[warniegt]

I'm looking for tyres for my dads 159ti.

I know it's the wrong place but no one seems home in the 159 section!

My question is this, he has 235/40/19's on as standard but most 159 owners are fitting 245/40/19's with no problem as they are cheaper to buy.

He only needs the fronts so would it be ok to have the wider tyres on the front until the rears are due in about 5000 miles time?

 

[Giorget2]

It's not the fact that the tyres are wider that you have to worry about. It's the fact that the sidewalls of a 245/40R19 tyre are higher than those of a 235/40R19 tyre. Difference circumferences for the two tyres.

Not technically a good idea to have tyres of different circumferences on the same car, but in this case it would only be a 1,1% difference in circumference, which should be fine.

Also, if he fits only two new tyres at the same time, ALWAYS put the new tyres on the back. As in, take all four wheels off, put the rear wheels and their half-worn tyres on the front and put the former front wheels on the rear with the new tyres.

You ALWAYS want the tyres with the best grip on the rear axle, regardless of whether the car is RWD or FWD.
If the front wheels lose grip, what you get is understeer, which is easy to correct safely. If the rear wheels lose grip, you get oversteer, which is hard to correct safely and is particularly unexpected in a FWD car.

 

[David C]

He only needs the fronts so would it be ok to have the wider tyres on the front until the rears are due in about 5000 miles time?

Not really because as well as being wider, the diameter is also bigger.

That size is 8mm bigger in diameter than the OEM size, the difference in yours will be more due to wear. That can cause issues with the ABS thinking one end is close to locking due to the speed difference.

So ideally if you are changing size, change all four.

But this has been covered in the 159 section quite a lot!!

 

[warniegt]

Thanks guys.

He has now ordered 4 of the 245's and will hopefully get the alignment correct so they will last more than 5000 miles!