ok, up until my Z i've never driven a staggered setup vehicle. so since tire companies don't always make the sizes you're looking for, how common is it to be running two different branded tires on the front and rear?

 

Different front and rear tires are a possibility. There may be a problem. Tires are tested in groups of 4. If you mix tires the results are unknown.

 

Can you , YES.. safely, YES ... Is it just fine, not always. Hard to explain , but even staight driving on a couple of cars was weird/twitchy. Only do it if you really need to, i just dont recomend it.

 

I believe I can offer a good answer here since I’ve done this (mounting different brands of tires front to rear). My comments are specific to my experience, so I cannot say if there are other problems outside what I describe or suggest. My car is a 2003 Performance model that has an early VDC system (that is very “fussy” about tire sizes), so I think I am the “canary in the mine.”

Before saying anything else, I would point out that you should never mix differently rated tires or tire types front to rear. In other words (and for example), never do anything like mounting summer performance tires on the front and all season tires on the rear (or the reverse, or anything like this). Doing this on a high-performance rear wheel drive car is a “recipe for disaster.”

Here is what happened in my case and why I ended up with different brand tires front to rear. I experienced the “feathering problem” on the fronts, and Nissan kindly replaced my front OEM Bridgestones Potenza RE040 (225/45-18”) with the same tire. So my rears wore out long before the fronts. When my rears wore out (25K miles), I replaced these with Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (245/45-18").


Although both these tires are summer performance tires with nearly identical ratings, they have very different characteristics (tread design and stiffness). The Bridgestones have stiff sidewalls while the Eagles have very soft sidewalls. Surprisingly, this arrangement drove quite well; but that’s most likely because both tires are summer performance tires. I should point out that I did finally did install Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (245/40-18") on the front, and the handling noticeably improved. I suppose that is because I had the same sidewall flex front to rear. I did like the all-square widths since that provided more neutral steer as well.

In summary, you can mix different brands of tires front to rear as long as you respect these premises:

1) All four tires should be of the same type with the same rating.

2) The left to right tires should be identical; you only can have different tires front to rear.

3) New performance tires are covered in grease and are slippery during the break-in period. Don’t be fooled by this aberration since the tires will soon “wear-in” and perform as you expect. It’s only the first 50-100 miles where they feel awful. Of course you can accomplish the “wear-in” more quickly by driving and braking harder; just be careful if you do this.

Hope this is helpful,

--Spike

 

You'll be fine. I've done it several times with various combos.

 

You are welcome.

 

Ok… I must ask what it means when you post: “You are welcome.”

Not flaming or being critical, just wondering why you post this message and what it means. Sorry if I’m being dense.

--Spike

 

I was looking at a Z the other day at State Line Nissan here in KC, and it had 4 different brands of tires on her. I laughed a bit to myself seeing that.

 

25k miles on your rears? Dang, I'm destroying my 275/40/18 all season pirellis out back in short order (half gone after 6k miles).

 

Haha. I hear ya. I just had to buy a new set of Azenis RT-615s for my rear wheels. They only lasted 11 months (not sure how many miles, maybe 8k).

I decided to bump them up from 275/35/18 to 295/40/18.

 

“You are welcome” is my response to the OP. I take the time to reply, and the OP does not even have the courtesy to say “thanks.” The next time that the OP has a question, I will not waste my time. I added the OP to my “ignore” list.

 

^^ OK… got it.

Please do not add me to your “ignore list.” I read your responses and almost always follow your advice (but I don’t always acknowledge the fact).

--Spike