Excellent tire rotation results

[Hermann]

Took the FWD Maverick in for a tire rotation at Discount Tire recently after getting a reminder from them. It was the first rotation on the Continental CrossContact LX-25's that were purchased last fall. Since new the Maverick has suffered a bit from a lack of on-center feel, on highways with a lot of traffic or with grooved pavement. Mostly I felt the 12/32" tread depth was somewhat the blame for squirmy feel at times.

After the rotation the first trip on the interstate, the improvement in tracking and on center feel was evident. Didn't think a whole lot about it, as the trip was only a couple miles. Wednesday, a month or so after the rotation it received its first extended Interstate trip. The improvement in tracking and on center feel continues to be evident. Wednesday on a long straight stretch of pavement in good condition, the truck tracked dead straight for 1.5 miles with my hands off the wheel, the nannies were off. Didn't have cruise or lane keeping turned on. In addition the rotation has overall made the steering less noticeable when just driving around, not as many little steering corrections.

Guess I am now firm believer in rotations.

 

[Kira]

Yeah, maybe.
How about all the other scenarios where a tire with bad belts (or some other manufacturing defect) was taken out of service or rotated to the rear?
You may have had a "bad tire" up front and now it's in the rear?

Regardless, I'm glad you now believe in tire rotations.
All the people who are religiously opposed to tire rotations puzzle me.

 

[Sayjac]

As a matter of practice regularly have my tires rotated and balanced at DT. Two main reasons, keep the treadwear warranty in force. and reduce any minor variation in wear. Honestly though, can't say I've ever noticed any difference in drivability afterwards. "Tracking" would seem to be more of an alignment function, imo. In any case, glad you've noticed improvement after the rotation.

 

[paulri]

I'm a believer. My first set of tires on my Sienna from AT were junked early, because they were not rotated and the front pair were worn down, while the rear pair still had some tread life remaining. Regular tire rotations have never put me in that position again. And the incredible prorate from AT is a nice incentive as well. I'm not convinced that all tires need rotating every 6-8K miles like the manufacturers want, but that's ok. If they want to pay me to do it, I'll do it.

Yeah, maybe.
How about all the other scenarios where a tire with bad belts (or some other manufacturing defect) was taken out of service or rotated to the rear?
You may have had a "bad tire" up front and now it's in the rear?

Regardless, I'm glad you now believe in tire rotations.
All the people who are religiously opposed to tire rotations puzzle me.

 

[Hermann]

As a matter of practice regularly have my tires rotated and balanced at DT. Two main reasons, keep the treadwear warranty in force. and reduce any minor variation in wear. Honestly though, can't say I've ever noticed any difference in drivability afterwards. "Tracking" would seem to be more of an alignment function, imo. In any case, glad you've noticed improvement after the rotation.

Right now I'm happy. It is not like it tracked badly. It is now much easier to keep in the center of the lane when on grooved roads, instead of riding the crown. This set of tires has balanced perfectly twice and smooth to 80mph. Like I said I'm happy. Discount Tire is 3 miles away if I need help.

It is not like I never rotate. And it is my first time a rotation has had noticeably better results than what I came in with. Ususally I notice a slight degrade for a few days after a rotation. It takes a result like this to make me a believer.

 

[Malo83]

Always do rotation and balance on all my vehicles.

 

[Sayjac]

....It takes a result like this to make me a believer.

'For me' made 'more' a believer, is besides any minor wear difference correction, is the aforementioned proration of tires from DT towards a new set for tires not reaching the treadwear warranty. Over 20 years of DT purchases, gotten some imo generous pro-rated pricing towards several new sets of tires. That and besides a little bit of time at the store, nothing to lose in my experience.

 

[HowAboutThis]

Yeah, maybe.
How about all the other scenarios where a tire with bad belts (or some other manufacturing defect) was taken out of service or rotated to the rear?
You may have had a "bad tire" up front and now it's in the rear?

Regardless, I'm glad you now believe in tire rotations.
All the people who are religiously opposed to tire rotations puzzle me.

You can tell the people opposed because one set is bald and the other set has tread left. Just look as you walk through parking lots. Easy to tell who rotates and who doesn't

 

[Allaneddie]

You can tell the people opposed because one set is bald and the other set has tread left. Just look as you walk through parking lots. Easy to tell who rotates and who doesn't

Call me guilty. My approach is this (one rear drive vehicle and one front drive). I don't rotate and either front or rear depending on vehicle will wear faster. So I replace tires in pairs: those that get to low treads get replaced. I'm not sure but maybe I would get more miles from the set of 4 if I rotated. Nothing get near to being called "bald".

 

[Kira]

If nothing else, I believe it to be this simple:
Front tires do the steering.
It's not hard to visualize the edges of the tire "scrubbing" as they become the leading edge the weight of the vehicle is pushing against.
It's even easier to see when the fronts exhibit said 'edge wear'.
The rears don't have that.

After you rotate, you can see that the former fronts become even while in service.
You save money...your family eats better...you can more easily afford cable TV...whatever

 

[Dave Hess]

Call me guilty. My approach is this (one rear drive vehicle and one front drive). I don't rotate and either front or rear depending on vehicle will wear faster. So I replace tires in pairs: those that get to low treads get replaced. I'm not sure but maybe I would get more miles from the set of 4 if I rotated. Nothing get near to being called "bald".

That’s what I did.

 

[Hermann]

Yeah, maybe.
How about all the other scenarios where a tire with bad belts (or some other manufacturing defect) was taken out of service or rotated to the rear?
You may have had a "bad tire" up front and now it's in the rear?

Regardless, I'm glad you now believe in tire rotations.
All the people who are religiously opposed to tire rotations puzzle me.

Right now I am going to go "glass half full" on this experience. It could be a half dozen things as well as they just like their current positions. About 4K from now, there will be more Data when they get swapped again.

 

[supton]

I'm in the rotation camp, however I know there are those who insist that they get good even wear on all corners. I can't inspect their claim, so I take them at their word--but I know that the more corners there are in a region, then that region will wear tires faster.

I did have a RWD pickup for a while and it seemed like 10k rotations were acceptable on that vehicle. BUT my FWD vehicles "needed" 5k rotations, especially as they got older, due to feathering issues on the rear tires. That said, the wife's Camry isn't getting rotations right now (lost my spare set of wheels ) and it seems like it might be getting ok wear. Maybe the tires were rotated while new, and now that they are more than half worn, not as likely to pick up bad wear going forward.

And on our CRV, I am kicking myself, I should have bought 5 new tires and did 5 wheel rotations. First AWD, my mistake.

 

[hrv]

I only rotate same side front to back and only balance if needed....works for me...

 

[gfh77665]

I rotate once, halfway through the tires life, usually at 25,000 miles. It works well for me with minimal expense, time and effort.

 

[fdcg27]

I only rotate same side front to back and only balance if needed....works for me...

Same here.
I just tell DT to swap the tires front to rear and as long as things are smooth at 85 mph or so, the fastest I ever see, leave the balance weights as is.

 

[Nukeman7]

I'm in the rotation camp, however I know there are those who insist that they get good even wear on all corners. I can't inspect their claim, so I take them at their word--but I know that the more corners there are in a region, then that region will wear tires faster.
...
And on our CRV, I am kicking myself, I should have bought 5 new tires and did 5 wheel rotations. First AWD, my mistake.

Stop kicking yourself since what you chose to do is 100% perfectly fine on your CR-V. Your Honda has the identical drivetrain to our 2003 Element AWD. Honda's AWD system during that period was called "Real-Time 4WD", which is not a true 4WD system with a locking differential. The rear tires free-wheel nearly all the time just like the FWD version. However, the dual pump control system will engage the clutch pack to drive the rear end contingent on the speed difference of the front and rear wheels.



As such, this system is not overly sensitive to variations in tire circumferences like in Subaru's, Audi's, 4WD trucks and other vehicles with "true" full time 4WD systems. There is inherent slippage in Honda's "Real-Time" AWD differential's design to prevent driveline binding and resultant stress/wear.

 

[supton]

Stop kicking yourself since what you chose to do is 100% perfectly fine on your CR-V. Your Honda has the identical drivetrain to our 2003 Element AWD. Honda's AWD system during that period was called "Real-Time 4WD", which is not a true 4WD system with a locking differential. The rear tires free-wheel nearly all the time just like the FWD version. However, the dual pump control system will engage the clutch pack to drive the rear end contingent on the speed difference of the front and rear wheels.

Interesting info--but I still have a 20 year old spare on the back of the car. I had told the shop to keep the best looking old tire onto the spare--didn't happen, didn't feel like pressing the issue.

Right now it's wearing tires funny, had I gone all in, I might have stretched out tire life as long as possible with some rotations. Oh well.

 

[tbm5690]

The LX25s on my MDX are a bit squirrely on certain stretches of grooved concrete regardless of rotation/position. They are at 9/32s and have done it since new.

 

[Leo99]

I don't rotate tires or get alignments. Tires wear evenly and last well past the warranty period.