New tyres belong on the back. That surprises nearly everybody, particularly on a front wheel drive car where the front pair does the pulling, the steering and most of the braking and wears out roughly twice as fast. The instinct is to put fresh rubber where the work is. It is the wrong instinct, and every tyre manufacturer says so in print.
The reasoning is about which end of the car lets go first. Lose grip at the front on a wet road and the car understeers, which feels like the steering going light and the nose running wide, and easing off usually recovers it. Lose grip at the rear first and the car starts to come round instead, and by the time an ordinary driver has worked out what is happening, it has happened.
So the better tyres go on the axle you most want to keep gripping, which is the rear, and the part worn pair moves forward. That is why a two tyre purchase often involves four wheels coming off and going back on in different places.
Just bought the car? The tyres are the first thing worth checking and the last thing anybody looks at. We can come and look while it sits on the drive in Whitton, tell you what you actually have, and fit what it needs at a time you pick. Tight in Whitton, easy in Strawberry Hill: neither stops the job. Level in Strawberry Hill, sloping in St Margarets: we set the car straight first.
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Having four wheels swapped around at a fitting bay means leaving the car somewhere and finding your own way back, which on the wrong afternoon in Twickenham is a genuine undertaking. Done on a driveway in Strawberry Hill, or a workplace car park off Whitton Road, the extra quarter of an hour it takes to put the tyres on the correct axles is time you never notice.
A driver off London Road wanted the new pair on the front, where all the wear was. The swap was explained, they agreed to it, and the good tyres went to the rear with the half worn pair moved forward.
If the front pair is down at the legal limit and the rears are nearly new, the fronts get changed and everything stays exactly where it is. The rule is about where the best tyres end up, not about moving wheels for the sake of it.
Most cars need a pair and not a set, and saying so is the fastest way to lose half an order. A pair fitted correctly and positioned correctly does more for how a car behaves in the wet than four fitted without thought.
It is the standard guidance from the tyre makers, and it costs us labour rather than earning it. Moving two wheels across takes extra time and sells you nothing extra. You are free to decline it, and nobody will keep pressing.
Then matching matters more, not less, because a permanent four wheel drive system dislikes one axle turning at a slightly different rate to the other. On those cars the honest answer is sometimes that all four should go together.
Fitting winter tyres to one axle only is worse than not fitting them at all, because you build a deliberate grip imbalance into the car. If you go that way it is four or nothing. For most cars here a good all season tyre is the sensible choice.
Yes, and it is the straightforward version of the job. Four wheels come off in turn, the new pair goes on the rear, the part worn pair moves to the front, everything is balanced and torqued, and the pressures are set to the plate.
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