Wheels, tyres and axles...

[user2094]

Hi guys,

Have had a bad back recently so couldn't work. Took the opportunity to ease the boredom by reading the owners manual on my recently acquired Evo.

The manual states, and I quote,

"Do not use tyres of a size other than the specified size and do not mix different tyre types, as this adversely affects safe driving", and

"With 4WD vehicles, drive force is applied to all four tyres, so be sure to use tyres of the same size, type, brand and without a difference in tread. If tyres of a different size, type, brand and degree of tread are used, an excessive burden is placed on the drive related parts, and oil leaks and over heating can lead to acute failure, which can cause an accident"

On looking at mine (bought from a Mitsubishi dealer) I notice that I have Yokohama AVS Sport (235/45/ZR17 97Y) on the front axle and Yokohama A046 (235/45/R17 93W) on the rear axle - which seems to be in conflict with the manuals recommendations.

Am I at risk here, should I return to the garage and ask for this to be addressed or am I worrying unnecessarily?

Advice and guidance requested.

Gazmomay

[lloyd@jrd]

If the car was recently bought,or has warranty,i would recomend going back to them and asking them to complete the set by replacing either the fronts or rears .Its not a major problem but i would NEVER recomend somebody to run two different tread patterns on a car,especially something like an evo.You are not at a risk but there are two things that you never skimp on,tyres and brakes.

This is not a statement,but just what I would personally do.Hope this is a bit of help to you.At the end of the day,you have bought a performance car from a car dealer and you deserve it to be ready to use in a safe and correct working order.Safety is a big thing with me,after being brought up around racing,you see and hear of a lot of nasty things that happen due to corners being cut.Didnt mean to go on but this is something that feel strongly about.

Happy driving

Lloyd

[user2094]

Hi and thanks for your reply/ies.

At risk of repeating myself, I understand I have the remainder of the MMC 3 year warranty.

The garage is - as we speak - contacting Ralliart for a definitive answer (though they seem reluctant to accept my position/statement) but my thought process says that surely if the manual is so clear in saying they should not be mixed, they should not be mixed (but then I have often been accused of taking some things TOO literally - hee!).

The exact tyre models are as at the beginning of this thread. I have the 2003 Evo VIII FQ300

Gazmomay

[dral]

The AVS sport is CCC reccomended tyre for the Evo given that you can't get AO-46s in the UK.

They are different tyres though, and i wouldn't like to run on them (neither are very good tyres in my opinion, although tyre choice is very personal).

Good luck getting what you want out of them.

[user2094]

Just had a response (via the garage) from the Ralliart division of Mitsubishi Motors UK which states,
__________________
Whilst it is preferable to run the same tyre on all four wheels, it is acceptable to have different tyres on front and rear as long as they are not mixed on the axle.

The AVS Sport does not have the side wall rigidity of the A046 and I would therefore recommend that the next change your customer switches to either the A048 or the Bridgestone Potenza.

It will, of course, be down to how the customer drives the car and what kind of mileage he conducts but if he believes that the tyres will be subject to heavy load (hard diving and heavy cornering loadings), I would suggest that the A046's be moved to the front axle and the AVS Sports used on the rear.

Your customer should make every effort, when changing tyres, to get the vehicle back onto a normal operating platform (i.e. the same tyre on all four wheels).
_____________

Now call me a cynic but I find this advice contradictory. On the one hand he is saying it is all ok, but on the other hand he is recommending I get it back to 4 tyres of the same type a.s.a.p.

Am I again reading too much into this? Other views/opinions??

[lloyd@jrd]

Im with you on this one.

Lloyd