Mixing different type/brand tyres on car? Is it dangerous or just a myth?

Geodark

Not just about safety, some cars can suffer damage. Some 4x4s can be seriously damaged by mis matched tyres; look into axel and drive wind up.

sevenhills

Geodark wrote: »

Not just about safety, some cars can suffer damage. Some 4x4s can be seriously damaged by mis matched tyres; look into axel and drive wind up.

The road surface itself is always going to have uneven wear, each tyre will have a different level of traction depending on water or surface contamination. The edges of the road surface will always wear less.

I am surprised tyre manufacturers are not making more of this, why sell one tyre after a repair when they can sell two?

mcpitman

Just a personal preference, I like matched tyres across axles.


Anyone who wants to try it for themselves, can happily put a linglong ditchfinder on one wheel and a decent (branded) tyre on the other. Then do an emergency stop in the wet, on a cambered road and see what happens.


I have learnt from experience this is not a nice occurrence.


Matched tyres, matched braking, matched grip, appreciate you can not negate for road surfaces etc, but I like to put as many known factors as possible into an unknown situation when driving 2 ton of metal.

Joe_Horner

brianposter wrote: »

Could you provide evidence for this ?
It is very easy to find evidence that different tyres on the same axle are considered unsafe. Whether that is actually true or not is unlikely to be considered by a court, who will simply take the evidence at face value.

Evidence for which bit?

That insurers don't care? Check your policy. It will (probably) require the car to be roadworthy but won't specify anything about "same tyres". Since matching tyres are NOT required for legal roadworthiness, them failing to specify a higher standard means they don't care because no court or tribunal would EVER sustain a refusal to pay based on something, above the legal requirements, which wasn't mentioned in the contract.

That it's not a safety issue? If it was then Construction and Use regulations would prohibit mixing, as they do for different construction types.

The evidence you find online is a mix of anecdotal, "I'm a driving god and can feel the difference" types, and manufacturers / tyre sellers who are in the business of not selling one tyre when two will do.

AndyMc.....

sevenhills wrote: »

The road surface itself is always going to have uneven wear, each tyre will have a different level of traction depending on water or surface contamination. The edges of the road surface will always wear less.

I am surprised tyre manufacturers are not making more of this, why sell one tyre after a repair when they can sell two?

But you accept that tread is there to displace water and the less tread on a tyre the less effective it is on a wet road?

sevenhills

AndyMc..... wrote: »

But you accept that tread is there to displace water and the less tread on a tyre the less effective it is on a wet road?

There are lots of reasons why each tyre will grip the road differently.
Going around a bend, the wieghtof the vehicle will be thrust to one side; last year my works vehicle had a tracking issue and the tyres were worn on the edge, one side more than the other.
One poster said that in France mismatched tyres are illegal, if we adopted the same law, but only needing tread on 75% of the tyre would surely be much more important.


I understand winter and summer tyres together are perfectly legal, which would have different qualities.


Are all tyres types made with a different tread?


But you could have tyres with the same rating for fuel economy, wet grip and noise, with a different tread pattern.

sevenhills

AndyMc..... wrote: »

But you accept that tread is there to displace water and the less tread on a tyre the less effective it is on a wet road?

You would need to make having old and new tyres on a car illegal too?

AndyMc.....

sevenhills wrote: »

You would need to make having old and new tyres on a car illegal too?

No, but do you accept less tread is less effective on a wet road?

AdrianC

sevenhills wrote: »

You would need to make having old and new tyres on a car illegal too?

A maximum tyre age really should be introduced, yes.

sevenhills

AndyMc..... wrote: »

No, but do you accept less tread is less effective on a wet road?

Yes.


Less tread is also more effective on a dry road.