[Help] Tyre advice

[Brok]

Most internet advice suggests new tyres should be fitted at the rear, not the front.

 

[grubbyhands]

Part worns are always a consideration, been buying them for years

mmmmm. I would avoid part-worn tyres. They may have plenty of tread but you can never tell internal damage, mis-inflation etc.

 

[grubbyhands]

I’d welcome any expertise / advice on car tyres please. I need a new rear tyre and the garage says the other rear tyre is down to 4mm so would be best to change both - because the new tyre will have 8mm tread and it could lead to uneven tyre wear. Is this BS? I know the legal limit is 1.6mm, so it seems the good tyre that still has 4mm tread will probably have a few miles left in it yet. Am I about to be ripped off in being advised to buy two? Thanks in advance.

Might the spare be in better condition and have more tread? You could then possibly put the 4mm tyre to the spare. Always assuming it's not one of the skinny " space-saver" variety.

 

[1066familyman]

Worth checking whether there is an underlying reason one rear has worn a lot more than the other.

Previous owner only changed one tyre instead of both together

 

[Official Old Man]

Might the spare be in better condition and have more tread? You could then possibly put the 4mm tyre to the spare. Always assuming it's not one of the skinny " space-saver" variety.

This. Check the spare tyre, if you have one. Don't use it to replace the worn tyre as you'll still need a spare, but it could be used to replace the 4mm tyre and then keep the 4mm tyre as a spare.

 

[Lurker]

Part worns are always a consideration, been buying them for years

I spent 35 years in the Tyre Industry in one capacity or another so I can probably offer a bit of helpful advice.

Firstly ... of all the advice given on this thread thus far, please do NOT follow the advice given above by nick.
Part worn tyres are a lottery.
You may be lucky, as nick obviously has been, and get some decent mileage and value, but equally you may be purchasing potential killers, it is not always obvious on inspection what the history of a part worn tyre is.

To answer your original question, I don't think you are necessarily being ripped off, it is always better to replace tyres in pairs, but that is in a perfect world and we don't live in a perfect world.
4mm is barely half worn.
There is no recorded 'average' length of tyre wear to my knowledge, but experience tells me you can count yourself unlucky if your tyres don't last at least 12,000 -15,000 miles, so the guy is asking you to throw away maybe 7,000 or 8,000 miles for no good reason?
No harm will come to you by driving with one tyre at 8mm and the other tyre at 4mm on the same axle, particularly if they are on the back axle.
You almost certainly won't notice any difference in the way your car performs.

It is also a myth that fitting different brands to the same axle is a no no.
You can fit four different brands to all four wheels and no harm will come to you or your car, it just important to ensure all four tyres are of similar construction and purpose ... e.g. don't fit thick chunky off road tyres on the same axle as normal road going tyres etc.

Hope this helps?

 

[jessiejames]

I spent 35 years in the Tyre Industry in one capacity or another so I can probably offer a bit of helpful advice.

Firstly ... of all the advice given on this thread thus far, please do NOT follow the advice given above by nick.
Part worn tyres are a lottery.
You may be lucky, as nick obviously has been, and get some decent mileage and value, but equally you may be purchasing potential killers, it is not always obvious on inspection what the history of a part worn tyre is.

To answer your original question, I don't think you are necessarily being ripped off, it is always better to replace tyres in pairs, but that is in a perfect world and we don't live in a perfect world.
4mm is barely half worn.
There is no recorded 'average' length of tyre wear to my knowledge, but experience tells me you can count yourself unlucky if your tyres don't last at least 12,000 -15,000 miles, so the guy is asking you to throw away maybe 7,000 or 8,000 miles for no good reason?
No harm will come to you by driving with one tyre at 8mm and the other tyre at 4mm on the same axle, particularly if they are on the back axle.
You almost certainly won't notice any difference in the way your car performs.

It is also a myth that fitting different brands to the same axle is a no no.
You can fit four different brands to all four wheels and no harm will come to you or your car, it just important to ensure all four tyres are of similar construction and purpose ... e.g. don't fit thick chunky off road tyres on the same axle as normal road going tyres etc.

Hope this helps?

Quick question if you can answer, why do they have a 1.6 minimum for cars, yet a lorry is 1mm.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Throwing away a tyre with 4mm left is just a waste of money and environmentally unfriendly. It does depend really on whether its a pristine car and if you want to drive it to the limit, but if its an oldish car and you just pootle about in it, just replace the worn one.

 

[Icy Gull]

Part worns are always a consideration, been buying them for years

I did that, just the once. A few weeks later I had a front tyre blow out on the M23 at 70 MPH at night. Fecking scary and very luckily there was no traffic around me when it happened.

 

[Lurker]

Quick question if you can answer, why do they have a 1.6 minimum for cars, yet a lorry is 1mm.

Good question, and I don't know the answer!

My guess, and it's just my opinion, is it was possibly a result of successful lobbying from the RHA or similar on the basis of economics for the Transport Industry.
Also, Commercial tyres are manufactured to different criteria, so the government probably feel they can apply different rules on that basis too.

1.6mm v 1mm might not sound like a difference worth bothering with, but it is not unknown for Truck tyres to last 100k miles and more, so 0.6mm can amount to quite a few significant miles. Multiply those miles by the number of tyres on your articulated vehicle and then again by the 100+ trucks in your fleet ....... you can soon see the significant savings in your tyre bill if you're a Transport Operator!

Truck tyres are a whole new ball game compared to car tyres.
They start with a much higher depth of mm than car tyres when new, and also have additional base rubber built in so that when they reach a low level, usually around 4mm or so, they can be safely re-grooved to give them what's termed a '2nd Life'.
When the 2nd life wears down to its 1mm limit, the tyre can then be re-treaded, then re-grooved again .... so a lot of Truck tyres actually enjoy 4 lives before they die.
All done in the name of economics (plus the environment of course), so that's why it's my guess above about economy being the reason for the difference.

By the way, both 1mm and 1.6mm are absolutely scary to look at when you see a worn tyre, it looks virtually bald!!
I would not recommend anybody allows their tyres to wear down that low.
It is hard to imagine a tyre that low shifting any water at all!!!

 

[jessiejames]

Good question, and I don't know the answer!

My guess, and it's just my opinion, is it was possibly a result of successful lobbying from the RHA or similar on the basis of economics for the Transport Industry.
Also, Commercial tyres are manufactured to different criteria, so the government probably feel they can apply different rules on that basis too.

1.6mm v 1mm might not sound like a difference worth bothering with, but it is not unknown for Truck tyres to last 100k miles and more, so 0.6mm can amount to quite a few significant miles. Multiply those miles by the number of tyres on your articulated vehicle and then again by the 100+ trucks in your fleet ....... you can soon see the significant savings in your tyre bill if you're a Transport Operator!

Truck tyres are a whole new ball game compared to car tyres.
They start with a much higher depth of mm than car tyres when new, and also have additional base rubber built in so that when they reach a low level, usually around 4mm or so, they can be safely re-grooved to give them what's termed a '2nd Life'.
When the 2nd life wears down to its 1mm limit, the tyre can then be re-treaded, then re-grooved again .... so a lot of Truck tyres actually enjoy 4 lives before they die.
All done in the name of economics (plus the environment of course), so that's why it's my guess above about economy being the reason for the difference.

By the way, both 1mm and 1.6mm are absolutely scary to look at when you see a worn tyre, it looks virtually bald!!
I would not recommend anybody allows their tyres to wear down that low.
It is hard to imagine a tyre that low shifting any water at all!!!

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Sirnormangall]

And the outcome was ….I bought just the one tyre. When pressed as to why I might need 2, they said if I only had one it might repeatedly trigger my tyre pressure indicator ( as the tyres might have different pressure). If that happens and I find it inconvenient I’ll go back and buy another. In the meantime I’ll take the advice of some of you and I’ll drive like Miss Daisy rather than Lewis Hamilton! Thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[wellquickwoody]

I had two part worn tyres give out on me without warning, guess what my advice would be?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I spent 35 years in the Tyre Industry in one capacity or another so I can probably offer a bit of helpful advice.

Firstly ... of all the advice given on this thread thus far, please do NOT follow the advice given above by nick.
Part worn tyres are a lottery.
You may be lucky, as nick obviously has been, and get some decent mileage and value, but equally you may be purchasing potential killers, it is not always obvious on inspection what the history of a part worn tyre is.

To answer your original question, I don't think you are necessarily being ripped off, it is always better to replace tyres in pairs, but that is in a perfect world and we don't live in a perfect world.
4mm is barely half worn.
There is no recorded 'average' length of tyre wear to my knowledge, but experience tells me you can count yourself unlucky if your tyres don't last at least 12,000 -15,000 miles, so the guy is asking you to throw away maybe 7,000 or 8,000 miles for no good reason?
No harm will come to you by driving with one tyre at 8mm and the other tyre at 4mm on the same axle, particularly if they are on the back axle.
You almost certainly won't notice any difference in the way your car performs.

It is also a myth that fitting different brands to the same axle is a no no.
You can fit four different brands to all four wheels and no harm will come to you or your car, it just important to ensure all four tyres are of similar construction and purpose ... e.g. don't fit thick chunky off road tyres on the same axle as normal road going tyres etc.

Hope this helps?

Good post and saved me from posting similar but from an engineer's viewpoint not someone who's worked in the industry.

The point you make in a latter post about 1.6mm looking bald I had this argument with my company when we had company cars. They would not allow us to get them changed until worn to limits. This meant constant checks at the tyre fitters until they finally agreed to change them. Considering back then I was doing near on 1000 miles a week I was a happy chap the moment they changed them.

I would never allow my tyres down to the limit on my personal car.

Incidentally commercial aircraft tyres have retreads 6 times before they're scrapped.

 

[vegster]

Most internet advice suggests new tyres should be fitted at the rear, not the front.

I think that was the case with RWD vehicles, FWD will wear the fronts out first.

 

[TottonSeagull]

In my opinion your tyres are the one thing that keeps you on the road! I would never buy part worns as they are a lottery (a bit like buying a second hand crash helmet) and I value my safety!
personally think you should buy the best new tyres you can afford and replace in pairs!

 

[upthealbion1970]

I think that was the case with RWD vehicles, FWD will wear the fronts out first.

It’s been advised new tyres to rear on fwd for years, take worn ones off of the front put on the rear, move rears to fronts. Stops the rears perishing and becoming unserviceable with lots of tread

 

[Madafwo]

Also stops the rear end losing grip before the fronts do, causing the rear of the car to become the front in inclement weather.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

We all need to save money where we can.

But what price your safety, and the safety of your family and friends? Tyres are the only point of contact your car has with the road.

Everything else is irrelevant.

 

[Weststander]

Also stops the rear end losing grip before the fronts do, causing the rear of the car to become the front in inclement weather.

Advice supported here.
https://www.uniroyal-tyres.com/car/tyre-guide/tyre-knowledge/good-tyres-on-front-or-rear

I never knew that, thought it was the opposite.