So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

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So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by ClutchFork »

The 2008 Mazda 5 (wife's car) had worn out tires on the front and half worn out tires on the rear (typical of front drive if not regularly rotated). So I went to my local tire shop and got two new tires. They were adamant that the new tires should go on the front. One guy said, if you are going to have a blowout, it is better to have it on the rear. I asked if they had heard of the problem of hydroplaning and if the worn tires are on the rear, the car can spin out. They had not. I had the new tires put on the rear anyway. But I am amazed they did not know this.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by tankinbeans »

Whenever I've gone for tires, the pamphlet always says that when replacing only two tires they should be shoved up the rear.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by Rope-Pusher »

tankinbeans wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 9:03 am Whenever I've gone for tires, the pamphlet always says that when replacing only two tires they should be shoved up the rear.
In my Humbolt Opium, the decision on which end of the vehicle to install those two new tyres is not black and white, right and wrong. There is whole lot of gray, because there are advantages and disadvantages for installing them up front or out back.

When FWD got to be common, most folks didn't rotate tires...they just replaced front tires when worn and kept the rears around until they were worn...might have been about the 2nd or 3rd time they were replacing the fronts.....the rear tires might be dry-rotting by then. This was before most of you were even born, but hear me now and believe me later that we all went on to live long and prosperous lives even if today's common policy is to put new tires in the rear.

Myself, on a FWD, I'd rather have the newer tires up front, where most of the grip is (by virtue of most of the vehicle mass being located toward the front) and where the majority of the braking and most of the steering is done.....Most?...Not ALL of the steering? Well, when something goes wrong in the back, like "Over-Steering", you typically can't correct the steering angle of the rear wheels to mitigate the condition. If it happens at the front, you can play with the steering wheel or the throttle to get it to steer where you need it to steer. In the back, all you have is the throttle to play with.

That being said, I don't let the rear tires wear to the point that they hydroplane easily, so I don't get into situations where they are likely to slide around. I also take note of conditions and exercise some caution when the road is wet, snowy, icy, gravelly, sandy, wash-boardy, or bumpy (the 7 dwarfs of "You Otter Slow Down!").
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by ClutchFork »

The fronts (formerly rears) on this Mazda 5 are perhaps half worn, but I was getting a lot of tire spin on take off before and now am not. The fronts were pretty bad, close to wear bars. Also the steering wheel was having the hebe jebe wiggly jiggly vibrations that got worse with more speed Tossing the worn out tires cured that.

Well anyway, unless all drivers are as astute as Rope Pusher and as cautious in driving, it be best to keep the bigger tread out back, me thinks.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by Rope-Pusher »

ClutchFork wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 4:51 pm The fronts (formerly rears) on this Mazda 5 are perhaps half worn, but I was getting a lot of tire spin on take off before and now am not. The fronts were pretty bad, close to wear bars. Also the steering wheel was having the hebe jebe wiggly jiggly vibrations that got worse with more speed Tossing the worn out tires cured that.

Well anyway, unless all drivers are a stute, like Rope Pusher, and as cautious in driving, it be best to keep the bigger tread out back, me thinks.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by ClutchFork »

Rope-Pusher wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 5:19 pm
ClutchFork wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 4:51 pm The fronts (formerly rears) on this Mazda 5 are perhaps half worn, but I was getting a lot of tire spin on take off before and now am not. The fronts were pretty bad, close to wear bars. Also the steering wheel was having the hebe jebe wiggly jiggly vibrations that got worse with more speed Tossing the worn out tires cured that.

Well anyway, unless all drivers are a stute, like Rope Pusher, and as cautious in driving, it be best to keep the bigger tread out back, me thinks.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by Rope-Pusher »

ClutchFork wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 9:46 pm
Rope-Pusher wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 5:19 pm
ClutchFork wrote: Sun May 19, 2019 4:51 pm The fronts (formerly rears) on this Mazda 5 are perhaps half worn, but I was getting a lot of tire spin on take off before and now am not. The fronts were pretty bad, close to wear bars. Also the steering wheel was having the hebe jebe wiggly jiggly vibrations that got worse with more speed Tossing the worn out tires cured that.

Well anyway, unless all drivers are a stute, like Rope Pusher, and as cautious in driving, it be best to keep the bigger tread out back, me thinks.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by potownrob »

similar happened to me friday at our friendly local monro shop. two tires were ok and two were very worn, and unevenly so (probably mixed up tires after running winters one season). right front and left back were bad. left front is the one i had replaced at a tire recycler shop in PA a couple of months back. meant to rotate that back but never did on my own. also never changed air filter, and cabin air filter also overdue. asked them to change air filter (original at 50k miles), they checked it but said it's still in good shape (huh??). also had tranny fluid changed out, as it had been shifting a little rougher lately. jetta called for 50k tranny fluid flush, but schedule for the golf says something like 80k. wanted it changed now either way. they proposed 2 nicer tires initially, but i let them know i wasn't planning to keep the golf forever and had them price out cheaper tires. owner told me they were going to put the new tires up front, which i agreed to (even if it were the wrong thing to do, i didn't want mismatched tires up front). they wanted to do alignment, which i probably should've turned down, but in case i keep the car longer or the alignment was very bad, probably better to just do it. they added some discounts on top to keep me from whining and i signed on the line. may have been better off going cheap, even knot changing the tires, but if i keep the car more than a couple more months or otherwise it's a potential safety issue, i'd rather play it safe with the tires. tranny shifts smoother now too. now to figure out what's wrong with the big beast... :shock: :o :? :evil: :oops: :cry: :arrow: :mrgreen:
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by IMBoring25 »

The optimum strategy depends somewhat on who will be driving the vehicle. You're less likely to get stuck and will tend to even out the tire wear over time if you put the good tires on the front, but there are a lot of people who drive FWD vehicles for their presumably more benign handling characteristics. They believe FWD vehicles don't oversteer and have no interest in learning when to watch for it or how to handle it. Putting the bad tires on the back is essentially tuning the car to oversteer in low-traction situations and should probably be avoided unless the primary driver understands that FWD cars can and do oversteer.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by watkins »

Didn't bother to read comments. Being lazy. As a technician who deals with this stuff all day and also understands the physics involved and the driving habits of most morons on the road:

Good tires go on the front more often than not. They have far more important work to do than the rears. Steering = safety. Good braking = safety. They also wear far faster.

The exception: Snow tires.
Put the better ones (or two if poor) on the back because people are stupid. Aside from a small minority, drivers don't at all understand the limits of their vehicles or how the behave under certain circumstances. That is to say that most people will be able to realize when the front tires lose grip and *may* be able to correct for it. Damn near every driver I've encountered does not know how to compensate for loss of rear end traction resulting in an oversteer situation. Better traction in the rear means that a loss of front traction is going to happen first, giving the operator a chance to correct. This is undeniably safer for the driver and everyone else around. The reason this really only matters for winter tires is that most people will never experience a loss of traction in non-winter storm conditions.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

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watkins wrote: Mon May 20, 2019 2:34 pm The reason this really only matters for winter tires is that most people will never experience a loss of traction in non-winter storm conditions.
Good point. I watched the video linked off of AllState's article on this and the car with the new tires on front spun out on wet track but they were pushing them pretty hard. However, I once experienced hydroplaning in the 1992 Aerostar. Was cruising the freeway and a heavy rain hit. Next thing I know the road is curving and I am steering for it but the van is going into the next lane, not turning. I immediately let off the accelerator and it caught traction. Now that was the only time I ever had that happen (best I can recall) in 42 years of driving.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

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Back about a month ago I went out on a rainy day in wifes van and as I went down the freeway ramp the car was veering to the side but that is not where I steered. Pulled off only to find the front tires were bald. I got all new tires, Coopers. So a couple weeks ago in the rain it felt like I hydroplaned a little, then the other day my daughter had the car out and said it hydroplaned on her. I do have a broken coil spring in the rear for about a year now, but the ride is just fine. The break is near the bottom and it is not going anywhere, but was rubbing a bit and making an annoying noise so I put a hose clamp where the two parts overlapped and that quieted it down. Well now I am going to spring for new springs since these two incidents. Tires shop said it would take a whole lot of water to hydroplane new tires so i thin the suspension must be goofy. So I will also have the whole suspension checked out. I don't trust these new cars. They just don't build them like they used to. Case in point:

My 1977 F100 could curb hop all day with no harm, but when I got an 84 F150 the first curb hop bent the I-beam. I thought what is that all about. Well come to find out, the 77 had forged I beams where the 84 had stamped I beams with weight-saving holes in them. Junk! What is the world coming to when you can't curb hop without screwing up the alignment!

Yup, they just don't make them like they used to.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by Rope-Pusher »

ClutchFork wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 12:35 am Back about a month ago I went out on a rainy day in wifes van and as I went down the freeway ramp the car was veering to the side but that is not where I steered. Pulled off only to find the front tires were bald. I got all new tires, Coopers. So a couple weeks ago in the rain it felt like I hydroplaned a little, then the other day my daughter had the car out and said it hydroplaned on her. I do have a broken coil spring in the rear for about a year now, but the ride is just fine. The break is near the bottom and it is not going anywhere, but was rubbing a bit and making an annoying noise so I put a hose clamp where the two parts overlapped and that quieted it down. Well now I am going to spring for new springs since these two incidents. Tires shop said it would take a whole lot of water to hydroplane new tires so i thin the suspension must be goofy. So I will also have the whole suspension checked out. I don't trust these new cars. They just don't build them like they used to. Case in point:

My 1977 F100 could curb hop all day with no harm, but when I got an 84 F150 the first curb hop bent the I-beam. I thought what is that all about. Well come to find out, the 77 had forged I beams where the 84 had stamped I beams with weight-saving holes in them. Junk! What is the world coming to when you can't curb hop without screwing up the alignment!

Yup, they just don't make them like they used to.
A broken coil could affect the roll stiffness, which can change your steering. If the front-to-rear roll stiffness gets out of whack, you can change the handling from oversteer to understeer, or vice-versa. Probably best that you spring for replacing the broken part. The cost of a spring shouldn't be shocking.
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by watkins »

So you're saying that a broken and undermaintained car doesn't operate at peak performance? What a surprise!
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Re: So I got two new tires for the Mazda 5 today

Post by ClutchFork »

But even with the broken spring, it performs way better than a Model T Ford! :lol:
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