2 tire related questions

O

Old-Duckman

Active member
 SW Pennsylvania USA
2004, 3.0 Roadster.

Staggered tires, non directional currently fit.

#1 Reading on a Mercedes forum a member posted that with staggered tires you can swap side to side to even out wear. Agree or disagree ?

#2 Current tires are low end brand. Rears are nearing the wear bars, fronts have lots of tread left before getting to the wear bars. Any problems seen by changing the rears to a better grade of tire and keeping the fronts on until they are worn enough to replace.

I do some "spirited" driving but nothing too drastic and mostly what would be considered normal driving for a sports car not the "drive it like ya stole it" type of driving but obviously since the rears are worn more, I enjoy what people have called "Jack rabbit starts". This info might help you answer my questions.

TIA
 
I'm sure there'll be many different theories but here's mine:

#1 - See no reason why you couldn't swap if non-directional, but if you fitted them at the same time they should be wearing pretty evenly anyway, or your alignment is out?

#2 - Better tires(sic) at the rear would imply better grip, so I'd think inherently you'd be safer as you'd be more likely to over- than under-steer.
 
Pedantically you should always have the best capability on the front end so personally I think its a false economy on a sports car to have cheap tyres on the front and better tyres on rear..please buy a matched set..saves on 'I wish I hadb't done that' type events..all IMHO
 
you could swap the tyres from side to side, but as enuff_zed says, if you are getting uneven wear, id be looking at the tracking.

its common for front tyres to wear on the inside edge, so with non directional tyres the inside will still be on the inside even if you swap it from left to right, so not sure this would really help.

And as for replacing rears before doing the fronts, technically fine, but be aware there will be more grip at the rear so there might be a tad more understeer than normal when pushing on. what brand tyres are on the front? if you have premium on the back and proper no-name ditchfinders on the front then there will definitely be understeer - less so if its premium rears and midrange fronts.

edit: me and pbondar have differing views on tyres! :thumbsup:
 
Pbondar said:
Pedantically you should always have the best capability on the front end so personally I think its a false economy on a sports car to have cheap tyres on the front and better tyres on rear..please buy a matched set..saves on 'I wish I hadb't done that' type events..all IMHO
Click to expand...

OK, so I know FWD is a different kettle of fish, but they always say you should have the new tyres on the back, or if you have to slam on the brakes the back end can lighten up and come round more easily if it doesn't have the grip.

However, as in this case we are helping out a cousin over the pond, it is irrelevant, because by the time he reaches a bend his new rear tyres will be worn down again anyway. :D
 
Rockhopper said:
https://www.oponeo.co.uk/blog/better-tyres-in-the-front-or-rear-test-results
Click to expand...

So it’s says..if you have ESP which all Z4s do...then most issues are better covered with better front tyres...

But I think I’ll go harder and say just get rid of those nasty cheap tyres please...by the time most owners admit to their tyres being cheap they really are cheap..
 
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