I've got a set of winter wheels I just picked up, and I also have a set of tires that will fit on them. The only problem is that the tires are pretty old. The fronts have quite a bit more wear than the rears. I got into an argument last night on which should go in the front, the ones with the most wear or the least wear?

So which tires should I put up front for an FF car?

 

How old is "pretty old?" Make sure the sidewalls aren't beginning to crack from dry rot. If they're still safe and have legal tread depth, you should put the ones with the least amount of wear on the front.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doespike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How old is "pretty old?" Make sure the sidewalls aren't beginning to crack from dry rot. If they're still safe and have legal tread depth, you should put the ones with the least amount of wear on the front.</TD></TR></TABLE>

They're not ancient, maybe three years old. My girlfriend and I came across the entire US on them. I consider them "pretty old" as compared to my newer sets of tires that were september and november of last year.

 

LOL! Ok, dry rot shouldn't be an issue. Definitely put the least worn tires on the front.

 

First of all, the difference in age isn't an issue; the question is about the difference in tread depth, and where to put the tires with deeper tread. I don't think the answer is that clear-cut; there are pluses and minuses either way. Tire dealers (including the Tire Rack) often recommend that tires with more tread depth be put in the back, in order to prevent oversteer. However, since front tires wear out faster than rear tires on our FWD cars, that will maximize the difference in treadwear, making the front tires wear out well before the rear tires do. I don't like it for that reason, because I prefer replacing my tires as a set of four, not two at a time, so I keep the tires with more tread on the front, where they wear faster (although I rotate them frequently, so the difference in tread depth front vs rear is never huge). That evens out the wear, so they all wear out at the same time. But those are the pluses and minuses; it's your choice.

 

nsxtasty is correct in the fact that the tires will wear out a lot faster if you leave the good tires in the back and bad tires up front... but it is recommended that the good tires go on the rear of the vehicle and the ok tires in the front.. you can control the front end but you cannot control the rear end and that is the reason for it mostly as well as nsxtasy has stated