Working from my shop teachers advice in 45 years of driving I have never rotated tires.
Front tires wear faster than the rear.
Tires develop wear patterns and when moved wear faster to the new location pattern.
A front tire is worse to have a blowout on than a rear. People will say traction issue for your rear sliding out but I do not drive at indy live in WI and deal with snow.
Typical no rotate scenario with no cost for rotation and no chance of warped rotors due to improperly tightened lug nuts.
50 k front tires replaced.
75k fronts moved to back, new fronts.
my guess with rotation all 4 would need to be replaced at 55k.
net gain 30k miles per each 4 tires less rotation cost and potential warped rotors.
The original question is “Does Rotating tires save money?” My answer is I don’t know. I rotate my tires but saving money is not why I do it.
As cars have added features like ABS brakes, traction control, and anti-skip systems tires with the same grip and traction have become more important. In particular having tires with as close to the same tread design and tread depth optimizes these systems. You put a worn tire on one wheel and when that wheel losses traction then ABS kicks in and cuts the braking power to the other wheels so in effect your traction limits now depends on tire with the worst traction. Same idea as a chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Putting 2 new tires on the front (or back) and older tires on the other axle will degrade the performance of cars with ABS, traction control, etc.
I’m not dogmatic about rotations, my goal is to have similar tread depth on all four wheels. I have a FWD car that definately wears the fronts faster than the rears. One RWD car that seems more balanced with little difference in wear front to back. Finally and SUV that I can’t really tell yet, but seems to wear the tires pretty evenly front and back. The FWD car I rotate every 10K miles and when I switch to snows the summer tires are rotated front to back when the snows come off. The other 2 cars get rotated about every 15 to 20K miles and the hope here is to keep a tire from “cupping” and even up the wear if there is an out of alignment situation.
Bottom line is I look at the tires and make decisions to rotate or not based on what I see happening to the tires.
america741776, I agree with you 100%. It is completely unnecessary for you rotate your own tires. Where we disagree is that I believe that having it done for free, or for a nominal expense when you purchase the tires, isn’t such a hardship that you should not have it done. Many places will let you make an appointment, and even if you go to one that doesn’t, you don’t have to sit there wasting your time waiting for it to be finished.
Thanks to UncleTurbo for reminding me that awd and 4wd cars tire rotation is essential!
Gee, I’m a math instructor too, but I also have a minor in biology and am more worried about my grand child’s physical well being then my pocketbook when they ride in my car. Some of you may convince yourselves that not rotating your tires for what ever reason is not as important as say, maintaining your brakes as it applies to the safe car ownership…I cannot. I know enough physics to be dangerous, and what little I do know frightens me into doing things like…keeping tire pressure within range, obeying speed limits and rotating tires. It all goes together in preparing for emergency situations.
The accidents I had to investigate as a cop seemed to involve many more cars and drivers that were poorly prepared for the road than those that were better prepared.
We just work the odds in our favor before we get behind the wheel.
BTW, “Uncle Turbo” has some observations that make lots of sense to me.
Tire places aren’t the only places to get your tires rotated. You can schedule an oil change at just about any shop or dealership and request a tire rotation and brake inspection with the oil change. Many places will jump at the opportunity to inspect the brakes and possibly get an upsell brake job for a measly free tire rotation. The last oil change I got was at a local Mercury dealership for $14.95 and I got a free tire rotation just for asking for it, and was in and out in a half hour. I let them change my oil because it is cheaper than I can get the parts myself, especially considering the fifth one is free. Many dealerships have really good deals like this going on, so make some phone calls and check it out. The only caveat is to get a second opinion on any recommended services, as the reason for the cheap oil changes is to reel in customers for upsells like flushes, struts, etc.
By the way, I agree that the ability to change a wheel should be mandatory for anybody who has a drivers license, unless there is some legitimate physical ailment that prevents you from having the (minimal needed) strength to accomplish the task. It’s really very simple, and the necessary physical ability needed is on par with the requirements for reasonable accommodations for most jobs, like bending and being able to lift 30-40 pounds.
One other thing: I don’t think most of us make 20-30 dollars an hour, as you previously suggested. There is another post on here regarding pay scales of mechanics versus nurses. The most I ever made as an ASE Certified mechanic was $9 per hour, $28,000 a year. Current AVERAGE (NOT STARTING) pay for an ASE Certified auto technician is around $33,000 a year, hardly your $20-$30 per hour.
Sorry, the rampant misconception that mechanics are paid very handsomely for what they do is something that really bothers me, and has for years.
You say minimal, but some shops do overtighten the lug nuts when they put them back on. I remember one of my neighbors having to get his breaker bar to help me get my lug nuts off when I had gotten a flat tire at home. There was no way I was gonna be able to get them off myself.
Does Rotating Tires Save Money?
Actually it not only saves money, it makes money. There are several places in the little town nearest my house that will do it “free” of charge. Then they sell additional services and make a lot of money.
I quit rotating tires years ago. I think it’s a farce unless you drive a car that is screwed up (by design or lack of maintenance) and wears tires unevenly. I leave those babies right where they live and use their action and appearance to “read” what’s going on with the tires and the car’s suspension/steering system. I replace tires in pairs.
I have done this for decades now on all of our cars. Four of our large FWD domestic badged cars are driven 20K to 25K per year in extreme weather conditions above the 45th parallel. I generally get between 80K and 110K out of the standard issue M&S tires.
This is my opinion, but I think wear has more to do with the car’s integrity than the tire location. Tire age is more a concern for me than wear. Also, I buy cars that have standard tire sizes and not something exotic.
CSA
“I remember one of my neighbors having to get his breaker bar to help me get my lug nuts off when I had gotten a flat tire at home. There was no way I was gonna be able to get them off myself.”
Just a suggestion for the ultimate balky lug nut remover w/o impact wrenches. In a pinch, floor jack handles and the like are often hollow and make excellent lever arms. I once had one so tight, I slid a ten foot section of a sailboat mast over the wrench handle, then ever so gently “lower” the mast end. Be careful, you can exert so much force, you can easily snap of the bolt/nut assembly.
I suppose the original post is really asking, if you HAVE to pay $20 per rotation, is it worth it.
I’d guess that for a cheaper set of tires it would be close. Even if losing a few dollars by doing the rotations, I’d do it just for the safety benefits. Once you get into the pricier tires, I would think it would be a no brainer to get it done.
I was a math major, but I never considered myself very good a helping my children at math. They did OK however.
Yea, I am more likely to rotate the tyres myself. Frankly it is easy, but I would do the same rotation, even if I did not do it myself. From a safety and cost, having your tyres rotated will IMO be worth the cost.
at the time I did not have a floor jack, just the scissor jack that came in the car.
I agree with Joe- it works for me,believe it or not,every so often you will get a vehicle that wears tires evenly,if they are wearing evenly I dont mess witn them.The road conditions have a lot to do tire wear too. I have seen some people really take it to extremes( such as actually dismounting a heavy truck tire and removing it from the rim and switching sides with it in order to get more miles from it, a joy to drive on rainy days) .If you have a suspension or alingment problem take care of that first,rather then try to accomadate it with frequent rotations.Rule No.1-keep tires properly inflated and keep in mind some people enjoy doing this as a part of routine carcare-Kevin
Thanks to UncleTurbo for reminding me that awd and 4wd cars tire rotation is essential!
No more than any other car needs. All mechanics being well maintained and driving habits sane, our awd drive Subarus,easily got 90K total out of one set each of summer and snows on rims rotated summer and fall and were still functional, legal and safe when we sold the vehicle. They are just less forgiving when not rotated but offer better tire life potential than any FWD car I have owned before. Our RAV 4 shows the same inclination. So let’s get off the AWD tire bashing; it “ain’t so”. It just makes sense when acceleration as well as braking is balanced, unlike the overstressed front tires on FWD cars.
I’m not sure if waterboy was being sarcastic or genuine in the highlighted comment in your post.
What I tried to say is that FWD cars definately wear the front tires out faster than RWD, AWD, and 4WD. Therefore I do routinely rotate tires on FWD cars. That way I have close to the same tread depth and tread pattern on each wheel. This does mean that all 4 tires get replaced at one time. I don’t think this saves any money. If I paid for tire rotations it would likely cost more money.
The AWD, RWD, and 4WD cars I have get rotated on an “as needed” basics. My RWD car is a T’bird with posi rear end. It doesn’t burn out too much (when I switch off the traction control it will) but the rear tires do get a lot of bite and since it is a performance car and I have some fun driving it, yeah the rears wear a bit faster. The 4WD is an SUV where the rears do most of the driving and the fronts do most of the braking since is in RWD mode most of the time. So far, the tire wear seems pretty even. When I bought the SUV 10K miles ago it had new tires on the front and recently new tires on the back. So far no need to rotate, the fronts and backs are close enough to the same depth of tread.
I do have a little tire depth guage, but mostly I just check the tires visually and decide what to do based on looks and feeling the tread for evidence of cupping. So, I don’t think rotating tires on AWD or 4WD is essential, but if I see differences in tread wear I will rotate rather than wear out the fronts sooner than the backs or vice versa.
You need not be restricted by money or physical ability from rotating tires at home. I suggest you think outside the box and hire a teenage kid or two to rotate your tires for a few dollars for each kid. They will have great fun doing it and you can have fun supervising the project. Don’t forget to evenly snug up and also torque the wheel nuts to spec.
Replying to a reply unfortunately does not bump the post so here is the bump.
I would add that if you are not able to remove the lug nuts, chances are good they were over torqued and or had not been rotated for some time. Wheels that have not been rotated are more difficult to remove.
Not being able to get them off is another reason to rotate them regularly.
I wonder how many people here who are sold on frequent rotations have gotten over 100,000 miles on a set of tires as I have on the last two sets of tires for my vehicles. I only do one rotation for the life of the tires, and thats when the front tires are worn down to 5/32" tread depth.
Rotating tires causes them to take on a different wear pattern which accelerates tire wear each time that is done. It also masks alignment and suspension problems that once corrected, greatly increases the life of the tire.
To get long life from a set of tires, you have to keep them at optimal pressure for your driving style, which means getting a tire tread depth gauge and measuring the tread depth periodically, especially when new. If the tread is not wearing evenly across, then adjust tire pressure or get the wheels aligned accordingly. Once the best pressure is dialed in and the alignment is right, maintain the pressure and don’t mess with the alignment.
If you have a 4wd or AWD vehicle, then you need to check the tread depth frequently and rotate the tires when the tread depth varies by 1/32" from tire to tire or damage tot he 4wd components can occur. And if you think tires are expensive…
I was being sincere, In both comments.