Tyre wear

[simxs]

I have noticed that the wheel wear on the manual is even between the front and rear whilst on the auto the front tyres wear quicker.

I have been (pleasantly) surprised how even the tyre wear is front-to-rear on my manual Forester. It is interesting to hear that this is not the case on the autos with the MPT drive system. Even though this system is inherently front-biased since the front diff is positively engaged and the rear is via a variable coupling, I'd have thought the engagement to the rear was sufficient that there would not be much difference between manuals and autos in either handling characteristics or tyre wear. I wonder if driving environments (city, highway) and styles influence it much. I'll probably go auto next time so am quite interested.

 

[havachat]

We live in the bush so most of our driving is on unmade roads, country roads and hyway. The 2004 & 2011 Foresters are both autos and the front definitely wear faster. Before we got the 2011 Forester we had a 2003 Pajero. As they are rear wheel drive unless in 4wd. That wore the rears faster than the front. My 2002 is manual and I regularly measure the tyres and the wear is even. Although the tyres wear evenly on the 2002 and contrary to the owners manual I always diagonally rotate the tyres to reverse the direction of travel every 10k I reckon this prolongs tyre life.
Although both autos are nice to drive they are effectively a 3 speed box plus overdrive which can be frustrating when the cruise control is on and you hit a steep hill. The gear box drops to second and the engine screams!!

 

[thunder039]

thats the only thing i hate about the auto, is when it drops back and screams its head off, makes the car seem gutless.
i must agree also my manual wears tyres more evenly then our auto

 

[Tannin]

If your tyres are wearing evenly, you have more power going to the back end. On any car, of any make, the fronts may take more steering load and always take a lot more braking load.

By the way, on my manual MY05, the fronts wear more than the backs, though the difference isn't huge. If I remember correctly (been a long time since I drove anything other than the Foz) I used to get more front tyre wear on my rear-wheel-drive RX4 and various Holdens too. On the Golf (FWD) the fronts wore way, way, way faster than the rears, as you'd expect on a front wheel drive car where the fronts do most of the steering, most of the braking, all of the pushing, and the rears merely just the exhaust pipe getting mud on it.

Anyway, on the Foz, I swap the fronts and rears over from time to time to even out the wear.