Mixing Tire Brands

The rear tires on my SVT focus are Bridgestone KDWs and have a good amount of miles to go on them. I want to replace my front tires in the next couple of months, but damn those KDWs are expensive. I miss the $50 15 inch Falkens on my Nissan. There are some decent used tires on Craigslist - PZeros, Kuhmo Ecstas.... Am I really going to notice one good brand/tire pattern on the front and a different set of good tires/patterns on the back? I would be most concerned about wierd behavior in heavy rain.

I think you'll be fine, ditch finding is more likely if you have completely different tires at each end. Running aggressive summer tires on the rear, all seasons on the front could give you a nasty surprise on a cold morning.

What I learned (the hard way) on my Saab GM900 was to keep the new tires (or if around the same age, the tires with more grip) on the the rear axle, even on FWD cars. You will lose a little bit of forward traction, but this makes the car less likely to fishtail in rainy or snowy weather. Expect understeer with such a setup during hard driving. Reversing this introduces oversteer. Good tires up front and crappy tires out back is a popular drifting setup, but I for one would rather avoid driving sideways down a congested highway again.

Confirming what RexSeven said, I've heard the same thing, and it makes sense. Other than that, I wouldn't have any concerns mixing brands.

You have less than 4 square feet in control of a 2600# projectile.

different tire charachteristics will cause different handling charachteristics.

Don't kill yourself, or others......... buy 4 tires, and sell the other two on craigslist

In reply to oldeskewltoy:

Yeah that would be the other option I am considering. I have a few weeks before the rain starts in Northern Cal, so I will keep searching Craigslist for some matching KDWs.

Tire Rack suggests the new on rear thing. Of course, if you are going to put cheap all seasons on the car, putting them on the front might be safer. Best is to match the tires capabilities. Regular rotation solves this problem but then you have to replace all four.

Just noticed. "Bridgestone KDW's" ?

One of our church vans made it from minnesota to new york and back on 4 very different tires, 5 if you count the spare. A total mix of compounds, treads and brands, and somehow no one died. I wouldn't recommend mixing that much, but it should be safe to mix pairs of tires as long as one set isn't bald and the others new.

oldeskewltoy wrote: You have less than 4 square feet in control of a 2600# projectile. different tire charachteristics will cause different handling charachteristics. Don't kill yourself, or others......... buy 4 tires, and sell the other two on craigslist

While it is definitely best to have the same 4 tires on the car, having mixed pairs doesn't automatically mean death in a fireball.

In reply to z31maniac:

I know a guy who knew a guy whose dog's former owner mixed two types of tires on his wife's car. As soon as he let it off the jacks it threw itself into an orphanage AND a nunnery after it had burst into flames

Wally wrote: In reply to z31maniac: I know a guy who knew a guy whose dog's former owner mixed two types of tires on his wife's car. As soon as he let it off the jacks it threw itself into an orphanage AND a nunnery after it had burst into flames

i think i've only ever had 4 cars (out of hundreds) with matching tires all around, and i've never had any problems.

Mixed pairs of tires?! Oh no!

Somebody should really tell the motorcyclists that do it all the time as a tuning technique. Well, they don't use mixed PAIRS, but the point stands.

Yeah, I mean seriously. If you look at pretty much any car on the road that's more than a few years old, you're likely to find a shocking hodgepodge of tire mixing. My wife and I were looking at a CLK 320 convertible on a local used car lot, and I don't think any one of the tires matched another.

I think one of the things that sets us apart as enthusiasts is that we would actually care to have four matching tires. Mixing tires, for no other purpose than to save money, suggests to me a mechanical and aesthetic indifference out of touch with being an enthusiast.

There, I said it

Amen.

Wally wrote: In reply to z31maniac: I know a guy who knew a guy whose dog's former owner mixed two types of tires on his wife's car. As soon as he let it off the jacks it threw itself into an orphanage AND a nunnery after it had burst into flames

Yup.

That pretty much sums it up.

shoot, on my '69 Ply Valiant I even ran a combination of bias ply recaps and radials at the same time ... 'course it wasn't what you'd call a performance car..

I once had an old Subaru with dour different tries: one summer, one winter, one all season and one rain tire. I used to joke that since it was awd I had one tire for every situation. It wasn't an ideal setup, but your plan for the focus sounds perfectly safe to me.

the people that make tires and the people that sell tires are likely the people that tell you that they need to match.. they also tell you not to run tires that are more than 4 years old..

i wonder why they would say something like that?? maybe they are trying to sell more tires and charge more labor to install them?

nahh- that can't be it. i'm sure they are just being good citizens and trying to look out for the welfare of the general public..

Har.... Har....

Of course I was overstaing it... but in forum speak I could have written a dissertation and it would have boiled down to the same thing......

Note: None of the comedians have told you it is perfectly fine, and under ALL conditions you will be safe and stabile.

Will you DIE.... not likely... but is the risk of it worth it... especially if you can partially offset a full set of tires by selling the partial set.

Tires do age... 4 years... not likely, but over 7-8?

Am I a tire salesperson - nope. Am I a tire industry rep, or employee - nope.

I'm a self confessed tire whore, and as I led into my first post... and no one has yet denied.... you have a 2600# projectile on about 4 square feet of contact patch... why have something less then ideal, or fully predictable????

Oh... here is one to really disturb those tire naysayers......

60kmile tires are utter BS!!! Why - you say? the tread is fine - you say?

The sidewalls are crap, let me repeat myself so you can hear me

THE SIDEWALLS ARE CRAP.... after 60k miles of abuse, and turn ins and entrance curb impacts, and highway ruts, and everything else you encounter... by the time a tire hits 60k, the sidewalls are offering up only 70% of their original capability..... and yet they claim the tread is fine... that means they are good tires!!! Dumb @%$%^ is all I can say

There was a time in the not so distant past that replacing all 4 tires at the same time wasn't allowed by my checkbook. As long as the axle has the same size tires and preferably close to the same tread, you won't have a problem. My truck has 2 different brands front/rear. Did it for a brief time on my wifes old Camry. My daughter did the same on her Tiburon. And until last week the RX8 had 2 different brands installed.

wlkelley3 wrote: There was a time in the not so distant past that replacing all 4 tires at the same time wasn't allowed by my checkbook. As long as the axle has the same size tires and preferably close to the same tread, you won't have a problem. My truck has 2 different brands front/rear. Did it for a brief time on my wifes old Camry. My daughter did the same on her Tiburon. And until last week the RX8 had 2 different brands installed.

it's amazing that your cars don't spontaneously explode when you try to drive them.

oldeskewltoy wrote: Har.... Har.... Of course I was overstaing it... but in forum speak I could have written a dissertation and it would have boiled down to the same thing...... Note: None of the comedians have told you it is perfectly fine, and under ALL conditions you will be safe and stabile. Will you DIE.... not likely... but is the risk of it worth it... especially if you can partially offset a full set of tires by selling the partial set. Tires do age... 4 years... not likely, but over 7-8? Am I a tire salesperson - nope. Am I a tire industry rep, or employee - nope. I'm a self confessed tire whore, and as I led into my first post... and no one has yet denied.... you have a 2600# projectile on about 4 square feet of contact patch... why have something less then ideal, or fully predictable???? Oh... here is one to really disturb those tire naysayers...... 60kmile tires are utter BS!!! Why - you say? the tread is fine - you say? The sidewalls are crap, let me repeat myself so you can hear me THE SIDEWALLS ARE CRAP.... after 60k miles of abuse, and turn ins and entrance curb impacts, and highway ruts, and everything else you encounter... by the time a tire hits 60k, the sidewalls are offering up only 70% of their original capability..... and yet they claim the tread is fine... that means they are good tires!!! Dumb @%$%^ is all I can say

So you don't work in the tire industry and are not an expert but are compelled to tell us, with no data to support, that old tire sidewalls are inherrently flawed. (...and that anyone who doesn't hop on the bandwagon is a dumbass.)

Just because nobody argues an obvious point (small contact patch), does not mean your logic is without flaw.

Honestly, I don't have nearly as big a problem with your information than I do the way you presented it.

Clem