Tyre sizes?

[psychosis]

Just cleaning my car (as I have every weekend since I bought it) and noticed my tyre sizes do not match on the front. I have staggered 19's and the back are 285/45 r19 while on the front near side I have 255/50 r19 and on front offside 285/45 r19. Am I correct that the front should both be the 255/50 r19? All tyres are Michelin diamaris and my spare is a space saver so different type altogether. Picture of alloys below - assume they are the standard bmw alloys on an 04 4.4i sport.

Front


Rear

[Horizon]

You are correct, rears should be 285-45-19's and front should be 255-50-19's . Technically you should have the same size tyres on the same axle, or be limited to 90 Kph, as if you had your spare space saver on.has it been Mot,d since you have had the car, I'm sure it should have failed if they noticed them.

[Don Coffey]

Defo something wrong there.  The rears have a wider wheel to accommodate the wider tyre.  So either you have a wider wheel on the front or the wider tyre squeezed into the narrower wheel.  Ether way, not right and you should consider correcting as a matter of course.

Don

[psychosis]

It passed its MOT 2 weeks ago with no issues reported. Had the full AA inspection carried out when I bought it as well so going to dig that out later. The only issue that raised was a broken piece of trim on the rear drivers side door tread area and I don't recall any tyre issues being raised.

[Don Coffey]

[quote="psychosis"]
It passed its MOT 2 weeks ago with no issues reported. Had the full AA inspection carried out when I bought it as well so going to dig that out later. The only issue that raised was a broken piece of trim on the rear drivers side door tread area and I don't recall any tyre issues being raised.
[/quote]

I would be asking questions of the AA inspection, to see if this is something they should have picked up on.  Not sure whether or not an MOT would be looking at tyre sizes, they seem to be looking at condition and tread.

Don

[psychosis]

Well near side front is fairly worn so going to replace them both.

£476 for both from national tyres

£406 from event tyres but mixed reviews of their service.

[X5Sport]

It's an automatic MOT fail too.  Section 4.1.1 & 4.1.2.

"One tyre is of a different nominal size or aspect ratio to any other on the same axle"

No way that should have got through either MOT or AA checks (unless the wheel was changed afterwards perhaps), or the MOT tester wasn't paying attention... .

Twin wheel axles can mix as long as the contact area is less than 300mm.

Richard

[psychosis]

Just dug out the AA report and while it shows that right size is fitted it also indicates a much better tread depth on the drivers front. This ties in with the condition/wear of the current tyres and I suspect none of us have been paying much attention and it has been wrong for a while. Will get both replaced anyway on Monday.

[X5LeMans]

Is it just the picture.. But the wheel with the 285 tyre appears to have a much more "inset" shape to the 5 spokes.. Which says to me that's one of the wider back wheels.

Is it possible someone messed up a tyre change and you've got a narrower rim with a wide tyre on the back!?

Only way to know for sure is pull off the wheels and read the "J" size from the stamps on the back of the wheel.

Could just be an illusion, but the first picture looks much "flatter" to me.

My mistake. I thought you had taken pictures of the two mis-matched front tyres But its just a front rear picture   O:-)

I assume the previous owner didn't try rotating the tyres and leave you with a wider rim on the front, and then change a back tyre without thinking about it... Check that you have the wider rims at the back with the correct tyres, and then have your fronts sorted

[psychosis]

Sorry the pictures are a front and back to show they are staggered. Alloys are definitely correct just have 3 of the wider tyres. I assume by the fact there is less wear on this tyre at the front that at some point that it was replaced and either previous owner/unknowing garage read the size off the back not realising they were a staggered set.

I did have to check a few times as I couldn't believe it was wrong at first. Not had any wheel/tyre changes since I had it so must have been like it when I bought it.

Have found blackcircles use a local fitter so their fully fitted price is £389.30 for both fronts.

[graemeX5]

Good you spotted it, maybe you should be doing the Mot for them.

At least this way you will have a spare 285 for the back if needed