Replace all 4 tires or only 2?

[c152driver]

I'm the proud new owner of a 2008 Mazda5 with 33,000 miles.

The front tires look brand new. They're Fierce Instinct tires. I'd never heard of Fierce before but apparently it's a Goodyear brand. Not sure if they're any good or not.

The rear tires, on the other hand, look to be the original Toyo tires. Although they have some tread wear left, they're severely cupped on the inside and noisy. (which appears to be fairly common judging by what I've seen on this forum and others)

My question is... if you were me, would you just replace the two rear tires or would you buy all 4? I hate to remove nearly brand new tires, but the OCD part of me would like to have 4 matching tires.

Thanks!

 

[Robotazky]

Apparently they haven't been rotated properly to begin with. If the fronts really look new and you're happy with those, I'd buy two new ones and move the two on the front to the back and rotate at least every 5,000 miles.

 

[twintrbo]

Actually, if you buy new, leave them in the rear. Most people make the mistake of putting the new in the front but then you have old tires that will tend to make the vehicle oversteer, or spin out, in an emergency maneuver. The reason being the old tires dont grip as well as the new tires.

 

[Robotazky]

Actually, if you buy new, leave them in the rear. Most people make the mistake of putting the new in the front but then you have old tires that will tend to make the vehicle oversteer, or spin out, in an emergency maneuver. The reason being the old tires dont grip as well as the new tires.

Makes no sense whatsoever to leave tires that need to be rotated on the front. Sorry. Any tire shop will agree.

 

[professorhank]

I've always put the 2 new on the front until recently when Firestone insisted on putting 2 new on the back of my wife's Highlander. I apprehensively complied. I however don't think this applies to c152's situation because he said his fronts are nearly new so as long as the entire set gets properly rotated every 5000-7500 miles and since the fronts wear faster than the rear, I also say move the fronts to the back and install 2 new in front.

Possibly what twinturbo was talking about is when the fronts are a lot more used than the rears (mainly for people who don't balance), many people will assume they need 2 new on the front and leave the half treaded rear tires there. This URL talks about why you should NOT do that: <http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=52>

 

[Robotazky]

For me, the only driver here is the assumed fact that the front tires do not need to stay on the front since they apparently need to be rotated. If he takes care of the two that he's keeping, he really has no choice but to rotate them, unless of course they were just moved to the front, which I doubt from his description. Oh well. Good luck with the new tires man.

 

[justanothermp5]

keep the front, buy the same brand for the rear

easy solution

 

[Mazda5wannabe]

Agree, if you can find the exact same tire, put the "old" FIs on the back and the new on the front and rotate often!

 

[twintrbo]

Makes no sense whatsoever to leave tires that need to be rotated on the front. Sorry. Any tire shop will agree.

Yes, the ham fists that work in the tire shop will still agree with an old myth. I was referring exactly to the info in that tire rack article, although I have heard it from numerous other sources, including a Yokohama tire seminar. Regardless, putting new tires in the rear is a safety issue. If his fronts are new, then why do they need to be rotated at all? Its easier to leave them where they are and it complies with the safety guidelines that tire rack and Michelin came up with.

I guess you could listen to the guy at any tire shop though..........(shrug)

 

[chief_wiggum]

Yes, the ham fists that work in the tire shop will still agree with an old myth. I was referring exactly to the info in that tire rack article, although I have heard it from numerous other sources, including a Yokohama tire seminar. Regardless, putting new tires in the rear is a safety issue. If his fronts are new, then why do they need to be rotated at all? Its easier to leave them where they are and it complies with the safety guidelines that tire rack and Michelin came up with.

I guess you could listen to the guy at any tire shop though..........(shrug)

I remember seeing the same information you're talking about; the thought being that if you have worn tires on the front, it will cause more understeer (generally safer), but worn tires in the rear could cause snap oversteer, which is generally harder to recover from for the average driver. Of course, nobody here is an average driver. I think to be safe, OP should move one tire to the rear and keep the other up front, then everyone is happy!

 

[c152driver]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy a set of four Bridgestone Potenza G019 Grids from Costco. Can't beat the price of $505 out the door, installed. I realized if I bought a different set of 2, they'd wear differently than the Fierce tires and I'd always have tires with different wear levels.

I'll keep the Fierce Instinct tires as spares. Seems like the Bridgestones get pretty mixed reviews, but I imagine anything will be a huge improvement over the cupped Toyos. And based on what I've read about the 5, I plan to rotate aggressively. Probably at every oil change.

 

[coololddude]

You DO want the best tires in the REAR. The reason is; If a front goes you have control with the steering. If the rear goes you pretty much loose control. I think a good idea is to buy four new tires and tell the rest of us to take a dump!!!

 

[VenomDesign]

keep the front, buy the same brand for the rear

easy solution

(iagree)


AMEN (bow)

 

[DKaz]

I made the mistake of keeping barely legal tires on the rear and having new ones on the front. When braking in wet weather, the front tires would want to stop on a dime and the rear of the car would want to keep going. Very scary. By having worn tires on the front, you better understand your traction limits and drive accordingly. plus you're not in danger of spinning out.

Since your FIs had good tread left, I would've just kept them in the front and put new ones in the rear, but excellent choice going with 4 new G019s. No they're not the best performance all-seasons you can get but man Costco is practically giving them away (Canadians: Costco is selling the G019 for cheap up here too. $614 and $713 OTD for 205/55R16 and 205/50R17 respectively, assuming 12% HST, adjust for your province) and at that price they're very good tires.

 

[professorhank]

This may be a mute point since c152 already made his decision. I'm going specifically by what he said about his fronts being nearly new. The whole point of rotating regularly is to even out the wear so it makes no sense to me to put 2 new in the back when most FWD vehicles fronts wear faster. If his fronts were heavily worn but he still wanted to eke every bit of life out of them, I'd probably say keep them in front.

 

[DKaz]

That's what we meant. If your old tires have less than 5/32" left, keep them in the front to minimize risk of oversteer and fishtailing. If your old tires have more than 5/32" left, it's safe to put them in the back as they still have good grip left.

 

[Robotazky]

This may be a mute point since c152 already made his decision. I'm going specifically by what he said about his fronts being nearly new. The whole point of rotating regularly is to even out the wear so it makes no sense to me to put 2 new in the back when most FWD vehicles fronts wear faster. If his fronts were heavily worn but he still wanted to eke every bit of life out of them, I'd probably say keep them in front.

I actually thought "look new" meant that they were good tires, but probably should be rotated since the previous owner didn't take care of the tires. Oh well, problem solved so cheers. I always put new tires on the front if I only buy two, but then again, tires in the back that are bad enough to be a safety issue go in the trash at my house. I realize people try to run them down to nothing.

Hey c152, please let us know how that brand and size performs and wears! Thanks.

 

[professorhank]

That's what we meant. If your old tires have less than 5/32" left, keep them in the front to minimize risk of oversteer and fishtailing. If your old tires have more than 5/32" left, it's safe to put them in the back as they still have good grip left.

I think we agree on this. My response was more directed towards the 3-4 people who are saying put the better/newer tires in back no matter what even though c152 already said his fronts are nearly new.

 

[c152driver]

That's what we meant. If your old tires have less than 5/32" left, keep them in the front to minimize risk of oversteer and fishtailing. If your old tires have more than 5/32" left, it's safe to put them in the back as they still have good grip left.

According to the inspection done at my local Mazda dealer, the Toyos on the rear were down to 4/32" (and "badly" cupped) while the Fierce tires on the front were at 9/32".

I looked around for the same Fierce Instinct tires, but didn't have much luck. The responses varied from "I haven't heard of Fierce" (Discount Tire) to "That tire's been discontinued" (local tire shop), to "That tire is so new it's not even being distributed yet and will take a few weeks to get in" (Sears). The fact that the price Sears quoted me for 2 of the Fierce tires (with uncertain availability and no road hazard coverage) was only $200 less than 4 of the Bridgestone Potenzas from Costco (with road hazard coverage) validates my decision. I'll let you know how the new tires work out. I probably won't get them installed until later next week.

 

[hagow_boy]

I've driven about 2000 Kms on my new Bridgestone G019's (215-50-17). Excellent handling, able to take turns fairly hard and fast, with great grip. Going over speed bumps and train tracks feel much softer than the Toyo's.