Rear tyres wear quicker than fronts?

J

johnbmwboy

Member
Hi All,

I've got Conti RFT's on the front that have a lot more tread (7mm) than the Bridgestone RFT's on the rear (4mm).

I'm going to swap them over because I presume the rears wear quicker than the fronts? Am I right?

Cheers,
John
 
Rears do wear faster as the car is RWD. Depending upon the size of your wheels, you may not be able to swap them over as the rear wheels may be wider than the fronts.
 
johnbmwboy said:
I'm going to swap them over because I presume the rears wear quicker than the fronts? Am I right?
Click to expand...

Tires on the drive wheels always wear faster than the non-drive wheels.
 
Personally don't see the point in doing that especially if running summer tyres all years round. The wear characteristics are also different between front and back. Just put new tyres on the rear then next time they'll probably all need replacing arounnd the same time. SOd paying for someone to swap the old tyres over to the rear unless of course you can just swap the wheels round if they're the same size :). Personally I wouldn't do it though.
As Daffy has said you mgiht find the tyres are different sizes anyway
 
Thanks all.

I've got stock 245x45x17 all round.

I want to replace my run flats all at once, so think I'll swap the good un's front to back. Do a few burn out's with my 2.0 and they'll all wear out at once :wink:

Already got the compressor and cans of tyre goop at the ready.

Cheers,
John
 
Not abad idea to swap anyway, as a general rule you should put your best tyres on the rear irrispective of it being front or rear drive, but more so on a sports RWD.If the front lets go first in a bend the results are likely to be understeer, if the rears let go it's hedge-backwards time unless you or the DSC are on the ball. :(
 
johnbmwboy said:
Thanks all.

I've got stock 245x45x17 all round.

I want to replace my run flats all at once, so think I'll swap the good un's front to back. Do a few burn out's with my 2.0 and they'll all wear out at once :wink:

Already got the compressor and cans of tyre goop at the ready.

Cheers,
John
Click to expand...
Standard tyre size on the 103's is 225x45x17, think you better double check or is it a typo.
 
RichardG said:
johnbmwboy said:
Thanks all.

I've got stock 245x45x17 all round.

I want to replace my run flats all at once, so think I'll swap the good un's front to back. Do a few burn out's with my 2.0 and they'll all wear out at once :wink:

Already got the compressor and cans of tyre goop at the ready.

Cheers,
John
Click to expand...
Standard tyre size on the 103's is 225x45x17, think you better double check or is it a typo.
Click to expand...

You're right, it's 225 not 245. Thanks Richard.
 
Ewazix said:
Not abad idea to swap anyway, as a general rule you should put your best tyres on the rear irrispective of it being front or rear drive, but more so on a sports RWD.If the front lets go first in a bend the results are likely to be understeer, if the rears let go it's hedge-backwards time unless you or the DSC are on the ball. :(
Click to expand...

Crikey, I didn't think of that. Thanks.
 
If you have 4mm tread depth in the middle of the tire I'll bet you don't have anything near that on the inside edge. The negative camber of the rear suspension wears the tires at a very uneven rate.
 
nicko said:
powerontap said:
If you have DTC and turn it off, you can expect 50-75% faster wear...I've experienced it myself!
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you mean DSC, rather than DTC
Click to expand...

Pressing the DSC once disables traction control only, not the stability control.
 
powerontap said:
Pressing the DSC once disables traction control only, not the stability control.
Click to expand...
Is your manual different to mine?
Pressing DSC button once enables DTC
DTC is traction control

you can have
DSC (traction control and stability control)
or
DSC+DTC (more traction control and less stability control)
or
nothing [DSC off] (no traction control and no stability control)
 
Ewazix said:
Not abad idea to swap anyway, as a general rule you should put your best tyres on the rear irrispective of it being front or rear drive, but more so on a sports RWD.If the front lets go first in a bend the results are likely to be understeer, if the rears let go it's hedge-backwards time unless you or the DSC are on the ball. :(
Click to expand...
Agree with this 100%. I always argue with my father-in-law (who's a car trader) about this: he says put best tyres on the front, I say best tyres on the rear. Unless you're a driving god, understeer is a far safer thing to deal with than oversteer - on the public roads at least.
 
nicko said:
powerontap said:
Pressing the DSC once disables traction control only, not the stability control.
Click to expand...
Is your manual different to mine?
Pressing DSC button once enables DTC
DTC is traction control

you can have
DSC (traction control and stability control)
or
DSC+DTC (more traction control and less stability control)
or
nothing [DSC off] (no traction control and no stability control)
Click to expand...


Close, with no lights illuminated that means both DTC & DSC are both fully activated. When you press the button once it disables DTC but leaves DSC on, allowing you to spin the rear tires, but if your back end starts slipping too far out compared to the front wheel angle the DSC will cut power to the rear wheels. As you said at the end, if you hold down the button you get the pretty yellow light showing a triangle with an arrow going around it to let you know, hey your on your own and the car can and will spin all the way around in a circle if you allow it too.
 
Aebous said:
nicko said:
powerontap said:
Pressing the DSC once disables traction control only, not the stability control.
Click to expand...
Is your manual different to mine?
Pressing DSC button once enables DTC
DTC is traction control

you can have
DSC (traction control and stability control)
or
DSC+DTC (more traction control and less stability control)
or
nothing [DSC off] (no traction control and no stability control)
Click to expand...


Close, with no lights illuminated that means both DTC & DSC are both fully activated. When you press the button once it disables DTC but leaves DSC on, allowing you to spin the rear tires, but if your back end starts slipping too far out compared to the front wheel angle the DSC will cut power to the rear wheels. As you said at the end, if you hold down the button you get the pretty yellow light showing a triangle with an arrow going around it to let you know, hey your on your own and the car can and will spin all the way around in a circle if you allow it too.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was refering to in my 1st intervention. I spent last summer with DTC off (just for fun) and wore down 75% of the center section of my F1 Asymmetrics...in 5,000 miles :evil:
 
Aebous said:
Close, with no lights illuminated that means both DTC & DSC are both fully activated.
Click to expand...
This is where we disagree.
no lights illuminated means DSC is on, DTC is off

my Manual said:
Activating DTC
briefly press the button; the DTC telltale light in the instrument cluster comes on

As a check
The [DTC] telltale is lit continuously: DTC is activated

Deactivating DTC
Press the button again; the DTC telltale light in the instrument cluster goes out.
Click to expand...

That's what my manual says. Is yours different?
 
Ok, if you think DTC is off when no lights are on, then try to spin the rear tires. The car won't allow it, thus DTC is on. When DTC is illuminated that in itself is a warning to the driver that you can spin the rear tires and as such you need to pay more attention to your throttle control. The manual is misleading for this. Actually I think all manuals are misleading with how they word it, my Dad had the same confusion about his car. So on a wet day we went out and tested it. With no lights illuminated the tires would spin maybe a tenth of a second and the car would cut the power to the wheels, with the light on the tires would spin much much more.

On a side note, the DTC set up might be different on UK cars, but I don't think it is.
 
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