New tyres on the front or rear?

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Hi chaps,

 

This isn't a question for my Corrado, but a general car question. I've got my daily shed Peugeot 406 LX estate as a typical A to B car and I've just had it MOT'd, however the tester told me to get 2 x new tyres. No problem, as its what I expected on the rear tyres and I said I was going to put the current front tyres on the rear and then put brand new tyres on the front of the car, as per normal with a FWD car (as far as I am aware).

 

However the tester said that its now its the 'done thing' to put new tyres on the rear of the car, and leave the front tyres (which don't need replacing yet) on the front. So...thats brand new tyres on the rear and worn tyres on the front in a FWD car? Is this right? I guess its different for AWD or RWD cars, but surely this isn't the case for FWD cars? :cuckoo:

[Jim 2]

It does make sense I suppose - someone else has told me the same thing. You want the better tyres on the rear as trying to correct for the back end breaking away is somewhat harder than correcting for the front end breaking away! If you have to swerve to avoid some kind of incident, yes you might have a bit more understeer.. but it's not much good having grip on the front if you've got none on the back, and the back of the car breaks away!

[A1 VR6 0]

Spot on Jim,

 

I remember seeing a test on Top Gear where they tried new tyres front and and then on the rear on a FWD car and tested the handling. Their verdict was to put the new ones on the rear, and you could actually see the car handling better on the test track when they did this.

[andy 0]

Yes it is defintely modern thinking to put the better tyres on the rear of this kind of car. It goes against everything that used to be said though! My old golf vr6 broke away once (totally unprovoked oversteer) after I put 2 new tyres on the front, with old tyres on the rear, scary stuff....

[davidwort 0]

it's not just the understeer thing, new tyres need a while to harden up, and by putting them on the rear of a FWD car they'll last longer than if put straight on the driving wheels.

[Jim Bowen 1]

i get new tyres put on rear, it the rears that deal with more sideways forces and require more grip