Rotating for tire health

[mjoekingz28]

On a non-directional tire, is it beneficial for the tire to be used on both sides of the car.







Because if not, I see not point in performing tire rotations other than to replace tires in sets of four instead of in sets of two.

 

[Bandito440]

Yes. Alignment variations will cause uneven wear to some extent. Rotate in the proper pattern for your drivetrain.

 

[Doog]

+1 absolutely.

 

[bigt61]

Standard rotation these days is criss-cross the rears to the front & move the fronts straight back. Check your OM to be sure.

 

[Eddie]

This varies for FWD, RWD or AWD.

 

[benjamming]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
This varies for FWD, RWD or AWD.


If it's a slip-n-grip AWD, then I would think following FWD rotation pattern would make the most sense.

 

[BigD1]

One of my local tire shops will not crisscross the tires period. They say they have seen too much belt separation over the years to do it any longer. I know on my front wheel drive the fronts move straight back to the rear, and the rears are crisscrossed to the front. They just refused to do it that way saying yes that was right, but they won't do it like that.

 

[Reggaemon]

My Mazda owners manual says no to crisscrossing.

 

[Kuato]

Hmmm for years I have crossed to the front, on AWD, FWD, RWD AND 4WD vehicles. Never experienced any bad handling or tire failure - only even wear on all tires.

 

[ecotourist]

BMW recommends no rotation for my vehicle. The tires are fairly wide and (I assume) take a set for each position. The tires do wear fairly evenly so it hasn't been an issue.

 

[BigCahuna]

I've never rotated tires for the sake of putting them on other sides or direction. Never had a tire prematurely wear out or wear funny. Myexperience has been , if your alighnment is off your tires will wear funny, and just moving them around on the car will cause them all to wear funny prematurely.,,

 

[Donald]

I think with AWD you should first follow the owners manual. If it does not work out then ask around.

 

[Tomioka]

On my truck I follow a 5,000mi schedule so all four tires wear evenly. I'm trying to get away from the pattern of buying two new tires / throw them on the rear / move hardly worn tires from the rear to the front. On IFS trucks the front tires gets beat up real quick.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

It is better for the tires to experience each position on the car, so they wear evenly. In most cars, one axle's wheels wear faster than the other axle. And also, other types of uneven wear can indicate suspension problems.

 

[raytseng]

you need to weigh just how much benefit you are getting and why do you have tires? are you optimizing for maximum tire life? performance? safety? dollars?

say your tires wear just a little unevenly and over the tire lifespan you lose a 32nd or two in outside tread. if you rotated maybe you could've driven on them an extra 5k.
is that worth the trouble?

are you the type that wears your tires out to the belts anyway or do you change earlier?

when you cross a worn tire that has uneven wear it is not without cost. when you swap that tire has an unsquare and nonoptimal contact patch until you wear through the difference. so you have bad tire performance for awhile while the tire is on points of the tire until it wears in to match the alignment.

is this something you tradeoff for to save money?
think like drawing with a piece of chalk at an angle. if you never rotate the chalk you get a nice contact patch. but you end with a triangle nub at the end.
if you keep rotating the chalk when you rotate your chalk is drawing with a point until it wears through the angle. you can use up all the chalk, but have less than optimal contact

for those saying you cross and don't get bad handling perhaps you would also not have had uneven wear without crossing either.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:
This varies for FWD, RWD or AWD.

According to Tire Rack and others, these are the options for drive type with non directional tires. I get my tires rotated at Discount Tire every ~6k miles or so just to even out any minor tire wear anomalies, and to keep the tire treadwear warranty active at DT just in case I might need it. And I have used it in the past for an adjustment on a new set of tire. One other benefit, gives me a chance to check brake pad wear at the same time.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Nice Ray!

 

[jjjxlr8]

The main benefit to cross rotation is to mitigate heal-toe wear. A rolling tire's tread blocks tend to wear on the trailing edge of the block more than the leading edge. It doesn't take very much heal-toe wear to generate a lot of tire noise. Sometimes you can't even see it, but you can usually feel it by wiping your hand around the tire in one direction, then the other. For example, if the tire is rotating clockwise, then it will feel 'rough' when you wipe your hand in the counter-clockwise direction and 'smooth' when you wipe your hand around the tire in a clockwise direction.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Tire rotation is highly platform specific and driver related, too. Not all cars need to rotate. I have one.

But vehicles with pronounced weight bias (front or rear) will need it regularly...

 

[Eddie]

I thought all vehicles tires needed to be rotated because of differences in suspension geometry and loading such as front wheel turning pressure and loading, although the frequency will vary. One additional benifite is that I get to see brake wear. Ed