Tire rotation (non directional or directional)

[Pablo654]

Hi everyone,

I have some Michelin pilot sport all season 4S, and according to several sources they are asymmetrical, and they seem like it looking at them.

Does this mean I do directional rotation or non directional? Non directional right ? This is what my manual for my Subaru shows.

I have already done google search but I have found some sources saying asymmetric can be crossed and other sources that say they cannot be cross rotated.
Thanks!

 

[OilUzer]

never owned one but I thought there was no X if the Tire had an arrow pointing the direction. You own a fancy car?

 

[ecotourist]

If they're directional, crossing over would be a big deal. (Could be done but you'd have to take the tires off the rims and reverse the rotation or swap them onto the wheels on other side - either way, a bit of a brain teaser). The practical thing is to rotate from front to back on the same side only. And that's still pretty good.

BMW didn't recommend tire rotations at all and yet my 528i's tires wore fairly evenly.

 

[Pablo654]

If they're directional, crossing over would be a big deal. (Could be done but you'd have to take the tires off the rims and reverse the rotation or swap them onto the wheels on other side - either way, a bit of a brain teaser). The practical thing is to rotate from front to back on the same side only. And that's still pretty good.

BMW didn't recommend tire rotations at all and yet my 528i's tires wore fairly evenly.

They’re not directional.

And yeah I know i could just swap them front- back and back-front or whatever , but as I plan on keeping this car until it dies, I wanna make sure I am putting the least amount of wear in the AWD system. And from some research I’ve done, and what the Subaru manual says, cross rotation can help lessen wear

 

[Pablo654]

never owned one but I thought there was no X if the Tire had an arrow pointing the direction. You own a fancy car?

Yeah I believe you’re right on that, and nah it’s a 2019 Impreza sport but I wanna keep the car until it just goes out . really like the car

 

[ecotourist]

If they're directional they'll have an arrow showing the direction of rotation.

 

[doitmyself]

Assuming your sidewalls have no directional arrows, it seems that you have asymmetric Non-directional tires. You should follow the the pattern on the left of your picture. It seems that you are blurring the definitions of asymmetric vs. directional.

This Tire Rack article explains it: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=180&

"Tires featuring symmetric tread patterns allow using multiple tire rotation patterns."

"Tires featuring asymmetric tread patterns allow using multiple tire rotation patterns."

"Tires featuring asymmetric and directional tread patterns must be treated as directional tires for tire rotation.

 

[Pablo654]

Assuming your sidewalls have no directional arrows, it seems that you have asymmetric Non-directional tires. You should follow the the pattern on the left of your picture. It seems that you are blurring the definitions of asymmetric vs. directional.

This Tire Rack article explains it: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=180&

"Tires featuring symmetric tread patterns allow using multiple tire rotation patterns."

"Tires featuring asymmetric tread patterns allow using multiple tire rotation patterns."

"Tires featuring asymmetric and directional tread patterns must be treated as directional tires for tire rotation.

Thanks !!!! Clears it up

 

[OilUzer]

I don't own a directional/arrow type tires and take my cars in for rotation and balance every 13000-15000 miles and ask them to do the X pattern.
They (mainly Discount tire) gets it wrong every other time even when I make sure that they understood and noted my request for X pattern rotation.
I now watch them and mark my tires and check them afterwards to make sure they did the X.

why do I ask for X?
because every 6500-7500 miles, I rotate the tires myself and it's much easier and quicker for me to do the straight front to rear rotation. Also doing every other rotation by myself gives me a chance to check the brakes, etc. Never had a tire wear unevenly and/or prematurely.

So make sure to mark your tires (#1,2,3,4) and check them after rotation to make sure they did what you asked them to do. For some reason Costco always gets it right and Discount Tire maybe %50 right.

 

[Pablo654]

I don't own a directional/arrow type tires and take my cars in for rotation and balance every 13000-15000 miles and ask them to do the X pattern.
They (mainly Discount tire) gets it wrong every other time even when I make sure that they understood and noted my request for X pattern rotation.
I now watch them and mark my tires and check them afterwards to make sure they did the X.

why do I ask for X?
because every 6500-7500 miles, I rotate the tires myself and it's much easier and quicker for me to do the straight front to rear rotation. Also doing every other rotation by myself gives me a chance to check the brakes, etc. Never had a tire wear unevenly and/or prematurely.

So make sure to mark your tires (#1,2,3,4) and check them after rotation to make sure they did what you asked them to do. For some reason Costco always gets it right and Discount Tire maybe %50 right.

the Costco by me BLOWS. i bought my tires there and used the free rotation and balance, but it wasn’t until after a couple of visits I started noticing how there were new scratches on my wheels , and small dents on the rim of the wheel from mounting the wheel harshly after repairs. I couldn’t tell them anything because I already have curb rash on some wheels, but I know it was them for a fact.

Today was the final straw when I went to Costco to ask them to JUST check tread on my tires. The guy was using a digital one , and registered 8/32nds on my passenger side tires and 9/32nds on my driver side tires.

Went to autozone and bought my own analog tread depth gauge, and I found them all to be 8/32nds , measuring on different parts of the tread.

Given, I am in Chicago and this Costco sees a TON of traffic and people coming in, so I’m sure they don’t have their stuff calibrated right such as the digital gauge. Sucks cuz they have lifetime tire rotation and balance and repair but never again with my experience with them.

Also, I had a bend of my wheel they didn’t bother to tell me about and they just balanced out. I asked them why they didn’t tell me and they said “it balanced out so we didn’t think we needed to”.

I only found the bend because every other couple washes, I’ll remove my wheels to wash them.

 

[Pablo654]

And yes I was definitely considering marking the tires with a silver marker with numbers.

 

[OilUzer]

I've given up on scratches ... They all do it. It hurts a little when the car is new

 

[Pablo654]

I've given up on scratches ... They all do it. It hurts a little when the car is new

especially when you’re still paying it off working on the side as a broke college student lmao