Tire rotation - absolutely necessary?

My experience has been that if I did not rotate my tires regularly that the front tires would wear out much quicker than the rear. Also if a tire starts developing a wear pattern it is difficult to slow it down or stop it without rotating.

I had a company car for years which was on the road all of the time. It was difficult finding time to rotate tires. I could never get more than 30-40,000 miles from a set of tires.

With my personal cars, I rotate every 5K miles and usually get the full mileage rating of the tires, 60 to 80K miles.

 

Not if you don't mind replacing two at a time.

Personally, I rotate every 10k miles.

 

you void the warranty if you don't rotate. cheapest thing you can do next to checking air pressure.

 

No, you don't and OEM tires have no warranty anyway.

 

Tire rotation seems to be a North American practice. I understand that in Europe, this is not a popular maintenance activity.

The original equipment tires have no treadlife warranty. Therefore, tire rotation or not is up to the owner without warranty consequences one way or the other.

If you have to pay for tire rotation, I would question the economics of that practice. It's probably better to save that money and use it to help fund your replacement tire purchases.

I consider tire rotation to be part of my personal fitness program, and that helps to smooth out uneven tread wear. If you choose not to rotate, it's not a big deal.

 

I always rotate my tires @ 5k miles. As a matter of fact, I do a five tire rotation since I have a full-size spare with the same wheel as the others (this is not a temporary tire).

Some info and blogs on tire rotation on CarTalk related to this subject:

Car Talk - Rotating tires

Car Talk - Why rotate tires?

 

No you don't. Several car magazines have looked into it and come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no benefit to rotating your tires. If your front tires wear out faster, then the back tires will last longer. If you switch them, then you will just have to replace all four of them at a slightly longer interval, but you won't get any more miles on the set.

Now, if you have something wrong with your alignment or suspension, it might seem to be a good idea to rotate your tires, but I suspect that getting it fixed would be more cost effective than rotating your tires.

This is simply a profit center for dealers and tire stores, IMO. As long as they will do it for almost nothing, I will play their game, but if they charge too much, I will pass. Save my money for Nitrogen in the tires!

 

Oddly enough, there is kind of a strange logic to leaving the front tires on until they wear out, providing you're following Tire Rack's suggestion regarding Where to install new pairs of tires.

I call it Perth Logic. Years ago, I was tagging along with my dad on a business trip to Australia. We were going to ride with the owner of the business and his daughter to their house at the end of the day. The owner decided he would take a beer along with him for the drive. When the daughter told her dad he shouldn't drink-drive, he responded back, "You can drink-drive, you just can't get drunk." :blink:

 

I see no benefit to tire rotation unless you want to be sure to wear them all 4 out at the same time. I rotated mine at 10K and I will do it again about 30K, that way when they reach 40K, when I think they will need replacement, they will have spent equal time on the front and rear. I do check the tread depth across the tire and compare them to each other about every 5K, but that's quick and easy to do.

 

A couple of things to bear in mind:
1)Braking is most effective when all 4 tires are worn equally. (this is the same reason why it's stupid to only buy 2 snow tires) For that reason alone, I would rotate.
2)You steer with the front tires, so the sides wear down faster even if the center of the tread is still fine. Rotating them to the rear gives you fresh sides for the fronts, and puts the weak sides in the back where they don't matter nearly as much. Yet another reason that by itself is enough to justify rotating.

Or you can live with degraded braking and steering so that you can avoid the $20/15min it costs to have them rotated.

 

I think it depends on the car a lot wither or not to rotate. On my BMW owners manual it says not to do it and it is a waste of money. Also on some setups have staggered wheels like my 330i where the backs are larger than the fronts you can't rotate even if you wanted to.
From a business point of view, many of the tire stores offer free tire rotation when you buy it from them and it makes more sense if they can sell you 4 at a time, so they know they're not rotating and balancing 2 sold by a competitor.
I found in the past if I get rotation, the tires get a lot more noisier. so I stop
doing rotation and on my FWD car the fronts go out sooner than the back, and on my RWD car the backs go out much sooner than the fronts. No biggie.
So do the rotation if you want to have even tire wear, otherwise don't bother.
It is also pretty easy to do, I had my 5 and 6 year old help me once, just to let them get comfortable taking the wheel off, I didn't want my daughter to be one of those clueless car owners when she grows up.

 

Wow, this is an interesting thread.

Without sharing it with anyone, I have always been sceptical of the 5000 mile tire rotation recommendation most people embrace.

I think most people want or think "even" tire wear is an absolute sign of most efficient use and utilization of tires. I tend to disagree. To me, I want good life out of a set of tires and safety. I do rotate, but only about once a year. Keeping an eye on tread, my experience is eventually one set of two of four tires will wear slightly more. But this keep the plates spinning effort to get all four tires to wear exactly even seems ridiculous to me. Once two of my tires are no longer safe or viable, I replace all four. Maybe the two rear tires might have a little more life left, but it's not much. I think the advantages of NOT rotating every 5000 miles, over the life of the complete set of tires, outweigh the psychological benefit I might perceive by having "perfect" uniform wear on all 4 tires. I find rotating once a year, I can always keep the best tread on the rear axle, which is now the recommendation and I get good life out of a set of four, the only potential drawback being when I do need to replace, perhaps 2 tires might not be quite as worn as the worst 2. So what?

The way cars are designed all 4 tires unrotated will not wear evenly. I see some advantage in a yearly rotation so that you don't end up with a one set of two bald tires coupled with one set of two decent tires....I don't like replacing two at time, but I don't see any advantage in rotating every 5000 miles just so a set of four wear as evenly as possible. In my experience the difference in wear is negligable. It's more just a psychological thing, and tire shops and dealers want you coming in as often as possible.

I know some will disagree with me. I do advocate watching and monitoring tread wear and patterns and replacement once any set of two becomes unsafe or not viable. I just don't think constant rotation or "perfectly" even wear is necessary.

PS.
I'm talking about my personal experience with "regular" ICE automobiles. I have read threads about Prius and it might be different with a vehicle that supports the extra weight of a battery in the rear, and starts out with the direct torque of an electric motor. So all this advice might be out the window in regards to Prius Ownership.

 

Concerning item #1, I have found rotating tires once a year at anywhere from 10,000-16000 miles of use keeps the set of four wearing even "enough". Given variable factors like driving style, terrain and vehicle alignment, rotating at clock-work imposed intervals of 5000 miles does not guarantee perfectly even wear. Whether you rotate every 5000 miles, or "never" I think it's the owners responsibilty to monitor the condition of all of the tires.

Concerning item #2, I've been told that the recommendation now is to keep the best tread on the rear axle. The logic was explained but most tire places are now advocating keeping the best tires on the rear. Has to do with minimizing tail spin if you have a blow out, or lose control of the vehicle. I won't necessarily debate this as the recommendation seems to change every couple of years....again my philosophy is to have "good" tires all around then it's not an issue.

Concerning your final statement? $20/15 mnutes? Well lucky you. My experience is given most crowded tire shops, or dealership service centers, rotation can take a good portion of a morning. I've paid anywhere from "free" to $50...but never was it as fast as 15 minutes. I'll admit to a degree of paranoia as well, I don't necessarily trust that the technician rotating my tires is going to do it correctly. At most tire centers they make their money from selling tires, so I think they put their best people/effort on installing the new tires, they almost seem put out by simply rotating existing tires.

This is a very personal philosophy, nothing I say will probably convince you to change. Bottom line for me? Everyone should monitor their tire wear and keep safe and viable tires on their vehicles. I think this reality is possible to maintain whether you rotate at 5000 mile intervals or longer intervals.

 

Thanks for the opinions/information, everybody. I think I'll compromise and rotate mine with each 10,000 mile oil change.

 

Where did I say it had to be "exactly 5000 miles"? Nowhere? Yes, that's right: nowhere did I say that. I have snow tires and if I happen to put 6000-7000 miles on them during the winter, I'm not going to stop and rotate at 5000 miles - that would be stupid.
5000 miles is an arbitrary figure - as is 10000-16000, as is "once a year".

The point is that if you never rotate, you're compromising steering and braking response - unless you buy new tires a lot more often. (which is certainly an option if you have the money for new tires)

My previous vehicle recommended rotating every 7500 miles (for the OEM tires, which were only good for 40k). I don't see any problem with a 10k rotation on tires rated for more than 40k total - that would mean roughly half tread after 2 rotations.

 

Very interesting thread! I never knew that there was controversy regarding tire rotation. I find that in a FWD vehicle the wear in the front wheels is certainly greater than the rears. I still will rotate every 7500 or so.

 

In the military I discovered some who thought the Coffee tasted better if no one ever cleaned the Coffee Pot. They, like you, were skeptical of what the rest of the world advocates. Personally, I thought their coffee tasted terrible. I follow the Toyota Maintenance instructions and rotate the tires, but that's not just me.

 

Okay, you didn't say "every 5000 miles". Remain calm.

I did say- " Whether you rotate every 5000 miles, or "never" I think it's the owners responsibilty to monitor the condition of all of the tires."
I guess we agree then? Because I'm for tire rotation it's just that I do think the 5000 miles interval that is often recommended is overkill.

If I misunderstood you I apologize, but in anycase I wasn't presenting this as an attack just an opinion and how I've handled tire rotation with my vehicles.

I'd assume there are a lot of variables, in driving conditions, driving styles, vehicle alignment, load and useage, and actual tires on the vehicle, that could severely change how tires wear for every individual, so a personal guideline for one person with one vehicle might not translate to another person with a different vehicle.

It's just like Fuel Octane Grades, Oil Change Intervals, and many other owner controlled vehicle maintenance decisions. Everyone has an opinion.

But I think we are mostly agreeing. We both agree tire rotation should be done, and we agree that 5000 miles is simply an arbitrary point.