Differnent tires up front and in back

[Dre96Firebird]

Right now I have the Eagle GA's 215/60/16's on all at all 4 wheels. However the back 2 are worn out from track use and what not. I want to replace the back two but i want to go with the friestone firehawk 255/50/16's just in the back. How would the handling be with just these tires on the back and the GA's on the front?

[Redsix]

Much better. There will be more rubber on the pavement and you will relalize it quickly. When I upgraded to 245's it helped alot. Almost like a suspension upgrade. Then I got 17" wheels with 275 and I helped a little bit too.

[redbird00]

well... imo i wouldn't like the fact that the front tires are going to be taller than the back ones... but wider is better, but its up to you... having them only 2 sizes different shouldn't affect much... but i dont know never done it...

merlin

[Dominic]

It won't harm anything - its perfectly fine to do that. However it is not recommended to run a worn set on the front and a good set on the rear - I personally would replace all 4 if possible.

Consider rotating the rears to the front too - you should do that about every 6,000 miles to get even wear.

[ August 06, 2002: Message edited by: Dominic ]</p>

[South Tampa V6]

Posting for future searches on the topic...

If you have two different circumferences (front and rear) it will affect your ABS (in moderate to heavy braking) since the wheels are spinning at different speeds, it activates ABS. It may or may not be harmful but it sure is annoying.

[Antman]

I ran with 215/60's up front and 255/50's on the back for a while.
Was planning on getting matching tyres for the front, but I've ended up with 225/50's on the fronts now.

Car handles better than when I had 215's all round

[12secondv6]

255 50 16 tire height - 127.5 mm
215 60 16 tire height - 129.0 mm

ABS can compensate for 3-4 mm difference.

The 255 50 16 tires are a great all around traction/ handling tire.

If you can only get 2 tires now... get the 255 50 16's.

Keep in mind... the rear end of the car will have a better tire and the front end may seem kinda loose

[AZ3.8Camaro]

It is better to keep newer tires on the rear.
It used to be convention to put new ones on the front, but that has been found to be false.

With good tires on the front, and bald on the back, the car will oversteer badly. On the freeway, this could be VERY bad, so it is recommended that new tires go on the rear.

This coming from Michelin themselves, with a video of two cars going around a wet curve at the same speed, the car with new tires on the rear had no problems, whereas the car with old tires on the rear was sliding severly.

So I say, go for it.