My lease is due up in April and the front tyres are not far from the wear indicators.

Do you think it would be a problem to swap front and rear wheels to use the tread on the back tyres? I’ve no problem doing this myself, but wondered if it would invalidate any rental/lease agreement?

I wouldn’t want to use a car over the winter with no tread on the rear tyres. Or the summer for that matter

Theres about 2-3mm of tread left to the wear indicators so I’m comfortable with that on the rear.

Yes, done it before. Will be getting them swapped at the service next week, on this one as well. Nothing wrong with doing this.

Isn’t the current thinking to have the tyres with the most tread on the back?

Isn’t the current thinking to have the tyres with the most tread on the back?

For the winter months, definitely.

If it was my own car, I’d get some new tyres once they’re worn, but in this case I don’t have the money to fork out £400 for two new tyres. There’s plenty of tread for the winter imo, driven with much worse.

When I asked Kwikfit to swap wheels when I had a single punctured tyre replaced they said they couldn’t as the lease company keep track of the tread on each wheel. That was on a fully maintained company car though. If you buy your own then I guess that is irrelevant – although I agree with the safety comments above.

400 quid for two tyres? Wtf are you driving? There is a minimum amount of tread listed on most lease policies, and they will come out with a proper digital measure if it’s close.

Yeah, tbf I overestimated the price. I’ve just checked the sizes and it’s more like £140-150 per tyre which is still a lot at the moment. I might just have to bite the bullet and pay for some new ones come April as I don’t think they’ll last with front wheel drive and 300bhp for another 5-6 months.

I’d do it as that way you’ll at least have decent grip for the winter months. The excess on your insurance wont thank you.

If you can afford a 300bhp car, you should make sure you can afford look after its basic safety equipment while in your custody.

If you can afford a 300bhp car, you should make sure you can afford look after its basic safety equipment while in your custody.

Strangely, circumstances in life can change over time. Unless you’re perfect of course like a lot of people on here…

BTW at no point did I say the car was unsafe or unroadworthy, or that I’d drive it like that. The current tread levels are perfectly safe and legal. But don’t let that spoil your judgements…

OK, fair enough. They are the one thing that sticks your rocket ship to the road though, and you are proposing driving marginal tyres through the worst months of the year. Personally, I’d find a way to replace the front pair.

I agree, if they get to the wear indictators I’ll change them. More grip doesn’t seem to stop the bloody thing wheelspinning tho lol. Although I suppose that’s part of the fun.

You’re shopping in the wrong places if you are spending that much on tyres

Golf r?

If it is a Golf R it is 4×4, not permanently, but during bad weather it will feed power to the rear wheels.

If it has 18″ wheels Michelin pilots are £100 each from ATS

TBF OP. If it were me, I’d do the same (especially if you’re handing the car back in 6 months). I wouldn’t want to do it if they were anywhere near the tread marker, but if they had 4mm* left I’d swap them. I’m planning on doing the same with my van and then swapping all 4 at once with all season tyres.

*Apparently tyre performance drops off massively under 3mm Linky

*Apparently tyre performance drops off massively under 3mm Linky

Michelin seem to disagree, and this from a company with a vested interest in selling you more tyres.

You’re shopping in the wrong places if you are spending that much on tyres

Well that totally depends on the rim size, specification and brand doesn’t it? I recall about 20+ years ago my old boss had a Toyota MR2 and the rears on that were £200+ for the high performance ones he fitted.

mulv1976

Member
Theres about 2-3mm of tread left to the wear indicators so I’m comfortable with that on the rear.

Is it 2mm or 3mm? 2mm means you’re only 0.4mm away from the legal limit. Go and have a look at a ruler & see how much that is….it’s really not a lot.
3mm however, is almost twice the legal limit & probably more acceptable.

mulv1976

I might just have to bite the bullet and pay for some new ones come April as I don’t think they’ll last with front wheel drive and 300bhp for another 5-6 months.

I don’t understand this logic. Why not buy them now & get a decent amount of use from them. If you wait until you are about to hand the car back, then you are basically buying new tyres for someone else to use.

April is 6 months away. It’s not a trivial amount of time. If you were handing the car back in November, it would probably be sensible to leave them on. As it is, I’d be getting them changed.

Is this why I see so many powerful cars fitted with either almost bald or really cheap tyres? Always concerns me when I see something like an Audi Q7/530d/Range Rover etc. fitted with Landsail tyres…..

ou’re shopping in the wrong places if you are spending that much on tyres

What a load of twaddle without knowing what tyres the OP needs. I consider £140 to be cheap for my rears but please tell me where I can buy some 265/35/R18 from a decent brand (Pirelli, Michelin, Goodyear etc) for less? I could get some rubbish things for £80 a tyres but I will never put cheap tyres on a car.

Going back to Pirelli P-Zeros after my last set of Michelin PS4’s have lasted less than 15k miles and seem to have been worse on fuel. Grip has been amazing and I can vouch for michelins claims above but now the rain is coming they need to go, even though they are not quite down to the limit yet as the standing water on the M5 can be quite bad.

Leon Cupra?

Rotating tyres front to back when you’ve got a pretty powerful FWD car is pretty common, I certainly do it.

Anyway, 2-3mm tread to the wear indicators would mean about 4mm of tread. I’d stick them on the back no problem. 4mm shouldn’t be marginal if they are decent quality tyres.

richmtb has it. As above, the tread is fine at the moment but can’t see it lasting til April hence asking about swapping. They are 19″ wheels with Continentals on so around £150 each from the quotes I’ve seen. Even though that’s a lot less than I thought, it’s not money I can spend at the moment.

Theres about 2-3mm of tread left to the wear indicators so I’m comfortable with that on the rear.

Just realised I mis-read the OP’s above post. 2-3mm left to the wear indicators is actually 2.6-3.6mm of total tread.
Tricky one. If it’s at the lower end, I’d probably change. Upper end, probably keep but monitor regularly & change if wear gets too great.

I’ve just checked the wear with my device and there’s 3.5mm on the front and 6.5mm on the back. I might just run them for another month or two and try and save the money to buy new ones when the time comes.

Michelin seem to disagree, and this from a company with a vested interest in selling you more tyres.

I’ve heard that’s Michelin’s view and it’s a bit puzzling. AFAIK other manufacturers say different (I know, vested interests), and regardless of the quality of the tyre, depth of tread is important to its ability to shift standing water. A test (quite some time ago admittedly) in Autoexpress showed a huge fall off between 3 and 1.6mm. Anyway, I’d change at 3 coming into Autumn/Winter, I’d still look to change at 3 entering Spring/Summer but I’d feel a bit less urgency about it.

And I’d stop spinning my fronts if I was trying to get more wear out of a tyre with 3.5mm on it!