Swapping tyres from front to back

[Kenny6868]

I was thinking of swapping the tyres on my Laguna from front to back but noticed in the manual that it says "This practice is not recommended"

Why would this be? I'm just curious.

[fangio]

Dunno, always used to change them diagonally. Drawback is, you'll need 4 new tyres at the same time.

[kambites]

fangio said:

Drawback is, you'll need 4 new tyres at the same time.

I've always thought of that as the primary advantage of swapping them around. If you means you can change brands without ever having to run a mixture.

[Ozzie Osmond]

It may not go well if you have tyre pressure sensors.

[Slidingpillar]

kambites said:

I've always thought of that as the primary advantage of swapping them around. If you means you can change brands without ever having to run a mixture.

Ditto, only with a matching set do you get the intended handling.

[monamimate]

Kenny6868 said:

I was thinking of swapping the tyres on my Laguna from front to back but noticed in the manual that it says "This practice is not recommended"

Why would this be? I'm just curious.

Many years ago, I attended a job-related training session on tyres given by Michelin tech chappies.

Their advice was that the least worn tyres should always go at the back, irrespective of front or rear wheel drive. The reasoning: it is easier for a typical driver to react to understeer than to oversteer, so it's safer to have the best tyres at the back.

So as a Laguna is FWD, swapping would mean putting the more worn tyres at the back, increasing the risk of oversteer.

That would be my take on it.

[Blanchimont]

I've done it before. As long as they're the same size all round then I can't see any ill effects of it.

[MJK 24]

monamimate said:

Kenny6868 said:

I was thinking of swapping the tyres on my Laguna from front to back but noticed in the manual that it says "This practice is not recommended"

Why would this be? I'm just curious.

Many years ago, I attended a job-related training session on tyres given by Michelin tech chappies.

Their advice was that the least worn tyres should always go at the back, irrespective of front or rear wheel drive. The reasoning: it is easier for a typical driver to react to understeer than to oversteer, so it's safer to have the best tyres at the back.

So as a Laguna is FWD, swapping would mean putting the more worn tyres at the back, increasing the risk of oversteer.

That would be my take on it.

Michelin website still states the same. However, many cars do they cast majority of their braking from the front so it makes sense to have the most tread on the front?

[monamimate]

MJK 24 said:

monamimate said:

Kenny6868 said:

I was thinking of swapping the tyres on my Laguna from front to back but noticed in the manual that it says "This practice is not recommended"

Why would this be? I'm just curious.

Many years ago, I attended a job-related training session on tyres given by Michelin tech chappies.

Their advice was that the least worn tyres should always go at the back, irrespective of front or rear wheel drive. The reasoning: it is easier for a typical driver to react to understeer than to oversteer, so it's safer to have the best tyres at the back.

So as a Laguna is FWD, swapping would mean putting the more worn tyres at the back, increasing the risk of oversteer.

That would be my take on it.

Michelin website still states the same. However, many cars do they cast majority of their braking from the front so it makes sense to have the most tread on the front?

But the reasoning would still stand, I think. You'd still rather have the front break away than the rear, and the more worn the back tyres are, the higher the likelihood that they will lose traction.

[kambites]

MJK 24 said:

Michelin website still states the same. However, many cars do they cast majority of their braking from the front so it makes sense to have the most tread on the front?

It's not useful having the ability to put more braking force through the front wheels if the back end is aquaplaning because the back will quickly become the front.

[RobM77]

One reason for not swapping front to back is that if the tyres have been on the end they're fitted to for a long time into their life then they will have worn in accordance with the camber that end's running. If this is the case, then swapping them can give undesirable handling. I've experimented with this in the past and the results can be very dramatic. This does of course depend on the car's setup. Because of this, I swap mine front to back every time I change to and from winter tyres (Dec & March), which I would consider a low enough fraction of their life to be ok.

[J4CKO]

monamimate said:

Kenny6868 said:

I was thinking of swapping the tyres on my Laguna from front to back but noticed in the manual that it says "This practice is not recommended"

Why would this be? I'm just curious.

Many years ago, I attended a job-related training session on tyres given by Michelin tech chappies.

Their advice was that the least worn tyres should always go at the back, irrespective of front or rear wheel drive. The reasoning: it is easier for a typical driver to react to understeer than to oversteer, so it's safer to have the best tyres at the back.

So as a Laguna is FWD, swapping would mean putting the more worn tyres at the back, increasing the risk of oversteer.

That would be my take on it.

I would agree with that, I had fitted new tyres on my 9-3 Aero, the rears were pretty tired but still legal so I elected to wait for next months pay day before I changed them, on the way home one day, it was wet and even though I wasn't going that fast I came over a slight rise which obviously unloaded the tyres a little and the car went into oversteer, I started to react but the stability control got there first, no real drama but I got the tyres changed asap.

We all love oversteer, i.e. the kind we instigate, but not surprise oversteer in a situation where you really arent expecting it.

[robinessex]

The camber characteristics of the front and rear suspension are often different, so the tyres will wear accordingly. Swapping them can result in only partial tyre contact until they 'wear in'.

[kambites]

robinessex said:

The camber characteristics of the front and rear suspension are often different, so the tyres will wear accordingly. Swapping them can result in only partial tyre contact until they 'wear in'.

Whilst this is of course true, I doubt it's very significant on the average FWD hatchback. Certainly the wife's Skoda wears pretty evenly across the tyre tread.

[robinessex]

kambites said:

robinessex said:

The camber characteristics of the front and rear suspension are often different, so the tyres will wear accordingly. Swapping them can result in only partial tyre contact until they 'wear in'.

Whilst this is of course true, I doubt it's very significant on the average FWD hatchback. Certainly the wife's Skoda wears pretty evenly across the tyre tread.

I do actually agree, I don't think the wear difference in practice is all that great. My E34 BMW did wear the front/rear tyres quite differently though. Maybe some others here can confirm?

[Orangecurry]

As always, it depends. My AWD Driver's Manual tells me to swop the wheels/tyres front to rear every (can't remember)-thousand miles.

I'll be doing that.

I did experience too much oversteer when swopping on-the-limit worn tyres to the rear of a front-wheel drive, so I'm thinking the answer is to do what the vehicle manufacturer tells you.

[Denis O]

It's part of the service regime on my 4 WD Duster; every 10k or annually.

[996TT02]

If you are into tyre swapping, do it frequently, otherwise due to uneven wear you may find that your rears cause the car to pull to one side when fitted to the front axle.