9 months ago I got four new tires on my car. Since then I have driven more than 10 000 miles. My car was recently serviced and they discovered that the right-hand tires are a slightly different size to the left-hand tires. This was an error made by the garage that fitted them and means that the car has not been legal for the last nine months.
The garage have offered new tires for free. I wonder however whether this could have caused any other problems to my car since I have driven so much on these tires. Could it have affected the wear on the shock absorbers, brakes etc? Should I be asking them to check or change anything else?
Any advice appreciated, thanks
Will different size tires on the same axle harm my car?
Not knowing what size tires you have makes it pretty tough to say whether or not it was a large enough difference to cause any damage. After 10k if you haven't had any problems I suspect that the difference was minor. Have the shop replace the tires with the proper size for your vehicle. Your best option is to have the new tires paired up on the same axle. If you have a front wheel drive vehicle you should put them on the front. If your vehicle is rear wheel drive you should have the shop measure the tread depth and check for any irregular wear in the other tires and determine the best placement for the new tires base on that. There really shouldn't be any problems with the brakes or chassis components of the vehicle as a result. The major concern would be the drive axle or trans axle if the difference in overall diameter was greater than about 3 to 5 percent but you would have most likely already had an issue if this was the case.
Will different size tires on the same axle harm my car?
I think its a little unsafe, but it shouldn't have caused any damage
HI
depending on how much of a difference there was it could cause damage to the rear end as well as front end parts. At 10,000 miles had you ever had them rotated? Maybe you back tires call for a bigger tire than the front. If so maybe the people that rotated them X'ed them instead of just going front to back.
I'd take them up on the new tires and this time look at them and see that they are marked the same size..
Good luck
tim
The different sized tires shouldn'tt of harmed anything on your vehicle, the shocks would of been compressed to a different %26quot;size%26quot; but it wouldnt hurt anything, if it is a small different in size, the only thing it might cause is rubbing in your wheel wells but6 you would of heard that along time ago
Other than causing the car to lean to one side (apparently it wasn't that bad or you would have noticed it), it hasn't really hurt anything. Technically, it would have caused slightly more wear on the differential gears since they would have been differentiating slightly on straight roads, but the actual effect is similar to driving a very slightly curved road for a long time instead of a straight one.
No worries.
Hello
No it wouldn't You do not say how they are different?
If you look at a motor cycle you will see that the back one is always wider than the front and sometime bigger in diameter as well
Car tyres are listed as 175/60/16
175 Width of tyre mm / 60 Depth of tyre 60 % of Width mm / 16 Diameter of Wheel Rim Inches.
If you have 2 bigger tyres fit to rear as these wheel do not turn the car
Tyres best if all Radial or Cross-ply, If 2 and 2 have both Radial fitted to front or rear axles. Dangerous if 1 of each fitted to same axle.
Andy C
If no one had noticed this before, the difference must have very small. No harm would have been done to your car.
for one, the differential has been working over time. it is not a good idea.
if you havent seen the size difference and you havent noticed it drive any different in 10000 miles it wont have done any harm.
take the garage up on their offer for new tyres and go on your way having had free tyres for 10000 miles!
