There is a route that I take regularly on a Sunday morning for a short blast (from Bathgate to Linlithgow). There is a large wide roundabout that I regularly boot it round to get the tail out. About a month ago, I did my usual and instead of a nice tailslide I got loads of understeer and nearly rapped the curb. When I got home I checked my front tyres and they were almost bald on the inside(14500 miles). I had a full alignment check 2 months ago, and this was never mentioned - so I'm a bit concerned.
Anyway, I had two new front tyres fited today and I cant believe the difference - no understeer, no tramlining, no fidgeting under heavy braking. The only downside in the vagueness at the straight ahead has returned. I'll be keeping a close eye on the inside of the front tyres, just in case the settings have been bodged or need redone.

 

I left it too late to swap my front SO2s side to side last year, and the handling was "interesting" at the front on anything but the smoothest roads - never remebered understeer particularly though.

Did notice my car understeering last weekend up in the Grampians - thought it might be the tyre pressures, and today found the passenger side front down at about 30, while the driver's side was OK - might have had something to do with it ?

 

When I had my first ever rears changed the car behaved very badly. I suspected that the wheel nuts had not been done up so had them checked out twice. The car still felt crap and then I checked my fronts and the inside were very worn down. Stopped in a garage by the side of my fun route and had them swapped around. As soon as this was done the car felt like new again. Strange thing is that before the rears were changed I was not getting any understeer at all. However having new rears put on and having now more grip on the rear sure made a big difference and gave me way too much understeer.

 

It's probably to do with the sticky top layer of tread being worn off older tyres, hence less grip.

Ideally, one should repalce all for tyres together, as the handbook recommends.

 

There is a lot to be said for changing all 4 tyres at the same time.
14500 miles and only just worn out, you need to drive a little harder on this set!!!
I've not experienced excessive inside wear because track days tend to kill the outside edge and take 000s of miles off the life.
My fronts were worn on the outside due to real understeer moments on the track (doing 80+mph sideways with hot tyres tends to induce a lot of understeer and tyre wear).
The car drove a bit better with the outside edges of the fronts worn down. It was easier to catch those snap back oversteer moments due to less front grip with the suspension loaded up. Overall the car had a better oversteer/understeer balance than with fresh rubber all around. However, it is much more comfortable to drive with new rubber.
Enjoy those new tyres!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Paul(UK)
There is a lot to be said for changing all 4 tyres at the same time.
14500 miles and only just worn out, you need to drive a little harder on this set!!!