What is the correct tire rotation pattern?

Directional wheels or tires are ones designed to rotate in only one direction. Cross rotation would cause them to spin backward.

Tom

 

Why do you suspect that the manufacturer of the car does not know what they built?

 

I am aware of the Toyota back to front recomnendation but most tire manufactures say right front to left rear, move the left rear to left front. This gives the best tire mileage as I have found.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think that some of the Prius tires are directional, such as the Yokohama Avids.

Maybe Toyota is specifying a "one rotation suits all" just to make it easier on the consumer/dealer, esp. since the Prius V probably comes with directional tires.

 

I use the pattern recommended by Ford for front-drive cars - RR-RF-LR-LF-RR.

This accomplishes a cross-rotation, but first on the rear, so the tire has been turning in the same direction before it's moved to the front. Been using this pattern, for all of our cars [including RWD and FWD], for nearly 30 years, and get very even wear as a result.

Yes, of course unidirectional tread patterns require a straight front-back rotation on the same side - one reason I never put unidirectional tires on any of my cars.

 

As it seems like snow season is over, I am now in the process of remounting my all seasons.

Like the OP mentioned, I am confused about the rotation pattern indicated in the manual. I spent a good ten minutes staring at the OEM tires and rims and turning the tires around 180, and they are definitely non-directional. The rims are also standard rims with the spokes radiating directly outwards.

I am 99.99% that it should be safe and actually better in terms of prolonging tire life to do the standard cross rotation for non-directional tires. I already sent an inquiry to Toyota.com for verification on this and should be hearing back from them in a few days. In the meantime, anyone out there have the low down on the 0.01% of why the manual instructs a straight front-back rotation(other than the simplicity in keeping with the V's directional tires)? It would seem like the TPMS device should be non-directional but I have minimal knowledge base of their construct and operations.

 

I've got a V and the tires aren't direction tires, all the same size (not like my Vette) So I agree it does take out any problems the owner could have but I think I'll stick with the cross rotation

 

I argue that it's a bit safer not to rotate:
- You don't want uniform wear on all tires. The best tires should be at the rear at all times, to minimize the chances of oversteer.
- If there is an alignment or suspension problem causing asymmetrical wear on one or more tires, it should not be masked through rotation. It should be repaired.

If you do this you will replace tires two at a time, always putting the new pair at the rear.

 

Just got a reply from Toyota:

Thank you for contacting Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
We appreciate your inquiry.
Toyota does not recommend cross rotation of tires. The steel belts are accustomed to being driven in one direction and if cross rotated, belt separation may occur.
We hope this helps. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us, www.toyota.com/help.

That sounds a little scary given the fact that cross rotation is commonly done for non-directional tires. I don't know if this is because the Prius tires are low-rolling resistance but I'll stick to what the manual states.

 

Good to know. Thanks!

 

To give you guys a little insight on this, the key word here is "steel belts".

I use to run a few tire stores in the early 1980's and radial tires were just starting to get popular. At the time, the best selling tire was the "Bias ply" tire, and you could rotate those however you wanted without fear of belt separation.

Then a pattern started, almost every steel belted radial tire with more than 10,000 miles on them started coming back with separated belts. We would pro-rate it under warranty, and give the customer a new one.

It was a big issue that needed looked into. Well, Michelin Tire issued a statement that cross-rotation was causing the steel belts inside the tire to break (think of bending a metal clothes hanger back and forth). The steel is use to bending a certain way when on one side of the vehicle, and if you change position of the tire to the other side, you get the "clothes hanger" effect inside the tire.

So, if you put a NEW set of tires on your prius, follow the tire manufacture recommendation concerning tire rotation and you should be good.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I still wonder though - since Toyota uses various brand OEM tires, did they put this in place mainly because one tire brand had an issue, or because of the Prius V?

I have had many tires the past 20 years or so, and have never had any problem cross-rotating them. Hard to believe tire quality has gotten worse over the past 20 years rather than better. Or is this just a LRR tire thing. Who knows.

I think the way to truly figure out if this okay is to ask the tire manufacturer. They would def. know. Maybe its time to send an email to Yokohama for the Avids I have.

mc

 

Honda used to recommend keeping the tires on the same side, but started specifying a cross-rotation pattern, maybe a decade back. I think the concensus now is it's ok to cross-rotate, unless of course they're uni-directional tread.

I think cross-rotating can help with conicity: we had a case where the car was starting to pull to the right, supposedly due to conicity. The tire dealer reversed the fronts left-to-right, and that alleviated the problem.

 

I think Toyota is more interested in avoiding legal liability related to tires than providing up to date recommendations about rotating tires. In fairness to Toyota, Toyota does not make tires nor control the quality of tire manufacturers. Remember the Ford Explorer and Firestone tires? Ford lost a lot of money in lawsuits related to Firestone tires. There are many different types of tires and ways to rotate them, correct and otherwise. Tires and tire rotation have become more complex than Toyota wants to deal with. Toyota doesn’t want to recommend anything related to tires that would have any possibility of making it responsible for any tire-related problem so it recommends a simple front to back rotation which won’t cause any harm, but isn’t necessarily the optimum rotation. Steel belt separation was a problem when radial tires first appeared on the market in the 1960s, but that problem was solved long ago. Have any of you who cross rotate your tires had a problem with steel belt separation? I haven’t; nor do I know of anyone else.

Per the below link to a Tire Rack instruction, “Forward Cross” or “X-Pattern” are the optimum tire rotations for same-size, non-directional tires on a Prius. “Front-to-Rear” rotation would be used only for same size, directional, tires on a Prius.

Tire Tech Information - Tire Rotation Instructions

 

Michelins generic tire rotation instructions also say to cross them
Tire-saving Tips: Tire Care & Buying Guide: Michelin Tires

But, one more thing to consider is that the Toyota Techs rotate tires on a lot more cars than Prii so it's easier to just have them rotate tires on all cars on the same side. Considering the number of PC members that have experienced Toyota messing up an oil change (wrong amount of oil or wrong viscosity), it's wise for Toyota to stick to one tire rotation procedure for all cars.

 

Why all the wondering about front/back or "X" rotation? I assume Toyota did not consider tires an afterthought and took the path of least resistance when recommending a tire rotation pattern. In fact it's not a "recommendation" at all, it's a statement of how it should be done. So again I ask, why all the wondering and second guessing?

 

This is an interesting old thread I had not seen before. I had noticed the way Prius owner manuals switched from cross-rotate to front-back rotate between Gen 1 and Gen 2:

Gen 1:



Gen 2:




Gen 3:




Gen 4:



(I especially like how the Gen 3 drawing makes absolutely sure you can't mistake which way is the front.)

But I had never encountered the claim about belt separation before.

-Chap

 

Following the book means two of our rims have no road rash.