RaleighNC

I dunno if it's been ask before...

What if u don't rotate the tires, but keep them balanced. It's front wheel drive. So most of the ware will be on the fronts. So instead of shelling out more money for 4 at 25~30k miles. U just buy two....maybe at 20k.

What u all think?? On RWD or AWD cars, I see the need to rotate. But why apply this to FWD cars?? I'm basing my observations from my last set of tires. All the ware occurred in the fronts, then u rotate, again and again, then after a year all four where worn.

TIA for ur opinions!

Amoeba

I didnt rotate and my two front stock tires are done at 8800 miles , backs are fine for another 15k but screw stock, ill be changing those too.

fbazakos

my toyo t1-s's on my fronts are done after 6000 miles. of course a bunch of those miles are track miles, and it is inner edge wear, but it depends a lot on the tire and how you drive.

Slimey

The rotation schemes are different for a FWD, RWD, or AWD, and also changes if you have directional tires.

For non-directional tires, you criss-cross the front to rears, and bring the rears straight up front. If you have directional tires then you just rotate front to back and back to front on the same side.

Some RWD cars have larger rears, and you'd just rotate side to side in this case (assuming non-directional tires).

With true 4WD or AWD cars, the pattern is usually a criss-cross.

If you have a spare tire that is the same as the others, you should include this into your rotation scheme too.

Rotating tires allows all four to wear more or less evenly, and allows all four to have similar lifespans.

If you don't rotate on our car you will wear out your fronts faster then your rears. If you then replace fronts only, then the tread will be different on the new set of four (two partially worn; two new). You'll get better day-to-day performance with four tires are are similar in wear.

In the end it's your decision. Personally, I'd prefer to have four tires that are very similar -- performance will be more predictable.

RaleighNC

Thanks all for responding!


Slimey,
I do the same side front-rear rotation. Performance: most of my miles are hi-way miles with some aggressive driving over 120+. And I see your point of tread design, but can u really feel the performance loss/gain? Or are u talking about gas mileage?

Slimey

I doubt there would be a significant change in MPG.

I'd be more concerned that one corner of my car did not perform as well as the others. This may be a subtle change only.

For instance, I can 'feel' when one tire is about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds low in pressure as compared to the others. It just feels different in that corner. Will having that tire different really effect day to day driving? I doubt it.

I've only not rotated my tires once, maybe 20 years ago -- I bought the car used and the fronts were significantly more worn then the rears. I replaced all four when the fronts fully wore. I didn't like those tires anyway...

I guess the bottom line is that you have to ask yourself a question -- Do you feel lucky? oh, joking -- Are you the kind of person that will only change out one or two tires or will only change all four? I'm the kind of person that will only change all four (assuming they're all the same). I'm all for symmetry. If you're not, then I suppose that's your choice.

A couple years ago, my wife crunched the sidewall on one of her stock tires on her Saturn. She had it replaced at the dealer with a totally different tire, same size, but different brand and tread pattern. I got really when I saw this and couldn't believe a dealer would do such a thing, even a Saturn dealer. She didn't care. What happened? She drove about 50K miles more without any issue until all four had to be replaced because of wear.

We follow a lot of 'rules' to improve performance and predictability, but in the end, these cars have a lot of leeway before catastrophe. YMMV

RaleighNC

Thanks for the feedback Slimey.