Of all the vehicles I have owned, I very rarely ever rotated the tires. What I found was the tires moved to the front were out of balance and now I had to deal with that.

Over the years, all the tires seemed to wear evenly and when it was time to replace them I didn't have any heartache because a few may have had a little more tread than the others, they were still close to being needed to be replaced.

So what is the collective thoughts on rotating tires?

Pros?
Cons?

quote:

Originally posted by urbanwarrior238:
What I found was the tires moved to the front were out of balance and now I had to deal with that.

If the tires were out of balance upfront then they were out of balance in the back. Maybe you didn't notice till they were moved.

On front-wheel-drive cars I find the front tire wear quicker. That can be effect by your driving habits also.

So yes I do rotate my tires. Not as often as I used to but I still do.

quote:

Originally posted by urbanwarrior238:
Of all the vehicles I have owned, I very rarely ever rotated the tires. What I found was the tires moved to the front were out of balance and now I had to deal with that.

Over the years, all the tires seemed to wear evenly and when it was time to replace them I didn't have any heartache because a few may have had a little more tread than the others, they were still close to being needed to be replaced.

So what is the collective thoughts on rotating tires?

Pros?
Cons?

How many miles per year do you drive? What kind of driving do you do? I can see where it would make less difference on a car that is not driven much and is driven very mildly at low speeds.

Typically though, for most drivers there is significantly more stress put on the outside portion of the tread of the front tires. If not rotated, this are will wear out faster and perform poorly.

Necessary for safety reasons? No. For maximum tire life? Yes, especially on FWD, AWD and 4WD with "aggressive" (geared more to off-road than pavement use) tread. On most AWD systems you need to keep tire diameter/circumference very close to avoid excessive wear on differentials. I like to rotate mine (FWD car) every 5000 miles, the same as my oil change interval. With RWD, unless you drive a lot of mountain roads and/or aggressively, you don't need it as often. Tires will often need a re-balancing at least once during their lifetime.

It depends on the vehicle and depends on how you drive it.

A pickup truck will wear tires differently than a Toyota Camry.

Some cars require it--my Subaru needs all 4 tires to be the same rolling circumference. Other cars prohibit it--I had an M3 with staggered directional tires that could not be rotated.

For most 2 wheel drive vehicles, the driveline does not care if the wheels are rotated so long as the rolling circumference of the wheels are the same on the same axel. For such vehicles, the benefit of rotating the tires is to even out tire wear and prolonged the life of the tires. If you have cheap tires, that's not much value. If you have a sports car with soft compound tires that cost $450 and only last 16-20k miles, you want to stretch that out.

For 4wd and AWD vehicles, the benefit or rotating tires also helps reduce wear on the driveline--depending on the type of AWD/4wd you have. If you have selectable 4wd, chances are the vehicle doesn't care. If you have computer controlled AWD part time, chances are it won't care either. If you have full time AWD then it is probably critical.

I went from directional to non-directional on my Mercedes, which has staggered F/R sizes, so I can at least rotate L<>R

Not that it makes a huge difference. The OE Continentals were dead in 16k miles.
Went to a Bridgestone & got double that life.

On the Impreza we've never rotated, and never needed to rotate. Uneven wear was once tracked to worn front control arm bushings.

On the truck, I stopped because two of the rims are a little bent, so I leave them on the rear. But the fronts will wear faster than the rears, so rotating makes sense. Maybe I'll stick with steel rims.

I have heard—but can’t cite the source—that rotation is unnecessary with FWD cars.
First of all, with radial tires and asymmetric treads you can only move front to back, not change sides; can’t rotate in the spare which was original reason to increase tire mileage; in my opinion you can throw balance out requiring rebalancing. Simpler would be to replace the front tires when the tread gets low.
I’ve never seen convincing arguments to the contrary—for FWD cars with radial tires.

I rotate mine every 5-6000 miles, because it is included in the cost at Tire Discounters. I did get 95,000 out of a set of Michelin LTX on My pilot. I just replaced the Coopers on my CRV, 84,858 miles and I could have gone one more rotation before I actually got to the wear indicators. However, I replaced them because I was having some brake work done and it was convenient to do it all at the same time.

So yes, I am a believer in rotating tires, for maximum life.

Oil changed 2x per year and tires rotated during oil change.

If you don't rotate your tires, how do you get anywhere?

5k

Since I buy all my tires at Discount Tire, rotation and balance is done for free.

Every oil change, non directional get crossed as well as back to front. Usually do the oil and rotation myself.

I do mine myself every 5000 miles.
I do a lot of mountain driving so it's necessary.

No charge to rotate at Discount Tire.

Yes. Except motorcycles, farm tractors & ATVs
Every 5k miles.

quote:

… with radial tires and asymmetric treads you can only move front to back, not change sides ...

Neither of these are true. 40 years ago, a radial tire might go bad (develop a tread separation) if its rotation were reversed. Not any more. And asymmetric tires don't care about rotation direction either. You're confusing this with directional tread.

Having said that, I just go front to back, out of habit, even on my own car. This habit was developed after being chewed out, in the early days of my career, by old farts with their asses parked in lawn chairs watching and critiquing every move I made. It wasn't worth arguing about, then or now.

Necessary no. But it does in most all cases extend the life of the tires, helps with ride and handling, and all tires get replaced at the same time (which I will argue helps with safety to a small degree).

I have my tires rotated every oil change.