I've recently been having similar tyre size problems on my other (non LR) car which came fitted with 4 different makes of (cheap) tyre.

The main dealer marked all the tyres with a chalk line on the tyre facing the ground and pushed the car forwards 1 revolution of one of the wheels and compared where the chalk marks lined up on the other tyres.

One of the tyres had gone about 2 inches less than a complete revolution where the others were all pretty close to a complete revolution. All of them claim to be the same size/rating... No wonder the ABS and tyre pressure sensors kept throwing hissy fits!

Just goes to show quite how much variation there is in the size of tyres which are all of the same nominal size.

Alan,

You ask an important question.

The FL2 is principally a front wheel drive vehicle with around 5% drive to the rear wheels under its normal default setting. It has a differential on both front and rear axles.

Other LandRover products such as the RangeRover have a central differential and permanent 4 wheel drive. If an axle has tyres with significant differences in wear to the other, transmission wind up (loading) will occur because of the competing requirements of rotation between the two axles. The tyres are different circumferences

The Freelander 2 does not have this problem, and I personally would always fit new tyres onto the rear of the vehicle and transfer the older tyres to the front. My reasoning is that the greatest wear occurs to the front tyres, it being principally front wheel drive, and tyres degrade internally after 3 years. The rear tyres could achieve a significant age if permanently left on this axle.

In the 1980's I began to experience a roaring noise at the rear of my V Cavalier at around 70 mph. The tyres were quite old as an elderly pensioner had owned the car and the mileage low. The tyres therefore looked in superficially excellent condition. When I inspected the tyres in detail I found a bulge on one of the rear tyres inside shoulder, and this was caused by the corrosion of the tyres internal steel reinforcing matrix

Regards Toadshall