I have a 2006 325XI BMW and am on my third complete set of rft’s with less then 34K miles on the car. BMW tells me they do not recommend tire rotation and all the tire people tell me to do it so I can get longer tire wear.Can I rotate my tires without scewing something up?
It depends.
Do you have the same size tire front and rear, or is it the 225/45-17 for the fronts, and 255/40-17 size in the rear?
If they are the same size at all 4 corners of the car, then feel free to rotate.
If they are different sizes front and rear, then you can only rotate left to right on the car, and if you have directional tires, then they will need to be removed from the rim, and then flipped around, and then the rim and tire can be placed on the opposite side of the car.
BC.
some tires have printed on them “this side out” and are directional so they can only go on one side of the vehicle. they can still be rotated front to rear providing all 4 tires are of the same size. another factor is your wheel alignment. BMW’s require the tech to add weight to places in the car for proper alignment. many shops do not bother to do it. if the tech is any good then he can see how the old tires were wearing, read the vehicle out and see if the tires should be wearing the way they are. he could then if necessary deviate from preferred specs for the best wear. good luck
It is becomming clear that run-flat tires are not delivering the mileage that “normal” tires can. I don’t think the issue is rotation, the cause is the type of tire.
Jim,
I think you meant if the tires have an arrow on the sidewall, that means they are directional and they can only be rotated front to rear (keeping the tires on the same side.)
If the tires say “This Side Out”, then no matter where you mount them, “This Side” will always be out!
RunFlats come in 2 varieties: High Performance (which are known for their grip, not their wear) and Low Rolling Resistance (which are known for their fuel economy, not their grip and wear). There is nothing about a RunFlat that dictates good or bad wear properties.
Currently, the use of RunFlats is very limited and the vehicle manufacturers are specifying what is available - and you could say they don’t give a flying [expletive deleted] about tire wear since they don’t have to deal with the complaints - the tire manufacturers do.
If the market ever gets large enough, there will be tires available that have been designed by the tire manufacturers who are tuned in that wear is important. Until that happens, the performance properties of RunFlats will be determined by vehicle manufacturers who don’t feel the pain of poor tire wear.
The type of run-flats that BMW uses are the performance type. This low mileage is a common BMW Forum issue.
Thank you all for your input. I will go and check my tires and see what they say. The tires are same size AWD.I need to check to see if they are"directional". Never heard of that term before. I did switch from Bridgestone to Continentals in the hope they are better. (Probably not!) And I need to make sure I do wheel alighment after the winters so maybe that will help.