Geez, I was pissed when I saw the previous owner of my 01 had all the tires running backwards. The thing followed every crack in the road on the test drive. I feel much better now

 

This information is incorrect. The manual states that you should put one good front wheel in the rear and the spare on the front. The side of the car without a flat should not be touched.

The problem that the original poster had was CAUSED BY putting the rear wheel on the front of the car.

 

really?? its been a while since i read it... my bad. i know that putting 2 diffrent size tires in the rear is a bad idea so i wonder why the manual would ask you to do this? i guess since its for such a short period of time it doesnt matter too much..

 

I think you're right. If you have one rear and one front mounted on the rear side, you're gonna tear up your diff. It won't destroy anything significant if your front wheels are mismatched. You car isn't going to steer straight, but you're not gonna tear anything up.

 

You guys have the right idea, but are mislead by the word "size".

If the wheels had two different diameters, then we'd have a problem; however, the only difference is the width of the wheels. Maybe, for an extended period of time (the narrower wheel "slipping" more) there would be some undue wear.

I read from the manual, so that's why I think I'm right.

 

I just looked up the OEM tires diameters on tirerack for an AP2. The 215/45/17 are 24.8" overall diameter while the 245/40/17 are 24.6" overall diameter.

Although its a .2" difference, if I had a blowout in the rear, you can bet I'd take the time to put the front tires in back, and put the one good rear in the front along with the spare.

 

Right, the issue is that you don't want the donut spare on the rear because it is much smaller diameter. I guess you could carry two of them and put one on each side! Of course then you'd have to leave the full size wheels along with your luggage at the side of the road.

 

A .2" difference is nothing, it's less than 1% of the diameter, you would probably see that much fluctuation in the effective diameter of the tire with a difference in air pressure. The difference between the doughnut and the 17" oem is very significant, I would guess it is around 6"

 

This is why

 

[QUOTE=tabach0y273,Jul 15 2006, 10:40 PM]


I just looked up the OEM tires diameters on tirerack for an AP2.