[johncc]

Hi-

Can anyone tell me how bad it would really be to mix these on the rear axle?

Thanks!

 

[yaofeng]

It just looks bad. That's all.


For at least two years I was driving my 94cs with mismatched directionals on the passenger side. This was after hitting a big pot hole in the dark which bent the passenger side front rim. Bought one off Ebay not realizing it goes on the driver side until installed.

 

[Superaero]

Generally, you only find out how bad after the accident.

Directional tires handle substantially differently when mounted " backwards".

If you're going to have wonky handling you want that on the front of the car where you can control what's going on. You do not want the rear of the car to go off on its own path.

Don't mix tires even of the same brand. Tire manufacturers don't even like you replacing just one tire because the safe handling characteristics of the tires are generally tested in sets of four fairly evenly worn tires.

I strongly recommend against mixing tires on the same car, let alone the same axle. If you must mix tires be aware that the different tires may behave quite differently under different conditions especially on wet or snowy roads. You want the lower grip tires on the front so the car will understeer in an emergency.

 

[yaofeng]

Could that be the reason why I wrecked my 94cs last December ? I highly doubt it. I hit another car on the passenger front between the fender and the front door in jam packed rush hour traffic as he was making an illegal left turn. I was starting from standing and could not have travelled more than 15 mph when the accident occurred. Still the car was totaled. I later fought and got compensation for close to the market value of the car in a third party claim.

If it affect handling, I didn't feel it in two years driving it. Maybe I am senile. But my lead foot certainly was very alive:evil: .

 

[johncc]

Tire manufacturers don't even like you replacing just one tire because the safe handling characteristics of the tires are generally tested in sets of four fairly evenly worn tires.

Or is that tire manufacturers don't even like you replacing just one tire because .. they make much more money if you replace the whole set every time?

In my case, I'm not talking about fitting a directional tyre backwards I'm talking about having one symmetric, directional tyre and one asymmetric, non-directional tyre on the rear axle. Both have roughly even amounts of wear.

 

[Superaero]

Never a wise idea.


The problem only surfaces during emergency maneuvers. Now you might think you know what that feels like but trust me you don't unless you've had a wild loss of control incident or tried this stuff out on a nice safe track.

I learned just how good the handling on my Aero is when I did some emergency training during a performance driving session on a track. Trust me, this is not a good time to find out why you don't mix tires.