used car tyre advice .

wazza99

MataNui wrote: »

Yes. It is. Running mis-matched tyres on the same axle is dangerous. If you are too skintflint to pay to keep your car safe then you would be unlikely to pay to keep it otherwise properly maintained. Doing this on an average runaround would be bad enough. If this was done on a performance car it would be somewhere beyond moronic.

Rubbish....its not dangerous in the slightest...i think your thinking of radial and crossplys !!

There will be 100's thousands of cars driving round on none matched tyres, all passing mot's and driving perfectly safely.....scaremongering at its best.

Paradigm

takman wrote: »

Yes that is a serious lack of care!. Firstly tyres on the same axle should be wearing fairly evenly so you shouldn't have to change just one.
Secondly each of those different tyres will be made from a different compound so they will all have different handling characteristics and also different braking capabilities. This means under heavy braking the car will be less stable.

I always have the same tyres all round on my cars and I always change them in pairs minimum. But on my 2wd cars I swap the wheels front to rear half way through the expected life of the tyres. This means that they all wear out at the same time so I can get 4 at once.

So yes have individual tyres wear out and changing them one by one shows an owner who isn't interested in the care or safety of their vehicle.

MataNui wrote: »

Yes. It is. Running mis-matched tyres on the same axle is dangerous. If you are too skintflint to pay to keep your car safe then you would be unlikely to pay to keep it otherwise properly maintained. Doing this on an average runaround would be bad enough. If this was done on a performance car it would be somewhere beyond moronic.

Well it just goes to show that you can learn something everyday, I'm totally ashamed to admit I've been doing it wrong all these years.
I'll make sure that I take your advice on board the next time I get a non-repairable puncture & I'll junk the other tyre with 6-7mm of tread just so I can have a matched pair!


BTW: Love the word "skinflint"... haven't heard it for while.

Nobbie1967

MataNui wrote: »

Yes. It is. Running mis-matched tyres on the same axle is dangerous. If you are too skintflint to pay to keep your car safe then you would be unlikely to pay to keep it otherwise properly maintained. Doing this on an average runaround would be bad enough. If this was done on a performance car it would be somewhere beyond moronic.

Utter tosh, if that were the case, don't you think it would be an MOT fail?

Mr_Poves

mgdavid wrote: »

no one in their right mind should go to kwik-fit.

haha , I used them as an example , I have a local guy who does tyres , much rather support a smaller business .

Mr_Poves

I can't believe the trouble I've started with this thread !
As a final bow out from me , I picked it up and it has 4 matching mid range ish tyres on , I'm not overly keen on the brand and would be putting premium tyres on if it was my call , it's not an f1 car and only does 100 miles per week , plus I'm getting towards 40 now and trying to be sensible , hence the small runaround .
Thanks for the input everyone .

takman

wazza99 wrote: »

Rubbish....its not dangerous in the slightest...i think your thinking of radial and crossplys !!

There will be 100's thousands of cars driving round on none matched tyres, all passing mot's and driving perfectly safely.....scaremongering at its best.

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

Utter tosh, if that were the case, don't you think it would be an MOT fail?

MOT standards are actually quite slack so it's not surprising that they allow different tyres on the same axle.

Imagine if you had two tyres on the right hand side of the car with thread that gripped well in the wet and almost slicks on the other side with poor wet grip. As soon as you braked hard the car grip only on the right hand side and spin round in a circle.

All tyre brands that use different compounds and different construction methods will perform differently under heavy braking. and steering. So if you have mismatching tyres they will all perform differently in the same conditions causing the car to become unstable under braking.

This may not be noticeable during normal driving but why would you want to risk an unstable car in an emergency braking situation just because you cant be bothered to get the same tyres.

Personally i have researched tyres available for my car and have chosen a tyre based on a good compromise of how long it will last, price and performance. I then swap wheels front to back and get four new ones because they always wear out at the same rate. So it only takes a small amount of planning to keep all the same tyres on your car.

molerat

Many years ago I had a brand new car. At around 2 years the fronts needed changing so being a penny pincher I used the brand new unused spare from the boot and bought one exact same new tyre, the best used one going back in the boot. All the tyre markings were the same. The car started pulling to one side. Went back to the tyre place, he was a bit puzzled, checked balancing etc but all was fine. He swapped the fronts over to see what would happen. The car then pulled the other way. Put them on the back and all was ok from then on. Just goes to show that changing just one tyre can have quite a difference.

One thing about different rate of tyre wear - a "town" car will often wear the front left quicker than the right due to it travelling further distance. Ask any taxi driver.

Rain_Shadow

molerat wrote: »

One thing about different rate of tyre wear - a "town" car will often wear the front left quicker than the right due to it travelling further distance. Ask any taxi driver.

Does the opposite apply in countries where they drive on the right?

molerat

Probably - although most other countries don't have the obsession with roundabouts that the UK does