How bad is mixing tires?

[dreamwonder2000]

Hi,

I was wondering how bad is handling affected by mixing tires in the front and back. Are we talking night and day or very little?

The rear tires are new and are the same for both.
The front tires are 50% life tread and are the same for both.

All tires are of the same type (summer , max performance, ZR, staggered) but the thread pattern and manufacturer is different.

Thanks

[woohoo]

Hi,

I was wondering how bad is handling affected by mixing tires in the front and back. Are we talking night and day or very little?

The rear tires are new and are the same for both.
The front tires are 50% life tread and are the same for both.

All tires are of the same type (summer , max performance, ZR, staggered) but the thread pattern and manufacturer is different.

Thanks

Well, I've mixed mine and have gotten mixed results. My advice is to try to stick with the same manufacturer.

FRONT / REAR (OEM, Pilot Sport)
Yoko ES 100 / Pilot Sport <--Mix was ok with this set up.
Yoko ES 100 / BFG KDW2 <--Ack! The car can tramline unpredictably when changing lanes. :(

[Pinecone]

SEARCH.

Basically by doing this you are making yourself a sdefacto tire test/vehicle dynamics test driver. It may be fine, or it may kill you and anybody riding with you. Are YOU willing to take that chance? To save a bit of money? That will look great on your grave stone, "He and his family died to save money on tires."

[99flhr]

Well, I've mixed mine and have gotten mixed results. My advice is to try to stick with the same manufacture:(

Agree with that!

25 years ago installed 2 Goodyears on the rear of a Fiat X1-( (remember those?)for a customer, front had Michelins. Customer came back in a week, asked me to drive car. When I changed lanes on the X-way, car almost did a 180, scared me to death. Needless to say, we put his old tires back on and sent him to Michelin. HOWEVER, mixed brands countless times on "regular" cars with no ill effects

[maxcat]

I got a nail in a rear tire a few weeks ago and replaced just the rears with Goodyear F1's while keeping the OEM Potenzas on the front. The car drove horrible with the mixed tires and one evening out my wife actually asked me if I spent the afternoon drinking. I replaced the fronts with the F1's within a week and the car drives great again.

[Pinecone]

The problem may be the car seems fine under normal driving. But then a truck pulls out in front of you, or drops something on teh freeway, or ....

And THEN the car does some whacky thing when you try to avoid the whatever, and you spin into the guard rail or into on coing traffic, of into the median and flip over.

WILL this happen? :dunno: CAN it happen? ABOSULTELY. How will you know? You won't until you push the car that hard. And then it may be too late.

[woody underwood]

Here's my experience: Tore up a Bridgestone 255/35/18 500 miles away from home last month and managed to get it replaced with a Kumho same size the same day and got home ok. I think the Bridgestone failed, but they won't do anything about it...so I'm stuck with the funny looking (And extremely noisy) Kumho on the right rear and a Bridgestone on the left.
Handling doesn't seem to be effected, but I don't like the look of course. #1: Will never buy another car with staggered size tires. #2: Will never buy another car w/o a full size spare. #3: Never will have Bridgestones again and if my next BMW comes with them fitted will refuse delivery. Yes, I have the money to buy another Bridgestone...but that means $255+$175 for the Kumho+mounting/balancing and hassle, so a flat tire costs me close to $500? The OEM ****stones are only good for maybe 20,000 miles...so I'm stuck and that sucks. Don't mix tires? Unless you have money to burn I don't think you have a choice.

[chuck92103]

Good luck buying any future bimmers without run flats and mixed size tires.

I see the trend coming with BMW to have run flats on all cars and the sport package always has mixed sizes which prevents the ability to rotate and causes one to buy an extra front and rear tire to have on hand. If my 645 had all same size tires and a spare in the trunk I would have been happier. I feel more secure changing a flat and taking the old tire in for repair or replacement, then pushing the BMW assist button and praying that a dealer or tire shop is near buy with a tire.

[Pinecone]

How many cars can you buy with a full sized spare? How amny serious performance cars can you buy with non-staggered tires? How many performance cars get even 20K miles out of a set of tires?