205/45 Front, 195/50 Rear?

[PotatoChipAntelope]

Got a second flat, so going to replace two tires.

If I go with sticky wider tires on the front, will that have any adverse affects other than lowering the front height a little?

Would be nice to get some slightly better turn in responsiveness!

 

[scotman]

I have tried a 225/ 45 VR-15. I Can't really say that it was a good thing. In wet conditions it was very dicey. In dry conditions it made the Fiesta slower. I think that the stability controls sensed the difference between front and rear friction and determined that some braking intervention was needed.
I was careful with matching tire diameters too. The Fiesta absolutely will not tolerate big differences in overall diameters because the wheel speed sensors are always measuring and comparing wheel speed.
If you aren't cognizant of those things the Fiesta will react in unexpected ways. From traction control light flashing to abs acting in a cornering maneuver or possibly even having the car go into limp mode which is basically shutting down power and limiting you to around 15 mph speed. That usually happened to me when doing an autocross run. The lightly modified fiesta also has a tendency to lift its inside rear wheel when cornering very quickly. Which can trip the limp mode if you even just tickle the brake pedal. So, be aware of exactly what you are spending money on!

 

[PotatoChipAntelope]

I have tried a 225/ 45 VR-15

Interesting. What were the rear tire sizes?

 

[scotman]

205/50 R15 Dunlop Direzza star spec.
Then there was the 225/45 ZR15 Hankook Ventus RS3

 

[PotatoChipAntelope]

205/50 R15 and 225/45 ZR15 Hankook Ventus RS3

Dang. That is basically the same tire size. I'm honestly a bit shocked the stability control was intervening at such close margins. On your 2011?

That doesn't bode well for me. I guess at worse I can try the new two fronts, see if the '17M.Y. has different stability software, and then replace the rears if need be.

 

[scotman]

The 14 onward Fiesta has much better stability controls than the 11 to 13 Fiesta. You just need to go into the vehicle menu, with the car running, and deselect traction control to take out most of the sensitivity that i had to do workarounds on.
I genuinely tried to learn what was offered for traction controls and stability controls. I sat at the salesmans computer terminal just prior to placing the order in an effort to find out what the Fiesta had on it. But Ford was very VERY tight lipped regarding how the system worked.

 

[scotman]

The tires were very different in the way they were designed and constructed. The tread compounds were probably the closest to each other. The Z speed rating on the 225 45 gets you VERY stiff sidewalls. Steering response is razor sharp. My main goal was to get less tread slippage. It didn't slip. But that razor sharp steering made the Fiesta do that "dog pissing on a fire hydrant" trick in slaloms. I was doing a lot of moving weight or removing fluids to get a more favorable weight distribution. I just wanted to explain my thinking on that setup.