How about rotating tires only 1 once, not more?

[Audi Junkie]

Nobody has ever explained HOW rotating reduces wear.

I believe the opposite, that it accelerates wear. Once the tire has developed a wear pattern, rotating it and changing the forces on the tire will alter the way it wears and accelerates wear until it beds in.

Just imo, but BMW reccomends against rotating.

 

[crinkles]

BMW also has super expensive suspension that does not go out of alignment and super expensive rims and tyres that are top notch.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Nobody has ever explained HOW rotating reduces wear.


I didn't read where anyone said that it reduces wear. I don't think it does either.

I said that it minimizes the directional type (such as heel-and-toe) wear that my cars tend to get, because the direction the tires spin keeps changing. The car is still going to wear the tires how it will. But because a set pattern never has a chance to develop in the tires, noise is reduced, road growl is reduced, and the ride seems to stay smoother. Even my wife comments that she can tell when I rotate the tires on the van.

 

[rjundi]

From two knowledgeable sources (tire engineers) the best reason to rotate is to reduce odd wear that creates noise.

My experience is no rotate = loud tires. My wife's Legacy is very loud as we went with a 15k rotation interval(only twice) over 35k miles. It sounds like a 4 x 4 truck now going down the road at certain speeds.

 

[SteveSRT8]

great discussion.

Absolutely no reason to rotate unless you want to even out weird wear patterns.

Not all vehicles benefit from rotation.

 

[38sho]

Originally Posted By: crinkles
BMW also has super expensive suspension that does not go out of alignment and super expensive rims and tyres that are top notch.


ummmm.... I do alignments on new BMW's that are out of spec all the time.....

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: crinkles
BMW also has super expensive suspension that does not go out of alignment


Cars don't go out of alignment unless they hit something (pot hole, curb, etc), and BMW drivers aren't particularly better than other brand.

 

[crinkles]

is it a problem to do your own rotations, without having the tyres rebalanced? how often does a tyre become unbalanced?

 

[Sayjac]

I have two vehicles that don't have lifetime balance and I have them regularly rotated ~ 6k interval for free. Unless I get a vibration/unusual wear no need for a balance. I once must have had a thrown weight, because I picked up a vibration, one tire was badly out of balance.

I rotate on a schedule to balance out any minor differences in alignment there might be, and more cornering wear generally on outer bands of tire, on front tires.

 

[crinkles]

i get conflicting advice between my owners manual, the dealer, and tyre shops about how to rotate. tire rack and my owners manual agree in crossing the tyres towards the drive axle (FWD camry). tyre shop only does back to front but my left front really suffers in the country towns down here because of all the traffic circles.

 

[Rand]

Some vehicles require rotation more than others..
my 2002 ranger 4x4 was horrid, if you went past 5-6k miles the tires soon started sounding like mudders.

I rotate my own tires. I own a torque wrench

I wouldnt rotate tires once. If you wait until the pattern has been set for 20k miles you might as well let it go.

Rotating them will just make them really loud at that point.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Cross the rears as you move them to the front. Move the fronts strait back.

 

[Sayjac]

Back to front and vice versa is an optional method for any drive (fwd, rwd) and correct for directional tires.

X'ing toward the drive is the way I get my tires rotated. On my truck, I told/reminded the counter person at DT that I wanted the tires crossed going back, and backs straight up.