After around 16,000 miles the front tyres on my 16 month old Fabia VRS are nearing the end of their life, the rears still look great. They are the Michelin things that the car came with.

I'm looking for advice on what tyres to get and also what to do about the rears, it seems a shame to throw away reasonably good tyres but then is it okay to mix different brands/models? I understand that it's better to have better grip on the rears due to understeer being more predictable than oversteer.

Should I just get four of whatever you guys recommend, or should I more the rears to the front and get two new on the rear or should I just replace the fronts?

Thanks!

Reviews say that you should swop the fronts with backs on 10,000 miles!

Bit late now!

Replacing just the fronts should be fine, but if you're like me the aesthetics (unless you're going for the same tire again) will make you get all 4.

You can probably sell off the rears as a used pair if anyone is interested. Or if you can cope with different treads between front/rear go for it.

Anybody know how much 4 brand new Michelin Pilot Premacys would cost?

Try www.mytyres.co.uk

Try [url']www.mytyres.co.uk[/url]

Thanks Lummox

If you have membership to Costco, you could save a considerable amount i believe, price is inclusive of fitting and balancing. Can't remember how much though.

Anybody know how much 4 brand new Michelin Pilot Premacys would cost?

Far more than they are worth IMO

There are so many other good tyres you can buy that will be cheaper and better.

Examples:

Kumho 712s

Uniroyal Rainsports

Goodyear Eagles

Bridgestone Potenza S02 or 3

Toyo Proxes T1R or S

All of which are cheaper and better than the Michelins.

Oh yeah, other cheap places:

www.tyretraders.com

www.blackcircles.com

And good old fleabay of course

Also try www.camskill.com. Service is very good.

Is there any real problem with just replacing the two fronts with Toyo Proxes T1-Rs and leaving the old Michelin's on the rear?

Is there any real problem with just replacing the two fronts with Toyo Proxes T1-Rs and leaving the old Michelin's on the rear?

I done that and I haven't had a problem in the 8k I've had them for. T1-R wear fairly well but not as good as the standard conti's! My rears have now got 27k on them and still have plenty of life left.

Only time the car has oversteered was on a bend when I hit a gravel patch trying to avoid being taken out by a lorry, I dont think this was due to the tyres though lol

Thanks, that's encouraging. Maybe the answer is two new T1-R on the front then replace the whole lot after another ~15k.

After around 16' date='000 miles the front tyres on my 16 month old Fabia VRS are nearing the end of their life, the rears still look great. They are the Michelin things that the car came with.

[/quote']

C,

Typically most cars are supposed to have their wheels rotated at about 10000kms. Sorry abt that, us out here in the Far East run on metric. Based on the conversion rates, 10000km works out to be about 6200+ miles, No wonder they're knackered !!

Anyways...just to illustrate, my own Fabia 1.4 8v were running on Bridgestone G3's ( something we get here but is not available in th UK ) for 52000kms. I had them rotated 5 times before I had them scrapped @ 52k......and the thread wear was still very even. Take it from me, bite the bullet, have all 4 tyres changed at once and rotated them @ 6 - 6500 miles intervals...you wun regret it....

FYI ...

1 mile = 1.6093 kms

1km = 0.6214 miles

I really Rate the Goodyear Eagle F1s over the michelins that came with the furby

seems loads more grip in wet and dry

and only a little small drop in mpg Maybe (probably just my driving)

I need to get new tyre's on mine. Decided to move away from the Michelins and am looking at getting a set of Bridgestone Turanza ER300's. I was quoted

I will happily buy Kumho 712s again -

Is there any real problem with just replacing the two fronts with Toyo Proxes T1-Rs and leaving the old Michelin's on the rear?

It may not sound logical with front wheel drive, but I believe the best advice is if you're fitting only two new tyres, they should go on the REAR with the worn pair on the front axle. See, for example:

http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/auto/auto_cons_bib_pqr_neuf.jsp

Still have the original michelins on ours (7k).

The car was all over the shop in the recent downpour we had.Not confidence inspiring unless the roads are just extra greasy at the moment?

Pirrelli P zero neros for me.

Silly grip in the wet and dry as anyone who was at the prom stages rally/trophy sprint would have seen.

It may not sound logical with front wheel drive' date=' but I believe the best advice is if you're fitting only two new tyres, they should go on the REAR with the worn pair on the front axle. See, for example:

http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/auto/auto_cons_bib_pqr_neuf.jsp

I believe this advice is based on the general consensus in the motor industry that people these days can't drive, hence the downturn in the popularity of rear wheel drive cars and the trend towards front wheel drive. Most people can cope with understeer better than oversteer. Personally, bearing in mind my driving style and the fact that front end grip is more important for accelerating and braking, I'd much rather my good tyres were on the front!

(plus, oversteer is fun )

I believe this advice is based on the general consensus in the motor industry that people these days can't drive' date=' hence the downturn in the popularity of rear wheel drive cars and the trend towards front wheel drive. Most people can cope with understeer better than oversteer. Personally, bearing in mind my driving style and the fact that front end grip is more important for accelerating and braking, I'd much rather my good tyres were on the front!

(plus, oversteer is fun )[/quote']

Yeah, I thought that too, right up until i went backwards through a hedge at a stupidly slow speed, due to putting my best tyres on the front of the car.....

There had been no rain for 3 weeks, then it rained 1 hour before my journey, so the roads would be greasy, I was on a road I knew inside out, approaching a left hand corner my speed was 50mph (This is a 70mph corner normally for me), I turn in not paying too much attention, and my car had spun through 45 degrees before I did anything. It eventually spun 180 degrees and I was off the road backwards through a hedge. I had Goodyear Eagle Venturas on the front, which are the most exceptional wet weather tyre I have used, and some crappy no name on the back of the car. Had I had the Goodyears on the rear, I would have understeered wide round the corner but would have made it........

Put your best tyres on the rear, its not worth the risk, 99% of people cannot deal with snap oversteer.

Yep understeer rules whether it's a Fabia vrs or an F1 car.

It's the way to go on set up as it saves you money.

Over steer if fund when you have asked it to come out to play, it isn't when it just assumes you are ready to play!

Maybe the best thing to do it Cv101 is change the front tyre and put them on the rear. If you do go for the T1-R let them bed in, grip to start with isn't that great.

Yeah' date=' I thought that too, right up until i went backwards through a hedge at a stupidly slow speed, due to putting my best tyres on the front of the car.....

There had been no rain for 3 weeks, then it rained 1 hour before my journey, so the roads would be greasy, I was on a road I knew inside out, approaching a left hand corner my speed was 50mph (This is a 70mph corner normally for me), I turn in not paying too much attention, and my car had spun through 45 degrees before I did anything. It eventually spun 180 degrees and I was off the road backwards through a hedge. I had Goodyear Eagle Venturas on the front, which are the most exceptional wet weather tyre I have used, and some crappy no name on the back of the car. Had I had the Goodyears on the rear, I would have understeered wide round the corner but would have made it........

Put your best tyres on the rear, its not worth the risk, 99% of people cannot deal with snap oversteer.[/quote']

Oversteer is fun in a rear wheel drive car, where you use the throttle to dictate how much drift to apply at the back end. On a front driver, oversteer is not so readily controllable.

I had a Fiesta Zetec 1.4 on Pirelli P700s back in the 90s. Once the fronts wore out, I replaced them with a pair of Firestone FH700s. I drove home from the tyre fitting feeling my way gently through a wet journey, then came to a little interchange between the A130 and the A12. Normally a lazy four wheel drift at around 45MPH in the wet, but not today. The car broke away at the rear and got 90 degrees round before I could reign it in. Trouble was, full opposite lock and then half a second later it is 90 degrees the other way. Two more sets of corrections before it settled down. "Must be oil on the road" thought I, so I found another quiet roundabout with a decent run off area and had another go, same result, almost unrecoverable.

Next thing was to see if this drift could help me go faster, so pudhed into said roundabout a coule of times, with a best entry speed of 35mph and 35 on the exit. Reversed the tyres, putting the Pirelli P700s on the front and had another go. Maximum 40mph entry and 48mph exit with no real drama. Phoned tyre shop and came back with set of four Firestone FH700s. On the next wet day, had 50mph entry and 55+ exit on "test" roundabout.

The physics behind all this is pretty simple. If you have more grip at the front, once the rears have let go, there are no inputs you can make to control the drift other than throttle. If you are lucky, the throttle will allow you to transfer a little loading rearward and recover rear end grip. However, as the car has started to rotate, the front tyres will be at a less than optimum slip angle, so you have a reduced level of grip there as well.

Putting more grip at the rear, should the fronts slide, you still have them facing the right way and a lift off the gas should be enough to transfer some mass forward to increase front grip. If all else fails a little dab or even a string of little dabs on the brakes can help you get the front end under control.

I find (with the Fiesta chassis and Conti Sport Contacts or the Chrysler Neon on Firestone FH700s) that you can trail brake to bring the tail into play to the degree you want. Later braking brings a more sideways stance. I tried this on the test drive of the Fabia vRS and it felt good, the rear outside wheel keying nicely into the surface on nailing the gas and transferring the loading rearward, allowing a nice power on early corner exit. Reduced grip at the rear would almost certainly prevent this and result in slower, less safe progress.

Chris