Mixing tyres front and rear - not a which tyre thread

by **Nottage969** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:38 pm

After reading this thread i decided to swap mine today for 5,000k's or so as my front left edge is starting to scrub out. Surprisingly the tread on all 4 was very, very similar other than the edge of the front left (i think i must hit right hand corners harder and understeer quite often). In fact, i know i do.

Anyway, surprisingly to me my wheel alignment is still very good. Almost better, but might just psychological. Surprised me because there was quite a large difference in the weights on either wheels, both inside the rim and outside. Though i know it's only a few grams in most cases...

Anyway, cheers for the prompt!

by **sti_stig** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:22 pm

onnzo wrote:Hi Guys,

When replacing tyres on a 4wd cars, do you need to have the same tyres front and rear? Im recal reading with old 4wd systems, you had to replace them all.

I bought a set of 4 18" wheels last time from Tempe/Wheelpower. Got 4 new tyres at the same time as well (about 6 months ago I think?). Anyway, dad was driving my car whilst I was away on holidays and ran over a pothole buckling a rim (and my mum scraped my other car a few days later!). He took it to the tyre shop who said it was gone and the tyre must also have been wrecked too.

Anyway - I have ordered another 2 rims from wheelpower (one for the spare) - I have the old 17" as a current spare which I will get rid of once I get the new rims/tyres.

As for tyres, I will order some from tirerack again and am tossing up between buying 2 or 4 new tyres. what do you guys think? do I need to run the same tyre front and rear?

Mike

Some time ago I hit a crater (pot hole is a major understatement) in the road driving at night and for a while I have ran 2 different brands on mine, I ran Pirelli in the front and a garbage tyre I bought the car with on the back called Firenza. Firenza is a crappy tyre and the rubber tethered from the inside. I changed to bridgestone potenza all round. Best move Ive made. I found its quieter on the road i.e. less road noise. 2 different brands do still grip but I recommend going the 4 tyres or buy the same rubber and put a 2 freshy's on that are the same.

cheers
Mick

by **sti_stig** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:30 pm

Rome_STI wrote:
onnzo wrote:Wheels arrived today. I'm very impressed. Ordered at 12pm yesterday, delivered 24 hours later in Melbourne from Sydney. I also picked up the damaged rim. I'm going to make a claim with the council. Getting some pics of the pothole which is about the depth of a tennis ball and then I'll write a letter.

Now to decide on the tyres

I wonder if this is possible in Sydney as I'm sure a few of us would be making claims...

didnt work for me when I buckled the side wall of my tyre after the monster of a hole found my tyre.

by **mihai** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:59 pm

onnzo wrote:Wheels arrived today. I'm very impressed. Ordered at 12pm yesterday, delivered 24 hours later in Melbourne from Sydney. I also picked up the damaged rim. I'm going to make a claim with the council. Getting some pics of the pothole which is about the depth of a tennis ball and then I'll write a letter.

Now to decide on the tyres

I've read that unless the council was aware of the pothole and was not repaired prior to you hitting it then they will not payout.

Only time they pay for repairs is if they knew the pot hole was there, they chose not to fix it or put it off and then someone hit it and made a complaint.

by **onnzo** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:44 pm

I'm doing some research re the claim. Will post what I find. Funny the op mentioned firenzas. That's what I'm running... I think I'll just change all 4/5. They are cheap from tirerack At Under $1k for 4.

by **99rex** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:20 pm

Hi guys ,thought id share a little knowledge i have on tyres,the tyres that come factory on the gen 4 libs are the "potenza RE050A" when it comes to rotating tyres,
it is possible to put,say Front R and then rotate that rim & tyre to Rear L,vise versa.
With these tyres the A at the end stands for symmetrical,whereas without the A they are directional.
and as for replacing all 4 in place of 1 only,its my understanding that yes,there all to be changed accordingly.
also,another thing ive noticed with different brands is they might read 215/45 ,in a falken?
then you have a bridgestone 215/45 put them side by side and there will be a slight difference in height/width.
personally,i wouldnt mix-match with different brands.hope that helps a little ???
thanks guys.. :bye:

by **imania** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:24 pm

I thought the A was for the asymmetric variant, as in a directional tyre? The one without the A is the non directional afaik

by **99rex** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:39 pm

imania wrote:I thought the A was for the asymmetric variant, as in a directional tyre? The one without the A is the non directional afaik

hi,im 100% about A meaning symmetrical,and the RE050 is a directional tyre.for some reason ?? i have absouletly no idea why,but i have seen a handful of gen 4's
fitted from factory with RE050 215/45/17, only thing i can think of is maybe tyre shortage? maybe around the time bridgestone moved manufacturing of the potenza from japan to thailand ? but thought a little strange as 99% - 100% are OEM RE050A 215/45/17 ..
but i am certain about the A on the end means they are'nt directional tyres.(im hoping i dont sound like a d***)....
thanks guys ...

by **mihai** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:45 pm

imania wrote:I thought the A was for the asymmetric variant, as in a directional tyre? The one without the A is the non directional afaik

+1

EDIT: Should elaborate that you are both correct! The A does stand for asymetrical (as imania has stated) however it doesn't mean anything in regards to the direction of the tyre. The asymetrical just means that the tyre has different tread pattern from the outside of the tyre to the inside of the tyre.

by **imania** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:51 pm

Just to clear things up, straight from the bridgestone website

Re050A:
Featuring DONUTS technology, the RE050A (Asymmetric) is an ultra high-performance tyre incorporating dynamic sporty handling and a quiet, comfortable ride to meet the rigorous demands of prestige vehicle manufacturers.
The inner and outer tread design is derived from Bridgestone's winning Formula 1 technology. It offers outstanding grip and responsive handling in both dry and wet conditions.

Re050:

Featuring DONUTS technology, the Potenza RE050 is an ultra high-performance tyre incorporating dynamic sporty handling and a quiet, comfortable ride to meet the rigorous demands of prestige vehicle manufacturers. This tyre is available in as a "run-flat" version using the latest technology.

by **mihai** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 10:58 pm

Yea, but as I said, the A has no bearing on the direction of the tyre. Just means that the inside tread is different to the outside tread.

by **imania** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:08 pm

mihai wrote:Yea, but as I said, the A has no bearing on the direction of the tyre. Just means that the inside tread is different to the outside tread.

Didn't see your edit before I posted, sorry mate, stupid tapatalk lol

by **99rex** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:20 pm

hi again,just thought id put a pic up showing the tread pattern on some 050A's .
you can see the inner & outer tread patterns are identical as to be a well balanced tyre in either front left,or rear right??
therefore symetrical..i dont want to get into a slang match with anyone (please) i have spoken with bridgestone (sales rep's) directly (my brother owns a tyre shop)
whereas the 050's have a slightly different inner pattern.
thanks guys...

by **mihai** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:41 pm

99rex wrote:hi again,just thought id put a pic up showing the tread pattern on some 050A's .
you can see the inner & outer tread patterns are identical as to be a well balanced tyre in either front left,or rear right??
therefore symetrical..i dont want to get into a slang match with anyone (please) i have spoken with bridgestone (sales rep's) directly (my brother owns a tyre shop)
whereas the 050's have a slightly different inner pattern.
thanks guys...

The tyres you posted are ASYMETRICAL as the inner and outer tread are different.
Im not talking about the very inner and very outer tread but in the pic you posted the tread under the green line is different to the tread under the green+orange line on the 2nd tyre from the left. Therefore ASYMETRICAL

A symetrical tyre will have the same tread under both the green and green+orange sections.

This is the same with the 1st and 3rd tyres except the tread under the yellow is different to the tread under the yellow + blue.

The line of symmetry is the RED line along the middle of each tyre.

by **mihai** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:45 pm

RE050

RE050A