Hello friends,

MOT is soon due on my hippo (30th Sept). Had it since the start of feb and its faulless so far!

I need advice on tyres as this is my first ever 4x4 and ive seen different threads on here with all types of different advice.

My hippo came with 4 matching Nexen CP641 classe premiere 215/65/16 tyres on, and the original perelli scorpion is still on the boot as the spare.

I noticed today that theres still a good bit of tread on all of em, but the front passenger side is looking a bit shallow, and is def gonna be an advisory by the time the MOT is here..

I want to know if its ok to change a single tyre or not? Ive read on here some saying that you can, and others saying you cant and must either change both on that axle, or all 4 at the same time??

Advice please on

A) how many i should change at the same time?
B) a good replacement tyre if i change 2 or all 4 (especially with winter on the horizon...
C) is it true you cant mix tyre brands on the same axle on a 4x4?


I presume the tyres i have now are like a budget set, but i tell you what, theres no road noise with them, and theyve been marvelous when i have ventured off road through muddy rutted fields, towing my daughters horse in the trailer..

For info, theres a guy down the road from me who runs a 4x4 servicing business from the garage of his house (very knowledgeble and got all the gear) He ownes a pajero, and when i asked him if i could only change 1 tyre at a time, he said he didnt see why not???

Come on LR boffins.. hit me with some good advice

Forget the goofball with the Pajero, he doesn't have a clue that the Freelander has a totally different 4 wheel drive system which is where the trouble is. You must always fit new tyres on to the back wheels & move the part worn over to the front.
The Freelander works by driving the rear wheels at a slightly slower speed than the front (thanks to the ird gearing) The viscous coupling unit (vcu) slips slightly to allow this to happen during normal driving. It's supposed to allow most of the drive to go to the front wheels for most of the time & be more economical. When the front wheels lose traction they start to spin & the fluid in the vcu heats up & allows it to partially lock up & transmit more drive to the rear wheels.
The problem is that if you fit new tyres to the front only then the diameter of the front wheels become slightly larger than the half worn rears which gears up the front wheels even more than they're designed to be ( remember they're already running overgeared thanks to the ird). This will then overstress the vcu which can fail earlier by seizing which also causes failure of the ird.
You can easily check the diameter with a tape-rule & make sure that the "tallest" wheel/tyre combo goes to the back (this helps to equalise the gearing a little & landrover themselves say fit new tyres on the rear first). Another trick is to run the rears at about 32psi & the fronts at about 28psi, very small difference but it all helps.

its not for economy but for the fact they belived freelander drivers would be used to front wheel drive cars so gave freelander the same feel ,it has a negative effect towards economy

jamesmartin said:

its not for economy but for the fact they belived freelander drivers would be used to front wheel drive cars so gave freelander the same feel ,it has a negative effect towards economy

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks - I stand corrected. I'd read somewhere once that it supposedly was to give it mostly 2wd with only about 7% of drive going to the rear under normal circumstances & made it a little more economical. Thinking about it though, what you say about making it feel like front wheel drive makes more sense.
I hate front wheel drive cars, trying to pull out fast from a junction & having the inside wheel scrabbling not to mention the tugging away on the steering wheel. Why would anyone like that. I suppose an auto would be better but I don't know as my only autos to date have been a BMW 525ix 4 wheel drive & my Freelander. Don't mind my current old rear wheel drive BMW stepping out gently at the back if I overdo it at the junction though it needs respect in the wet.

Hi, firstly I agree with what has been said up to now. My TD4 is the first 4x4 I'v owned, so I was ignorant to the fact of how important Tyre size and make are. The car franchise I purchased mine from had put two new Maxxis on the front, leaving the original Michelins on the rear. After running the car for a year with no problems, the rears needed replacing after seeking advice from landyzone. I put two new michelins on the rear axle then my problems started. Firstly I noticed a drone at between 60/70mph. so I kept my speed below that. Then after reading a thread on landyzone on the VCU, I checked it after a run and it was very very HOT cause of this was the miss matched front tyres, which after I measured them the fronts were 25mm shorter in height than the rears. To cure this I had to get another two new michelins which I placed on the rear axle.
The difference in height is now only 2mm between front and rear. My Advice to you is 4 new tyres the same make/size. And I am astonished that major car dealers including my local landrover dealer are totaly ignorant to this fact.