Change tires front/rear?

[lukas]

Hi!

I recently discovered that the winter-tyres (Falken Eurowinter) on the front wheels have less tyre pattern then the ones on the rear. No wonder, my Mazda6 is FWD.

Should I change the tyres and put the ones with less tyre pattern on the rear and the ones with more on the front?

Some say, it´s better to have the better ones in front because more grip and better for steering. Others say it is better to have the better tyres on the rear because the rear axle makes the stability when driving, no matter if FWD or RWD or AWD.

What do you think? Put the better tires on the front or leave them on the rear?

Tahnks a lot!

Lukas

[adam73bgt]

On a FWD car, your front tyres are doing the steering, dealing with the engine drive and doing most of the braking so I would have the better tyres up front if it was me

[MiataMark]

Personally I'd always put the best tyres on the front (whether FWD, RWD or AWD) as adam73bgt says they're doing the steering and most of the braking.

[taurus]

I have always put the better tyres on the front - but I've heard tyre fitters saying this is wrong. Personally I've never had a problem with the best on the front approach.

The only times I've put the best on the back has been when I have a small car where the tyres last for years. Eventually the fronts wear out and you replace them - but if you leave the old ones on the back they'll just get too old before they run out of tread, so I swap front and rears.

[v8ian]

More On FWD cars, Under braking, inertia (polar?) moves forward unloading the rear wheels. go into a corner and touch the brakes the rear unloads and can cause the car to spin, its an inherent design fault with FWD, This is the reason why its been suggested that you fit the better tires in the rear, counter intuitive I know. The problem is much better with modern suspension design........

[BigDaftAl]

I always advise putting the best tyres to the rear, as an oversteer situation is more difficult to recover from than understeer, hence putting the tyres with the best grip/traction on the back.
Some customers agree, some don't so I personally just do what they want in the end.

[Stu]

As above, I've always gone with the best tyres on the rear approach as understeer is easier to correct / recover from than oversteer generally.

[dodgerover]

If I'm swapping wheels around I always put the better tyres on the driving wheels so they wear out evenly and I end up looking for a full set rather than 2 at a time.
I don't drive hard enough for it to make much difference to me anymore....