Need Help On Tires For Is250

[tingbling]

Hello I'm new to this forum and need some advice. I have a 2007 IS250 manual transmission RWD. I have 25,000 miles on my car and need new tires. The front tires are completely worn, but the back still have about 50% life left. I did some research on replacing only 2 tires and everyone says to always put new tires on the back but my front and back tire sizes are different. Do I need to replace all 4 tires for safety reasons, or can I put new tires on just the front?

[IS_Willie]

In my experience, the conventional wisdom has been to "always put the best tires on the front" when rotating or replacing tires, but since we have, as you noted, staggered tire sizes front to back, this is not relevant. I have never heard that you need to replace all four, if only two are in need. (Assuming that the two that need replacing are not one front and one rear). You should try to replace with the same brand, and size, and you should never replace only one tire in the front or back... (unless the tires are brand new).

That's just my .02

Others may have had dissimilar experiences. I hope that was of some help!

[ajis250]

Welcome, you came to the right place for advice. There's allways a bunch of Lexus "experts" here willing to help.

I'm not one of those experts but IMO don't think you need to worry much if for a while you replace only the fronts, you would not be any worse off by leaving them on waiting for the rear to wear. You may even benefit some by spreading the expense over some time too. Everyone telling you to put the better set in the back might be assuming that you will move the rears to the front and specially, the stor will strongly insist that you replace all four at once, I wonder why...

I would try to make sure that whatever you buy now , you can later find the matching brand and model for the rear.

I have bought from Tirerack.com in the past and was satisfied witht their price, selection and service

[ajis250]

http://www.tirerack.com/index.jsp?PID=3044...D=10399879&

[smooth1]

Hello I'm new to this forum and need some advice. I have a 2007 IS250 manual transmission RWD. I have 25,000 miles on my car and need new tires. The front tires are completely worn, but the back still have about 50% life left. I did some research on replacing only 2 tires and everyone says to always put new tires on the back but my front and back tire sizes are different. Do I need to replace all 4 tires for safety reasons, or can I put new tires on just the front?

I don't know who everyone is, but they are not correct. Even in a case where all four tires are the same size, you should allways put your best tires on the front, as they are responsible for 80% of your braking power, and also provide all the turning traction. Hydroplaning is allways the biggest issue in wet weather, and the front tires are allways the "plow" and remove alot of the water before the rear tires get there when traveling in a straight line.

In a staggered set up, I have pretty much allways gone to 2 front sets of tires for every 1 set in the rear. I have a Suzuki 1000 and on DOT tires, I usually go thru 2 back tires for every 1 front tire.

And you should use the same tire Mfgr and make until you do a all four tire replacement. So this time just replace the tires with the same ones, and next time, you'll have to replace all four, then you can switch to whatever tires it is you would like. If you do change to a different mfgr for the fronts, it won't be a big deal, so long as they are the same size and aspect ratio. But I wouldn't go with an all season if your running summer or performance tires on the back.

[tingbling]

Hello I'm new to this forum and need some advice. I have a 2007 IS250 manual transmission RWD. I have 25,000 miles on my car and need new tires. The front tires are completely worn, but the back still have about 50% life left. I did some research on replacing only 2 tires and everyone says to always put new tires on the back but my front and back tire sizes are different. Do I need to replace all 4 tires for safety reasons, or can I put new tires on just the front?

I don't know who everyone is, but they are not correct. Even in a case where all four tires are the same size, you should allways put your best tires on the front, as they are responsible for 80% of your braking power, and also provide all the turning traction. Hydroplaning is allways the biggest issue in wet weather, and the front tires are allways the "plow" and remove alot of the water before the rear tires get there when traveling in a straight line.

In a staggered set up, I have pretty much allways gone to 2 front sets of tires for every 1 set in the rear. I have a Suzuki 1000 and on DOT tires, I usually go thru 2 back tires for every 1 front tire.

And you should use the same tire Mfgr and make until you do a all four tire replacement. So this time just replace the tires with the same ones, and next time, you'll have to replace all four, then you can switch to whatever tires it is you would like. If you do change to a different mfgr for the fronts, it won't be a big deal, so long as they are the same size and aspect ratio. But I wouldn't go with an all season if your running summer or performance tires on the back.

Thanks so much for your advice. The "everyone" that I was referring to is tire websites such as tirerack.com. They say that when getting 2 new tires, the new ones should always be put on the back to avoid oversteering which can cause fishtailing and hydroplaning. My instinct would have been to put tires with the most treadwear on the front for the same reasons you suggested. But since my tires are staggered, I'm not sure if that applies to me...