tire rotation every 5000 miles

Funny you should ask. Someone with a BMW wrote into today's Bob and Ray column addressing the same issue (BMW said not to rotate them but others had recommended it).

Their answer, in essence, was: rotating the tires saves wear and tear on the tires .. but .. if you add up the cost of all the tire rotations you do over the life of the tires, it's probably cheaper to not rotate them, or at least not rotate them so frequently.

I skipped the 5,000 mile tire rotation but had them rotated at my 10,000 mile service. There was no indication of any uneven wear on the tires (they're holding up very well), and I was sorely tempted to wait 'til the 15,000 mile service. The only reason I did it at 10,000 was because Toyota must have had SOME reason for recommending frequent tire rotation. From the perspective of Bob and Ray though, it's just an easy way for car repair shops to make extra money (their shop loves doing them). They concluded with, "it's a wash".

At my service department tire rotation is ~$26.60 with tax. That's about $212 dollars if the tires last over 40,000 miles (my tires in the past have lasted at least that long). That's a lot of money when compared with the price of a new set of tires.

 

Me too; I'll rotate the tires every 10,000 miles.

 

Do my own oil changes. Just as easy for me to spend 20 more minutes to rotate the tires at the same time. :bootyshake:

 

But aren't the tires also balanced at that time?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

I don't know what I will do when I get to 5,000 miles on my Prius. On my recently retired 17-year old Tercel, I never rotated my tires. As a consequence, the rear tires lasted very long and wore very evenly. The front tires didn't last long and wore on the outside. Rotating the tires would have spread the uneven front tire wear over all four tires. In the end, if you are willing to buy your tires two at a time, I don't think tire rotation will affect the total number of tires you buy over the life of the car.

 

Wow, the dealer told me to get an oil change after 3500 miles. They must not know anything about the Prius or something. Hmmm... I did it anyway, i got the oil change at about 3700 miles and they also rotated my tires. Should I wait 5,000 miles before doing it again?

 

Are there any vehicle (not tire) warranty implications if you do not rotate the tires every 5000 miles? I too think this is too frequent and expensive, I will be putting alot of miles on my Prius (already up to 8500 miles after only 2.5 months).

 

The Prius comes with two Tire Warranty coverages.

1) Under the Roadside Assistance Program there is the Hazard Warranty - IE, flats etc. That one does not specifically mention rotation, but it does mention under-inflation and 'negligence'.

2) The Tire Manufacturer warranty. The Goodyear Warranty document I got with the car DOES specifically mention rotation and says that it must be IAW Manufacturer recommendations to keep the warranty in effect.

I don't know of any other non-tire issues that would be affected, but since the Road Hazard warranty also covers rims, if they dis-allowed tire coverage they would probably also dis-allow rim coverage for the same incident. But, I don't see that likely over a rotation issue.

 

There's no need to rebalance the tires after rotating them; don't let someone talk you into this, they'll probably say that the rotation is free, but charge you $4 for balancing the tires.

Rotating the tires will wear all four tires evenly so you get to change the four at the same time. If you don't rotate the tires, it's likely that the you'll have to change the front tires first, then sometime later the rear tires, and so on. You may not be able to find the same brand of tire all the time.

 

Is that a problem? For my last new car (and not including the OEM tires) I bought a total of six new tires one at a time over 17 years/110,000 miles and never rotated them (not deliberately, anyway; the tire shops may have rotated them once or twice on their own initative). I never had any trouble.

 

Might depend on where you live. For instance, you don't get 2 snow tires, you get 4. Even without all or 4 wheel drive. You don't want the back end sliding past the front because they lost traction. Same would be true for rain. It might be especially true in a car with traction control. It can't work as well if you have 1 new one with great grip and 1 on it's final 1/32" and even MORE especially if those 2 on both on the drive axle.

 

costco rotates tires for free, whenever you want, if you are a member. you don't have to have purchased the tires there. no need to rebalance when you rotate (costco will do it for $4 per tire).

it seems I have the tires rotated on my car or my wife's car every time I go there!

rob

 

Uhh... you reminded me that my last car's tires *did* get rotated, haphazardly, 'because the new tire always went on the rear along with the remaining least-worn tire. Important safety tip, that. But I never took it for deliberate periodic rotations.

 

Deliberate periodic rotation is easy when you have snow tires. Since I drive about 10K per year, I rotate my tires about every 5K. I mark the tires when I take them off and reverse the front and back on each side when I put them back on 6 months later. If I take it in for scheduled maintenance, I tell them not to rotate the tires as disadvantageous.