How often to rotate your tires?

[zerosoma]

I drive a lot of highway miles. I think I'm due on both vehicles.

I just got our Yokohama AVID's for our Prius last April. Since then I've put on 16,000 miles. I got my Yokohama AT/S for our Hyundai this time last year and there is roughly 12,000 miles on them. I may have gotten them rotated when I got new brake pads last spring (at least I think they did? I kind of remember it being mentioned but it could have been my imagination. why wouldn't they...?)

Tires look to be wearing evenly. The AVID is an 85k tire and the AT/S is a 60k tire (and man it rips through snow!).

I don't have jacks or jack stands and will probably take them to a local shop that charges $10 a tire or so.

when's the optimum time to rotate them, and how much life is taken away from a tire when you don't rotate them?

 

[volk06]

I rotate mine every 5-6K but its more important for me since I have truck AT tire that can wear unevenly a lot easier. Most places say 5-10k depending your source. Place we got new CS4 put on a car recommends every 7.5K.

 

[Smokescreen]

I do a ton of highway miles too. I do mine every 10-15000 miles. When I went to get my old CS4's replaced with new ones, the tech commented on how he hasn't seen such uniformly even wear across all 4 tires in a long long time.

 

[MarkStock]

On one of my cars, I do it once a year after my oil change, which is about 5000 miles.

As those tires were replaced in pairs, and the fronts wear faster, I've been doing side to side rotations until I see the fronts down to about the same level as the rears.

On the other car, I can't rotate! Front is smaller than rear and tires are unidirectional.

 

[Bgallagher]

I rotate everytime I change my oil. Depending on the OLM it is between 6-7.5k

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: Bgallagher
I rotate everytime I change my oil. Depending on the OLM it is between 6-7.5k


+1

 

[CATERHAM]

As soon as there's any measurable difference in tread depth I rotate. That usually works out to 5-6K but then I do it myself.

 

[rslifkin]

I'd say it depends on the car. A car that wears its tires fairly evenly doesn't need rotations as one that wears them less evenly. Also, look at how long you expect them to last, and make sure they'll gotten rotated several times in that lifespan, otherwise some may end up more worn than others.

Personally, I usually rotate every few thousand miles, not on any exact schedule.

 

[DBMaster]

I'm glad someone brought this topic up. On the car talk forum, years ago, one of the more knowledgeable guys stated that unless you had really noticeable uneven wear patterns that you should NEVER rotate your tires. When you move a tire to a new position on the car there will be at least several hundred miles of accelerated wear as the tire "wears in" to its new position. Thus, you will get less miles per tire overall. This does mean that you will end up replacing tires two at a time rather than four at a time, though.

What do y'all think of that approach? I should mention that I do rotate mine every 7,000 miles (I have two floor jacks) and get them rebalanced at every other rotation. My Honda had the typical negative camber and I had to keep them rotated to prevent the inside edge wear (front wheels) from wearing out those tires very prematurely.

I kind of think that the no rotation practice makes sense, though. I am one who just prefers a matched set of tires so I have not ever followed the practice.

 

[stockrex]

Never, rotation just hides issues with alignment, balance etc .
I let thecm fronts wear out and just buy 3 new tires.

 

[stockrex]

Spend the money to get an alignment ;-)

 

[Jordan_FX4]

I rotate the Cooper AT/3's on my truck every 6k miles just to make sure the tread wears evenly, plus the place that I bought my tires from gives free rotations every 6k so I figure it can't hurt.

 

[spasm3]

I run then until they look worn, then rotate. On my fwd i don't rotate until the front tires are not quite to the wear bars, i put these on the back and when the fronts wear down, buy 4 new ones. I usually get 40k and i don't drive easy. I also only rotate front to back ( same side), i don't like to change the rolling direction of tires.

 

[DBMaster]

I wonder, sometimes, if tire sellers push rotations as a way to ensure that customers come back more often and buy four tires at a time instead of two. Just wondering.

 

[pakstl]

I use a tread depth gauge. When my front tires have a solid 1/32nd less tread than my rear tires. I rotate. FWD of course. averages out to around every 7000 miles for me and my current tires.

 

[CATERHAM]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
On the car talk forum, years ago, one of the more knowledgeable guys stated that unless you had really noticeable uneven wear patterns that you should NEVER rotate your tires. When you move a tire to a new position on the car there will be at least several hundred miles of accelerated wear as the tire "wears in" to its new position. Thus, you will get less miles per tire overall. This does mean that you will end up replacing tires two at a time rather than four at a time, though.

What do y'all think of that approach? I should mention that I do rotate mine every 7,000 miles (I have two floor jacks) and get them rebalanced at every other rotation. My Honda had the typical negative camber and I had to keep them rotated to prevent the inside edge wear (front wheels) from wearing out those tires very prematurely.

I kind of think that the no rotation practice makes sense, though. I am one who just prefers a matched set of tires so I have not ever followed the practice.

Nonsense.
The whole purpose of rotating tires is to maximize tire life, maintain consistent vehicle handling (critically important with many AWD systems) and to be able to replace all four tires at the same time when they are shot.

 

[zerosoma]

Well there are some varied responses in this thread. My parents always told me to make sure I was getting my tires rotated and balanced on a regular basis. I just didn't know "how regular" that was.

I tallied it up and if I were to rotate the tires every 12,000 miles over the course of 60,000 miles (projected lifespan), and spent $60 each time, I'd be spending $300, which is about 2/3's of the cost of new tires anyways.

I may choose to get the alignment checked somewhere in between there or every now and again. But it seems like just getting new tires (especially with the deals on DTD or Tire Rack) a little prematurely may be the way to go. Correct me if I am wrong.

Can a person do damage to their suspension systrem by not rotating tires?

 

[bourne]

I dont know where you are getting your tires from, but most of the time I have bought tires I either receive/have an option to buy lifetime rotation/balancing package. At work our tire balance fees include lifetime rotation and balancing. Goodyear is a strong believer in regular rotation and balance, and recommends you do it every 6 mnths / 6000 miles.

 

[AuthorEditor]

I'm in the never rotate school. Waste of time and money. Right now the rears on my Grand Marquis, Cooper CS4's, have about 75,000 miles on them, and I will probably replace before long, but they are still legal and have a decent amount of tread. Had to replace both fronts at about 50,000 miles because the ball joints went and caused uneven wear, but still I was OK with 50K on a set. If I had fixed the ball joints sooner I have no doubt the fronts would still be on there at 75K. Never rotated my wife's tires on her Impala and had to replace them last year at around 60K on the OEM tires due to lack of tread, not uneven wear issues.

 

[MarkStock]

The new tire warranty small print not only expect an alignment to be performed but rotation also I believe.