Tyre swapping back to front

[BPL]

Hi what are the group's thoughts on swapping tyres to wear evenly please? The wear on the front ones is obviously a lot heavier. I don't mind shelling out for 4 tyres together later on. 18k from 2020 new.

TIA

[SurreyJohn]

I would do it anytime from about 8-13k miles

 

You don’t want to wait until the fronts are so worn, that putting them on the back could cause sideways slides at the back.   

 

The main advantage is that all 4 tyres will wear out about the same time, so you can change to something more suitable for UK climate (tyres for all 4 seasons), rather than the summer tyres the factory put on.

 

Those on leases or PCPs where they intend to hand the car back might avoid buying any tyres with bit of swapping, and paying for swapping is lot cheaper than buying 2 new tyres. (or it is free if you know how to change a wheel and do it yourself).

 

Generally swapping tyres around saves money, as there is often deals for buying 4 tyres that can’t get if buy two on 2 different occasions.

 

Personally I bought a set of winter wheels and tyres so they get swapped around every time they go back on, but because of the swapping looks like car will get to about 70-80k miles (based on current wear) before I need more tyres.  Getting to 70k+ miles with just 4 new tyres seems better than some that seem to buy 2 new tyres every 18-20k miles

 

[Patent]

For my last 2 FWD cars I just put the new tyres on the rear and moved the rears forward. Don't think it ever lined up needing 4 in one go. 

Helps prevent sawtooth tyre wear on the rear too

[KeteCantek]

If servicing includes tyres off, then just do the swap then. Mine will be off at least every 2 years when the brake fluid change is due. 

[numskull]

I’ve always rotated the tyres on all the cars we have owned. More difficult with alloys of course, so I just swap NSR to OSF, OSF to NSR, OSR to NSF, NSF to OSR. It evens out tyre wear. 

[Q102]

I swap mine front to back etc after I swap the winter tyres over etc.

I think it's recommended on the 4x4 versions to swap, my girlfriends Golf R states in the manual to swap fronts & rear on a regular basis.

[JBD1974]

Another vote for rotating and replacing all 4 in 1 hit. 

[IJWS15]

In intend to rotate mine in the next few weeks but . . . . . . .    

 

It is leased and I am responsible for tyres so my objective is not to have to replace ANY of the tyres.  I don't want to replace the fronts and hand it back with half worn rears.  Granted there is a risk that I will need to replace all four but I can't see me doing that many miles.

[Penpusher]

I'm replacing my rear tyres and I'll ask the tyre depot to rotate the wheels so that the new tyres will be on the front.  The rear tyres are starting to perish rather than being worn as they've only done 30,000 miles but are 6 years old.  I'd have probably worn them down to the limit if we hadn't had Covid and lockdown.

 

They'd ordered the tyres I want and they were due to be changed on Thursday last week, but when I got there and they looked at the tyres, they realised they'd been sent 18" tyres, but mine are 19"!  Luckily they looked at the new tyres before taking my old ones off the rims.

[SurreyJohn]

On 20/05/2022 at 17:33, IJWS15 said:

In intend to rotate mine in the next few weeks but . . . . . . .    

 

It is leased and I am responsible for tyres so my objective is not to have to replace ANY of the tyres.  I don't want to replace the fronts and hand it back with half worn rears.  Granted there is a risk that I will need to replace all four but I can't see me doing that many miles.

If it is leased, then get them swapped when fronts are down to about 4.5 - 5mm.  You can hand it back with 4 worn tyres, provided none reach the minimum tread.

 

No point buying 2 tyres if you don’t have to, but if you are doing more than about 25-30k miles might need to watch carefully and if required swap again to get you through last few months.

[brettikivi]

23 hours ago, Penpusher said:

I'm replacing my rear tyres and I'll ask the tyre depot to rotate the wheels so that the new tyres will be on the front.  The rear tyres are starting to perish rather than being worn as they've only done 30,000 miles but are 6 years old.  I'd have probably worn them down to the limit if we hadn't had Covid and lockdown.

 

They'd ordered the tyres I want and they were due to be changed on Thursday last week, but when I got there and they looked at the tyres, they realised they'd been sent 18" tyres, but mine are 19"!  Luckily they looked at the new tyres before taking my old ones off the rims.

tyres with more tread really ought to be on the rear as that's where the stability comes from. Hence also swapping them early to get the wear equalized. 

 

Can't say i do it myself specifically - we swap when the winters go on (and they're directional anyway). 

 

Edited 23 May, 2022 by brettikivi

[Penpusher]

On 23/05/2022 at 09:13, brettikivi said:

tyres with more tread really ought to be on the rear as that's where the stability comes from. Hence also swapping them early to get the wear equalized. 

 

Can't say i do it myself specifically - we swap when the winters go on (and they're directional anyway). 

 

I agree with what you say, but if you applied that rule rigidly you'd never be able to rotate the wheels to even out tyre wear if the rear tyres had to be the ones with more tread on them.

 

The front tyres weren't very old and I haven't been far since with lockdown, so there's not much difference between the front and rear tread depths.  As I mentioned previously, the rear tyres were fine regarding tread depth, but were starting to perish and splits were easily visible.  With two trips to Europe by car coming up soon (to Croatia and then Lithuania), I want the everything to be in tip top order before I leave.

 

I don't swap to winter tyres as we don't have the bad weather to warrant them.  Last winter, we didn't have any snow, apart from on the mountains, and the roads were unaffected.  I know that winter in Finland is completely different; I went there once in winter and spent from Christmas to New Year in hospital in Helsinki with pneumonia!

[MarkyG82]

@Penpusher winter tyres are not just for snow. They are for cold and wet too. Anything below 7c (most of UK winter commuting hours) is best with winter rubber. Your profile says Brecon. Can I at least suggest you look into tyre usage? All seasons would be a good all year compromise.

[Penpusher]

4 hours ago, MarkyG82 said:

@Penpusher winter tyres are not just for snow. They are for cold and wet too. Anything below 7c (most of UK winter commuting hours) is best with winter rubber. Your profile says Brecon. Can I at least suggest you look into tyre usage? All seasons would be a good all year compromise.

I run on Vredestein Quatrac Pro, which are all season tyres.  I find these are adequate for the weather we receive here, as it's often wet and below 7c, even at this time of year!

 

I retired in 2017, so I no longer commute and I don't need to use the car if the weather is bad.  I live within walking distance of the town centre if we get snow.  Nowadays it's quite rare that I'm driving in the dark or before 9.00 am when the roads are more likely to be affected by bad weather.

[MarkyG82]

Sounds like you are already on top of tyre selection. Didn't mean to offend if I did. There's a lot of misinformation on winter tyre use with many thinking they are for snow and ice. All seasons (like yours) are perfect for most UK conditions.

[Penpusher]

10 hours ago, MarkyG82 said:

Sounds like you are already on top of tyre selection. Didn't mean to offend if I did. There's a lot of misinformation on winter tyre use with many thinking they are for snow and ice. All seasons (like yours) are perfect for most UK conditions.

I wasn't offended and I'm sorry if my reply sounds as if I was!

 

I'm only too pleased to chat with people like yourself about these topics and issues.