I just rotated the tires on my 2016 Flex AWD using the front to back to front technique as the tires are directional. The tires that were on the front had slightly more wear than the ones on the back.

After completing the work I took it out to get a new oil filter for later and noticed a change in the road noise/vibration. It seems more noticeable now than pre-rotation, in is clearly coming from the front.

Is this just that the tires with more life (more tread) are now up front so I’m noticing the noise as “different”? Any reason to be concerned? They seem nice and tight on the hub, but I’ll check them again when I lift up the front to change the oil in a little bit.

Keep an eye on them, but I would expect a little noise as they do wear slightly differently on the back vs the front. Part of the reason you rotate to begin with is to even out the wear from being mounted in different positions on the car- could be that you're hearing that now.

Maybe run it in for a rebalance. Equal your tire pressures too. I worried about this when rotating my Coopers which are bi directional. Considering I lost 1 new tire due to 3 punctures and, as much I paid a respectable garage to mount and balance, they still screwed that up by mounting 1 tire backwards. They did quite a less than quality mount and balance because it means nothing to them. I never rotated the damn tires. Just cant get quality work any more.

Does it drift or pull? If it does, get the alignment checked.

If not, it is likely that you became accustomed to the sound as they wore, and now the change of the sound is noticeable, but should become "normal" after a short time.

But, yes, you are hearing a difference due to the change of the tread wear on the tires now up front.

Hearing is very perceptive to change in pitch, even if you don't realize that.

Check the tire pressure. On a vehicle that was supposed to have 36 psi, Discount tire left it with 39 to 51 psi (every tire different). Couldn’t hear the road noise due to the sound my teeth were making every bump.

Recheck torque and n each lug nut too. My buddy drove from Houston to Dallas after a visit to Discount Tire and arrived with 1 lug nut and a few sheered off lugs on one wheel.

Did you crisscross the positions?
If so, they are rotating in the reverse direction but that should go away after a few hundred miles or so.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Did you crisscross the positions?
If so, they are rotating in the reverse direction but that should go away after a few hundred miles or so.

Op stated front to back as the are directional tires.

Lug nuts are all good at 100lb, per the manual. Car tracks pretty straight and it doesn’t feel like an out of balance issue at all.

Just gonna chalk it up to noticing the difference in the wear patterns as the tires moved.