225/45 front, 205/50 rear?

[James19181]

Hi All,

 

I know a lot of people use 225/45 instead of the standard 205/50, and I'd quite like to do the same to either save some cash, or possibly get a better tyre for the same price. 

 

I'm currently using standard 205/50 all round on spiders, however I'm only looking to change my fronts at the moment as there is quite a lot of grip left on my rears. I'd then change the rears to match the fronts in the future, but that may not be for a while. 

 

Without wanting to get into the discussion of whether the tyres with better grip should be on the front or rear, does anyone think it's likely to cause a problem running two different sizes front-rear?

 

Cheers

[Guest]

There is no issue as far as I know of just don't mix tyre size on the same axle, if you are replacing the fronts soon, I would fit the rears onto the front and the new tyres on the rear otherwise you will be waiting ages to replace the rears unless its a 4x4 then you need to replace all 4 together, as driven wheels wear quicker.

Hope that helps?

[YellowCar]

Check out the tyres section or do a search, I'm sure I read people discussing there the differences in ride and economy compared to the standard size, so if you're thinking of changing longterm, could be worth a read.

[Sheldon.Cooper]

as it's fwd I would put the best tyres on the front as they have the hardest job.

[James19181]

Thanks for the replies, didn't think there would be any issues but wanted to see if anyone could think of anything I hadn't

 

I hadn't thought about moving the rears to the front to use them up quicker - that's something to consider, but to be honest it's less to do with eeking out every mm of tread on the existing tyres and more just wanting to wait a few months to save some more cash before doing the rears.

 

And yeh I've had a search around the forums - it's been discussed at length and there's good info, just couldn't see anything about mismatching sizes

[mikec]

Like Simspj said as long as you don't put 2 different sized tyre on either the front or rear wheels (i.e. 205 on left and 225 on right) there will be no problem with handling so you could have 225's on the front and 205's on the back or vice versa 

[Girardi]

As said, no problem doing it as long as the tyres on the same axle match. Just look at all those muscle cars and Beemers/Mercs etc that run wider tyres/wheels on the rear to the front!

 

Just bare in mind the 225's will give you more grip than the 205's and are probably better off on the rear - 225's front and 205's rear will probably give you oversteer as all the grip is at the front.

[bigdave251]

I allways thought it was mot fail to have larger tyres on the front not sure if it's true just passed on from my father worth an ask at your tyre fitting place I recon but either way i think the wider grippier tyre on rear is the way to go

[bigdave251]

I allways thought it was mot fail to have larger tyres on the front not sure if it's true just passed on from my father worth an ask at your tyre fitting place I recon but either way i think the wider grippier tyre on rear is the way to go

[Guest]

As long as they are not mixed sizes on the same axle there fine.

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[KenONeill]

It's illegal (3 points per tyre) to have wider tyres front than rear.

[meaty101]

It's illegal (3 points per tyre) to have wider tyres front than rear.

Yeah i thought it was I'm sure I've read about that on a forum a while back. Like mentioned previously its probably to do with having more grip at the front than the back creating oversteer. For the average driver understeer is probably easier to control.

[Guest]

Mot law states as long as the tyre is the same size in both sides of each axle its a pass.

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[YellowCar]

Yeah i thought it was I'm sure I've read about that on a forum a while back. Like mentioned previously its probably to do with having more grip at the front than the back creating oversteer. For the average driver understeer is probably easier to control.

Yeah understeer is a safer way to lose control than swapping ends, hence most road cars being biased towards it, hence why we find ways to tune our cars out of it as it's obviously not the best way for performance cars and increased power through mods.

[KenONeill]

Mot law states as long as the tyre is the same size in both sides of each axle its a pass.

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This is from MV (C&U) Regs, not MoT test requirements.

[Guest]

I used to be a tester and it was in the course.

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[KenONeill]

I used to be a tester and it was in the course.

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I've been through MoT Section 4.1 twice, and can't find anything relating to tread width front and rear (but the "old" rules about not fitting radials front and cross-plies rear are still there).

[Guest]

I wasn't on about tread widths, I was on about having different size on the same axle. I have to admit I've never heard of the law about wider tyres on the front being illegal before, I can understand the logic behind it but 20mm on each tyre I can't see making a great deal of difference if driven sensibly. That's just my opinion though.

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Edited 26 January, 2015 by Guest

[andy68]

It's illegal (3 points per tyre) to have wider tyres front than rear.

 

So does that make the Audi RS3 illegal?  From the factory 235 on front 225 on the rear

[David 8]

I would have thought it covers something daft like 8" on the rear and 10 on the front.

If it were me I would stick the 225's on the back. As said under steer easier to deal with.

[KenONeill]

So does that make the Audi RS3 illegal?  From the factory 235 on front 225 on the rear

Apparently yes. Certainly that change in C&U was why Citroen stopped fitting 185 front 175 rear on the CX in the late 1970s.

[Guest]

You had this same argument in 2011 KenONeill.

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[P34RC3]

I was always told if fwd have best grip on rear and worst on front. If u lose rear in a fwd it's hard to contro. If u lose front u just let off and it corrects itsel.