different profile tyres front and rear

Spicy_McHaggis

pd52 wrote: »

I guess I going to have to shell out £170 on 2 tyres now. gutted

What are you after?

Blackcircles had them for £70 each and apparently they're not the cheapest supplier.

neilmcl

Iceweasel wrote: »

That's fine - your car manufacturer recommends those variants.

Similar to mine - that 35 on the rear will be a wider tyre though.

But I'm sure that they don't recommend a 40 profile on the front and a 45 profile on the rear when you have 18" wheels all round.

From the OP's posts only the 40 profile is recommended on his car.

I'm not disagreeing that the OP should change his tyres to the manufacturer recommendation but only when he needs to. His car's not going to fall off the road in the meantime.

neilmcl

pd52 wrote: »

I guess I going to have to shell out £170 on 2 tyres now. gutted

Consider yourself lucky, I had to shell that out for just one the other day.

neilmcl

Iceweasel wrote: »

I'd be selling the tyres you take off on eBay or Gumtree

You may be surprised by what they are worth.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2055119.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbridgestone+205%2F45+17+tyres&_nkw=bridgestone+205%2F45+17+tyres&_sacat=0

Good point, especially if they have a decent amount of tread left.

Joe_Horner

pd52 wrote: »

I guess I going to have to shell out £170 on 2 tyres now. gutted

Why?

It's not illegal as it is.

It's not (despite the Jeremy-Clarkson-wannabe drama queens on here) unsafe as it is.

It's never going to amount to a material fact in any sort of accident / incident - don't forget, thanks to various rulings insurers even pay out now if you have no MOT, which would generally be seen as a pretty material fact.

If you're really worried about the insurance side, phone them and ask if it'll affect your policy if you put one size higher profiles on the back because you need 2 tyres and there's a huge price difference.

But, in the name of all that's MSE, please don't fall for the Marketing of Fear stuff - your car will absolutely, categorically and without any doubt not fall off the road or kill nuns and kittens if you leave them on there.

At least, not because of the tyres it won't.

andygb

Iceweasel wrote: »

I can't agree with the several posters who say the difference is tiny and it will make little or no odds.

The car will NOT handle the way the manufacturer designed it to.

There are plenty of people who swap over wheels and tyres without any ill effects whatsoever.
I swapped metric tyres for normal ones on a BMW 5 series years ago and the handling improved markedly.
The OP has a miniscule difference between the two sizes, and the only problem would be the insurance company in the event of a crash.

Joe_Horner

andygb wrote: »

[...] the only problem would be the insurance company in the event of a crash.

And even that wouldn't be a problem unless they could demonstrate that an extra 1cm on the radius of the rear tyres was a material factor in the accident.

Which they wouldn't be able to do.

JustinR1979

Joe_Horner wrote: »

don't forget, thanks to various rulings insurers even pay out now if you have no MOT, which would generally be seen as a pretty material fact.

Have argued this issue before - nowhere does my insurance state car needs an mot.
Yes it is required to be roadworthy, but mot can only speak for the day of test.
An mot doesn't make car roadworthy.

Joe_Horner wrote: »

And even that wouldn't be a problem unless they could demonstrate that an extra 1cm on the radius of the rear tyres was a material factor in the accident.

Which they wouldn't be able to do.

This is how I understand it too, people are quick to state the slightest change/mod will invalidate the insurance, but if that part isn't a factor it doesn't invalidate it.
A noisy backbox won't be responsible for you rear ending someone for example.

Joe_Horner

JustinR1979 wrote: »

This is how I understand it too, people are quick to state the slightest change/mod will invalidate the insurance, but if that part isn't a factor it doesn't invalidate it.
A noisy backbox won't be responsible for you rear ending someone for example.

But could affect a claim for it being stolen (more desirable to joyriding chavs) or vandalism (having pee'd off the neighbourhood with the noise).

Hard to envisage how an extra cm of rubber could be deemed a factor in any possible claim unless it was for driving under a very low bridge :rotfl:

Honda_Lad

The difference between the two tires is 3.44% on the rolling radius. This will make no difference at all to the handling of the car and if it was that dangerous it would fail an MOT.

The ABS would pick a fault up if the difference was a problem as it would think the wheels are turning at different speeds constantly.