I'm going to the drag strip this weekend and the problem is I have 2 sets of wheels but each set has 2 bald tires at the moment. Would it hurt the car if I had 18's front and 17's rear on it at the track with different types of tires on them? I wasn't sure if that should be bad on an AWD car like this.
I'm afraid I will get there and they will say I don't have enough tread to run. Do you know if they check tread depth or just make sure the belts aren't showing?

-thanks

 

ususally they wont check tread depth, depends on the track tho. and its not the wheel size that matters....its the total diameter of the tire. so if they are the same, you will be ok, but chances are they are not identical

 

gateway international raceway didn't care that my rear tires on my s-10 were bald


and i think i would have the 17's up front and the 18's in the rear..... as the total diameter/mass of the 18 will be heavier on the front along with engine..... and if you do pull a little when taking off, you will have more clearance with the 17's up front

 

chances are they are different sizes (rotational diameter), I wouldn't chance it personally. When i got a flat and changed it with the spare.. even tho it was the same size.. the tread pattern was different so maybe the rotational diameter was different.. It felt bad to drive with it. better safe than sorry

 

i agree i would just run the 17's with the 2 bad ones in the rear, but i was saying if he wants to run both sets..... put the 18's in the back

 

Diameter of wheel and tires: 17" 634.23 mm vs 18" 637.03 mm

I'll have to call the track to see if they check tread depth. The 17's have belts showing. The rear 18's have pretty much no tread left but can't see the belts. I just put these on 2 weeks ago and still had a little tread on them. I swear the rear tires wear out really fast my car (z-rated doesn't help).

 

I would highly advise against running two different wheel sizes, that has the potential to severely damage the center diff. There is a reason you should change all 4 tires at the same time when getting new tires. Even the miniscule difference between tread depths on different sets of tires can damage the drive line.

In the end it's up to you, but my advice...you're playing with fire by running two different wheel sizes.

Also, you mentioned your tires wear quickly. Do you have aftermarket springs? Do the tires wear on the inside toe?

 

I do have the car lowered on H&R ultra coilovers but it isn't a camber issue... the tires wear evenly.

 

Running different diameter tires is a bad idea...........almost as bad as running tires with belts showing through. Not safe.

 

putting different sized tires on the car will mess withthe ABS.