Hi all,

 

I hope to find you well. This is my first post! I'm planning to be more active here as I want to start DIY some fixes on my vehicle. I'm writing in this section due to the fact that I have a Skoda Octavia Elegance 2012 1.4 TSI, although this question applies to any front drive vehicle.

 

Question:

When I bought the vehicle front tyres were already worn and I knew I needed to change it soon. The time has come but rear tyres have plenty more wear to go. Should I replace front tyres and keep them at the front? I guess this is what needs to be done as front wheels wear quicker, correct?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Kind regards,

Jorge

 

 

Welcome to the forum Jorge and some will no doubt say you should move the used tyres from the rear axle to the front axle however as your car is not very powerful I would go with the cheaper option for you (if using a tyre fitter) and have the new tyres fitted on the front axle.

I have found this article:

 

There seems to be controversy on what to do. But if safety is a priority. Better to place new tyres at the rear to have better grip and less prone to puncture and burst. If one tyre at the rear have issues while moving then it is more difficult to control the vehicle. I think I'm sticking to this view as my priority is safety over anything else.

 

Let me hear your thoughts!

 

https://blog.greenflag.com/2017/rotating-tyres-good-idea/

"...or these two reasons, they say it’s safer to stick with the status quo, wait until the front tyres have worn down towards the 1.6mm legal minimum, then get your tyre retailer to put new tyres on the rear and put the old rear tyres on the front."

1 minute ago, shyVRS245 said:

Welcome to the forum Jorge and some will no doubt say you should move the used tyres from the rear axle to the front axle however as your car is not very powerful I would go with the cheaper option for you (if using a tyre fitter) and have the new tyres fitted on the front axle.

 

Hi @shyVRS245! thanks for your answer. I made above post just a few second after you did your. The article I posted explains what you already mentioned. yeah! controversy!

 

Well, I don't have the equipment to do this myself. So, I was planning to go to Kwik-Fit. @shyVRS245 Do they generally charge to rotate the wheels and place new wheels/tyres at the rear?

 

Thanks!

I have a trolley jack and rotate the tyres on both our Skoda's myself in my drive but appreciate not eveyone has the equipment or the space. You could ask them very nicely to move them for FREE (if you don't ask you never know) to the front axle if they are using a lift which is very easy for them as they use pneumatic guns to remove the wheel bolts and it will only take them 5 minutes more. Once had a free puncture repair done on the wife's Karoq at my local National tyres and to thank the guys that worked there went across the road and bought them a case of Bud as a thank you.

In this forum many people will say that the best tyres go to the rear. It's beyond my mind, why should I do that way but I usually try to put the best tyres on the front axle. Why? For the front drive car the front axle needs the best grip and best tyres for braking (you know that front brakes do the most of job). If you are planning to drive in a snow, just in case, then definetely best tyres go to the front.

 

3 minutes ago, Jevpls said:

It's beyond my mind

It's beyond quite a lot of people's minds, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

Thanks all for your answers.

 

I've decided to move new tyres to the rear as safety is my main priority. I won't be driving on snow except for a couple of days per year. Bad thing, this swap comes with a cost. Halfords Autocentre West Ealing charges 7.50GBP per wheel, so that will be 15 GBP both. I need to do this asap so I'll pay this. Next time I'll do it myself.

 

Thanks again!

 

 

Wow! That must be about £180 or hour for changing wheels. Is that a standard London thing or just Halfrauds?

😅 Yeah, that's the standard. 146 GBP both tyres (fitted) + 15 for swapping them. That's actually the cheapest I found. I'll do it myself next time when I have the time and space.

19 hours ago, Wino said:

It's beyond quite a lot of people's minds, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

 

It doesn't mean it's right either.

 

The one and the only one reason to act that way I've heard is - car's back may become unstable, tyres may loose grip and all that may lead to an accident. Actually it's highly unlikely if you don't drive like a maniac. Driving in a large puddle or thick snow with nice rear tyres won't do much good if you are already screwed because of poor front tyres.
 

I usually change front tyres to rear (and otherwise) each year, so they wear evenly and there's no point of arguing which ones should be where.

 

The problem may be other people nearby driving like maniacs, which can cause trouble for even the best drivers.

1 hour ago, Wino said:

The problem may be other people nearby driving like maniacs, which can cause trouble for even the best drivers.

 

And how better tyres on the rear axle helps in this case?

Maybe look at it this way.
Is the car easier to control if traction is lost on the front axle or rear axle and when you’ve thought of the answer to that, where would you prefer the best tyres to be fitted. 

2 hours ago, Wino said:

The problem may be other people nearby driving like maniacs, which can cause trouble for even the best drivers.

We have absolutely no control how owners of superior cars like BMW, Mercedes and Audi drive or whether they fit cheap Korean ditchfinders on their company car.

@Me-109

?

What do you think a fair charge is for the labour of an employee in a building with costs / overheads and a job covered by the companies insurance?

 

Go price some cycle shop fixing a puncture or putting in a new tube in a bicycle or maybe what a show repairer / key cutter is charging and then work that out as an hourly rate. 

 

6 minutes ago, john999boy said:

Maybe look at it this way.
Is the car easier to control if traction is lost on the front axle or rear axle and when you’ve thought of the answer to that, where would you prefer the best tyres to be fitted. 

That would explain all those written off Merc's and BMW's in salvage yards.

23 minutes ago, Jevpls said:

 

And how better tyres on the rear axle helps in this case?

Because you may have to make sudden, instinctive avoiding manoeuvres that challenge the directional stability of your car. Continuing safely is more likely if the rear of the car is not in front of the front.

Edited 28 July, 20205 yr by Wino
sp

Rear non drive wheels / tyres can go nicely back in place when a driver can steer into a skid, with or without ESP, & get advantage of ABS from the front drive wheels that can steer if there is traction with tyres and surface.

 

All fine in theory but everyone really is a driver and might well know what it feels like when a car / vehicle wants to go straight on as you try to get around a bend / corner.

No traction but loads of action with the front tyres can have you touching cloth.

17 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

We have absolutely no control how owners of superior cars like BMW, Mercedes and Audi drive or whether they fit cheap Korean ditchfinders on their company car.

I've yet to hear of a Fleet manager specifying non mainstream tyres as replacements.

15 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

That would explain all those written off Merc's and BMW's in salvage yards.

They may be there due to driver error as opposed to car error. However I'm sure you just plucked that fact out of thin air for effect.

1 minute ago, john999boy said:

I've yet to hear of a Fleet manager specifying non mainstream tyres as replacements.

They may be there due to driver error as opposed to car error. However I'm sure you just plucked that fact out of thin air for effect.

John you need to visit more scrap yards then your eyes will give you the proof. Once had some warranty work (welding) done on my 2009 Superb Mk2 and the dealer couldn't handle the work so subbed it out to a vehicle repairer nearby. When I arrived I noticed he had a lot of rear wheel drive Prestige German cars in his yard smashed up and needing bodywork repairs. When I asked him whether he specialised in high end luxury cars only his reply was no but they have more accidents than mainstream front wheel drive cars hence the reason their insurance premiums are so much higher as well. It isn't rocket science really.

1 hour ago, Wino said:

Because you may have to make sudden, instinctive avoiding manoeuvres that challenge the directional stability of your car. Continuing safely is more likely if the rear of the car is not in front of the front.

 

In theory it might be so but I've done these things from time to time and usually bad things happen ONLY in wintertime when there's snow (probably not the usual case for the forum readers). Usually tyres has good enough grip and I'm not much into very, very expensive premium tyres (not buying cheap ones, though). Actually, this could be true on roads with high speeds.

 

Ok, whatever. I guess that no-one from us is going to convince another one   Let's allow other ones to speak

There's no denying it is a controversial issue and for many, many years I always put new tyres on the rear for safety ... A blow out on the rear, or even a loss of traction, is a lot more serious than on the front.... This however was alway on a rear wheel drive car...

 

Now that the cars I've been driving for years have all been front wheel drive I don't feel the arguement is quite as clear cut, yes the safety part is still there, as all the driving power is now going through the front wheels and they surely require as much grip as possible as well as the fact that 70% of your braking goes onto the front wheels so the new tyres will also stop you quicker too....m

On 28/07/2020 at 09:41, Roottoot said:

@Me-109

?

What do you think a fair charge is for the labour of an employee in a building with costs / overheads and a job covered by the companies insurance?

 

Go price some cycle shop fixing a puncture or putting in a new tube in a bicycle or maybe what a show repairer / key cutter is charging and then work that out as an hourly rate. 

 

It's a two minute job. The side of the car is normally in the air with a garage jack so doesn't need and extra lifting. An air wrench will have a set of bolts off and on with no effort. 2 mins max. That works out about £225 per hour. For changing wheels. If the main part of the job is selling and fitting tyres (recognising they do plenty of other stuff too) then those two mins swapping wheels is customer service.

@Me-109

Fitting tyre to the car and then moving wheels / rotating wheels so front to rear should be included in the new tyre price.

Tyres fitted and balanced and fitted where required.

Someone wanting their wheels they bring in, winter to summer wheels costs to change totally different.

 

Sure a 2 minute job because your tools are all to hand, sometimes 2 fitters will just work together and job done.

Love to see you doing each wheel on and off and others on in 2 minutes, wheels in and out the car, pressures checked.

I have no hesitation saying to someone that questions me about the cost of doing a '2 minute job', go and DIY wherever you want then as i have others things to do with my 15 minutes and my facilities and tools.

 

Regular customers might well be a different matter.   It is unbelievable though when you can do something as a favor for someone free gratis and then you get nothing but grief and complaints and accusations of doing something badly.

With tyre fitting, or just changing wheels around that can be accusations of damaging rims and them wanting to claim off you or your insurance.

Edited 1 August, 20205 yr by Roottoot