The short answer: tyres on the same axle must always be identical. Different tyres front and rear are acceptable only in narrow cases, and almost never a good idea. Here is why.<\/p>\n
One axle \u2014 identical tyres only<\/strong><\/p>\n A tyre holds the car through its contact patch. Tread pattern, rubber compound, wear and age all determine how much grip that patch delivers on a wet road, in snow and under braking.<\/p>\n If the left and right tyres on one axle are different, the two wheels grip differently. Under braking one wheel bites harder than the other and the car is pulled around its vertical axis \u2014 on dry tarmac you feel it as a tug at the wheel, on a wet road it turns into a slide. ABS and ESP damp some of that difference, but they only intervene once grip has already been lost.<\/p>\n The same applies to uneven wear: a tyre worn down to 2 mm next to a new one is still a different tyre, even if the model is the same.<\/p>\n Different tyres front and rear<\/strong><\/p>\n Here the answer is softer, but the conclusion is the same.<\/p>\n It is acceptable when the manufacturer specifies different sizes front and rear \u2014 many rear-wheel-drive and sports models are built that way. That is designed in, and you cannot deviate from it in the other direction.<\/p>\n It is not acceptable to mix seasons: winter tyres on one axle and summer tyres on the other. Winter rubber is softer and holds a cold road; summer rubber hardens in the frost. The difference in grip between the axles becomes large enough to change how the car behaves in a corner completely \u2014 and by the time you find that out, it is too late to correct. Front-wheel drive behaves differently from rear-wheel drive here, but both are dangerous.<\/p>\n A separate mistake is fitting new tyres to the front axle and worn ones to the rear. It sounds logical: the front has the drive, the steering and most of the weight. In practice the rear axle loses grip first, and a rear-end slide is harder to catch than front-end understeer. New tyres go on the back.<\/p>\n What the law says in Moldova<\/strong><\/p>\n The road traffic regulations of the Republic of Moldova require tyres on the same axle to be of the same type and size, and the remaining tread depth not to fall below the set minimum. The exact figures and penalties change, so check the regulations currently in force rather than articles on the internet.<\/p>\n What any of this has to do with us<\/strong><\/p>\n We do not work on tyres \u2014 that is a tyre shop’s job. But a winter road hits a car in more ways than grip:<\/p>\n ✔ road salt and de-icing chemicals attack the clear coat and any unprotected metal. A ceramic coating<\/a> helps here, and on the exposed areas \u2014 paint protection film<\/a> Good tyres are responsible for the car going. Everything else is responsible for the state it reaches spring in.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The short answer: tyres on the same axle must always be identical. Different tyres front and rear are acceptable only in narrow cases, and almost never a good idea. Here is why. One axle \u2014 identical tyres only A tyre holds the car through its contact patch. Tread pattern, rubber compound, wear and age all …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g-style.md\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n✔ rain and slush cut visibility. A hydrophobic glass treatment<\/a> makes water roll off in beads and the wipers work less
\n✔ salt and grit off your shoes work into the upholstery over a single winter \u2014 in spring that means interior deep cleaning<\/a><\/p>\n