pantyraider

OK, I bought my car used about a month ago. The car has totally worn out S02's on the front, and 225/.../16 S03's on the back. The S02's are worn very unevenly on the inside edges, but the car drives straight. I'm just curious how bad is this? How much "handling potential" am I missing with mismatched tires, and skinny rear ones? I don't drive my car too aggressively, but when I do I don't get the feeling that the car handles very well. The dilemma I have is whether to go get a set of 4 OEM S02's or just buy S03's for the front and accept that the rear tires are the wrong size. My only other experience with a "performace" car is an E36 M3, and that car just stuck to the ground amazingly well. I thought I would get that same sort of feeling from this car, if I get some S02's will I get that feeling? Thanks.

Sriram

pantyraider

Anyone have some input? I'm looking into buying tires soon, should I go all 4 S02 or just live with replacing the front tires with S03's?

GotRpm

The car was designed for a specific set of tires, both size and type. Missmatching tires can improve handling if the tires are chosen to optimize handling, but who among us has the experience to do that? It is a much smarter course to replace the tires with the correct size in the same type. Combining worn tires with tires of different performance characteristics is not a good idea. The handling of this car is on the edge as it is, and saving a few $$$ on tires could be fatal......

CyrusA

smaller rear tires will cause your backend to slide out more. I terms of how much a difference tread makes, im about to get a set of S03s to replace my worn stock S02s. Ill let you know the difference it makes.

pantyraider

Is the difference between 225 and 245 really cause the rear to come out that much? Maybe this is a silly question because I've already had the S sideways ...but I figured if I replaced my worn out fronts, it would settle down more. I'm just not so sure if its worth $600 plus to replace all the tires, when the rear S03's have 75% left.

Jim@tirerack

I hope you like the S03 on all four corners. I think it is best to match the tires at all four corners. After these wear out you can go to a different tire at that point.

Jim

pantyraider

Thanks for the help Jim! I hope this setup will make the S handle the way I've been reading about.

Jasonoff

I have new S-03's on the front and stock worn S-02 in the rear. I have too much oversteer. I think these S-02's have been heat/cold cycled too much.

My new S-03's (245/45-16) go on tomorrow thinks to Jim