Tyres of different brands on the same axle. Is it legal in Ireland?

girodav

Hi all, I recently brought my car (Seat Alhambra) to a SEAT dealership for a full-service, and I agreed to replace one tyre on the front axle, as it had a non-negligible sidewall damage. The other tyre had 5+ mms of tread depth, so I decided to keep it (the car is almost new).

I genuinely assumed that the dealership would have replaced the tyre putting the same model and brand of the other one. However, I noticed that they put a tyre of same specs (size, load, speed rating) but different brand.

Is this normal in Ireland? Is it even legal?

teediddlyeye

Different brand is fine, once its the same type, spec, size.

route66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058248203/tyres-of-different-brands-on-the-same-axle-is-it-legal-in-ireland

Regardless of legality, its bad practice.

Different tyres - even those with the same rating - may have different characteristics and any differences will create an asymmetrical load when being driven, and the more extreme the driving or stiuation, the more the differences come into play. E.G. If one tyre has a wet weather grip rating of A and the other a B, then under heavy braking in the wet, the A tyre will stop in a shorter distance then the B. Different tyres will also react differently to lateral (i.e. cornering) and vertical (e.g. from the road surface, bumps, etc) loads.

None of this may make a difference if you don't drive quickly or if you don't get in to an emergency situation or if you have a car that has modern antilock braking, traction control and dynamic suspension (air or electromagnetic), but that doesn't make it right.

I recently had a unrepairable puncture on a 1/3 worn Dunlop tyre on the back of my car and purchased 2 new ones as they didn't have a new one to match what was there. The additional tyre cost me €120 that I really didn't want to spend but I felt it was the correct thing to do.

Have a look at the 2 different tyres on either side of the axle, take a photo of the numbers on each of them and then have a look at a tyre site (like www.eiretyres.com) to see what the specs are.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058248203/tyres-of-different-brands-on-the-same-axle-is-it-legal-in-ireland

Its not good practice but its perfectly legal.

If you have a winter tyre on one axel and a summer tyre on the other that will fail an NCT, but I don’t think its illegal.

You can also have two summers on the front and two winters on the back, again not best practice but not illegal.

mikeecho

I once went thru an NCT with four different tyres. All the same size etc, passed no problem.

Not best practice, but legal.