Do any of you rotate your (car) tyres?

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rayonline

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#113182 8-Jan-2013 21:15

I just thought about this. We bought the car as a import new, used in otherwords, from Turners, 2 or so years ago. The front threads has about a 1mm less than the rear tyres. We've never rotated any of our tyres from the others cars we have owned. We probably need to replace all 4 soon. Do you guys rotate them? Substantial benefits?

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#741936 8-Jan-2013 21:18

I don't

AKLWestie

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#741938 8-Jan-2013 21:24

I ask the mechanic to rotate the tyres for me during annual servicing. It does help to even the tyre wear. It is not unusual for me to put 80,000 kms on a set of tyres.

Shoes2468

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#741939 8-Jan-2013 21:25

It depends if the tyres are wearing unevenly then there maybe an advantage rotating them if you want to replace 4at the same time or if you leave them then you maybe you would only need to replace two at a time spreading out the cost

ObidiahSlope

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#741962 8-Jan-2013 22:12

Purchase a decent tyre pressure guage. Find the car manufacturers tyre pressure recommendation(sometimes on a plate inside the drivers door surround) and inflate the tyres to this recomendation.

The advantages are even tyre wear, better handling, and more fuel economy.

Run the palm of your hand over the tread of the front tyres in both directions. If the tread ridges are sharper in one direction this is a sign that your wheel alignment needs attention.

Obsequious hypocrite

scuwp

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#741964 8-Jan-2013 22:16

You don't 'rotate' these days. Tyres are almost all directional so you can only swap front to back or vice versa on the same side. personally I don't, but when replacing tyres I always to both on the same axle, and ensure the new tyres are always placed on the rear (cue another argument here...)

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

sbiddle

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#741969 8-Jan-2013 22:20

My car (a Focus) loves chewing through front tyres. I've tried rotating them in the past, but in some ways don't really see a point.

The back tyres always need to have better tread than the front, so as the front ones wear there is no point swapping them unless they're staying even. I just tend to let the front ones wear out, move the back to the front, and but new tyres on the back.

dickytim

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#742033 9-Jan-2013 07:22

I do rotate, that comes from when I was working for a mechanic and is more about habit and putting off a purchase than anything else.

I also like the feeling of driving on a full set of me tyres, and the discount I can usually negotiate on them!

Front or rear to have the best tyres, I had always been told put the new tyres on the front as that is where the steering happens. I guess there could be arguments for both schools of thought.

Having had a high performance 4WD car before this one I always rotated to try and promote even tread wear as unequal sized tyres can have effects on 4WD systems.

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Behodar

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#742035 9-Jan-2013 07:41

I just let them rotate while I'm driving. Less hassle that way; I've only had to replace one so far.

sbiddle

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#742038 9-Jan-2013 07:54

dickytim: Front or rear to have the best tyres, I had always been told put the new tyres on the front as that is where the steering happens. I guess there could be arguments for both schools of thought.

In the old days this used to be quite a topical point of discussion. With any modern front wheel drive car you have to be absolutely crazy to do this - the deepest tread should always be on the rear to prevent hydroplaning and I'd be surprised if you found a single tyre retailer these days that would ever allow fitting of new tyres to the front of a modern front wheel drive car.

In wet conditions the tyres with the least tread will aquaplane first. If the tyres at the front have the least tread your car will understeer, If the tyres at the back have the least tread your car will oversteer. Recovering from oversteering caused by aquaplaning caused by is vastly more difficult than understeering caused by the front wheels aquaplaning. If you've ever driven a skid pan in the wet you would appreciate this even more!

TheUngeek

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#742101 9-Jan-2013 10:41

sbiddle:
dickytim: Front or rear to have the best tyres, I had always been told put the new tyres on the front as that is where the steering happens. I guess there could be arguments for both schools of thought.

In the old days this used to be quite a topical point of discussion. With any modern front wheel drive car you have to be absolutely crazy to do this - the deepest tread should always be on the rear to prevent hydroplaning and I'd be surprised if you found a single tyre retailer these days that would ever allow fitting of new tyres to the front of a modern front wheel drive car.

In wet conditions the tyres with the least tread will aquaplane first. If the tyres at the front have the least tread your car will understeer, If the tyres at the back have the least tread your car will oversteer. Recovering from oversteering caused by aquaplaning caused by is vastly more difficult than understeering caused by the front wheels aquaplaning. If you've ever driven a skid pan in the wet you would appreciate this even more!

Can you find any evidence for that based on actual roads (not concrete skid pans or race tracks) taking into account NZ drivers and conditions?

All the "tests" I have seen are on surfaces that do not bear much ressembleance to actual roads. They also tend to over exagerate. I have seem some where you can clearly see the driver is not being consistant to alter the results.
They are done for americans that drive long distances on concrete freeways.

In NZ we drive fast in a straight line, slow in corners or in town at 50kmh.

In a straight road depressions develop in the wheel ruts. Water pools there.
Along you come at 100 kmh with your most worn tyres on the front and wow all of a sudden aquaplanning! Cue huge over reaction and a crash.
Having the better tyres on the front reduces the chance of the aquaplaning.

In town at 50 (care to guess the % of driving done here rather than open road?) you won't aquaplane unless you drive into a river. You need the best response from the front for steering or braking to avoid those pesky kids running into the road.

Also the front will clear some water, the rears have to move less than the front in most cases.

How many crashes are caused by cars going straight off the road as opposed to backwards off the road? Seen very few going backwards. Backwards = oversteer. Most are straight off, usually panic braking causing lock up and no steering.

As far as rotating goes, some (most nz car owners) don't like paying for tyres. If you rotate you can end up paying for 4 at a time. Something to keep in mind if $500+ at a time is more than you want/can pay.

insane

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#742108 9-Jan-2013 10:56

No he is right, best tyres on the back. There's also not much weight over the rear axle so the more grip/water displacement the better.

That's not to say you should have crap tyres on the front...

sbiddle

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#742114 9-Jan-2013 11:04

I'm not going to justify my comments - I'm merely pointing out facts, and the simple fact you also won't find any major tyre retailers who will fit new tyres to the front. It's pretty much standard practice across the whole indistry to fit new tyres only to the rear and move those tyres to the front on front wheel drive vehicles.

dickytim

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#742120 9-Jan-2013 11:25

sbiddle: I'm not going to justify my comments - I'm merely pointing out facts, and the simple fact you also won't find any major tyre retailers who will fit new tyres to the front. It's pretty much standard practice across the whole indistry to fit new tyres only to the rear and move those tyres to the front on front wheel drive vehicles.

I can't comment on how tyres are fitted as I have only ever purchased 4 tyres for a car at once.

I can however see both sides of the argument, what it comes down to is if you believe that you should have the best tyres on the front where the majority of the work is done, i.e. most braking, drive and steering or you want the best tyres on the rear where a lack of weight could lead more quickly to loss of grip.

For me I will just keep replacing 4 tyres at once and rotating them as wear dictates.

TheUngeek

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#742121 9-Jan-2013 11:26

Can't call it fact if it can't be backed up.

More weight on the front is yet another reason for having newer tyres there.

dickytim

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#742125 9-Jan-2013 11:33

an interesting side to this is, if you don't rotate the tyres regularly and put new tyres on the front (which is most cases wear faster) you could end up with quite old tyres on the rear of your car!

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