CDI auto MSEC on 17s gets through a pair of rears in just over
>> 20k, but his commute is quite hilly and peppered with roundabouts.
I have the same car and pretty well only use it for long steady motorway journeys. Original Bridgestone rear tyres lasted 18K and Michelin replacements 25K. I changed the fronts at just over 40K as they were worn on the outer edge and looked bad but they still had 4mm in the centres.
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Tyre wear and driving wheels - VxFan
