Is rotating your tires really necessary?
Define “necessary.” If you use the Search function you’ll find more than one thread on this and varying preferences/opinions.
I rotate my tires because I always want 4 matching tires with even wear. I wear them 4 at a time and replace them 4 at a time. That’s the way I like it, and I think I’m usually safer for it.
If you want it that way, then it is best to rotate.
Others will think it is rather insignificant.
Not if they are wearing evenly.
According to the owner’s manual for one of our cars, a front driver, the manual says that tire manufacturers recommend it to prolong tire life. I have put off tire rotation more than once on more than one front drive car and have found that the rear tires develop flat spots on the edge of the tread. Wait too much longer and they get noisy too and the noise may remain after rotation.
With wide tires so prevalent now, the flat spotting will not get better. One of our cars has old fashioned narrow tires and the flat spotting does heal and the noise from late tire rotation goes away in a few thousand miles.
With a rear drive car, tire rotation may not be quite as critical but still needs to be done.
Others can comment on four wheel and all wheel drivers; we don’t have one.
No. A Properly Designed Car With Proper Alignment Does Not Need Tire Rotation.
Also, I like to be able to “read” the tires in their respective locations in order to be alerted to any changing conditions should they arise.
I have seen certain car makes / models that wear tires unevenly regardless of how true the alignment.
The manufacturers of these vehicles recommend rotation in order to place blame on your maintenance routine, rather than their vehicle design. I stay away from those vehicles.
I replace tires in axle pairs when they wear out. I often achieve well over 100,000 miles on tires with this method and sometimes replace tires based on age at that point, rather than wear.
I would put the money into a proper 4 wheel alignment. After that if the tires wear unevenly and need rotation, I guess you’d have to rotate the tires, but I would not buy that make / model when a replacement becomes inevitable.
CSA
Necessary? No.
A good idea? Yes.
Most tire wear occurs in the cornering mode due to the slip angle developed in order to turn the mass of the car. This slip angle causes tires to wear irregularly - albeit very slowly. Plus cars are designed with a little bit of toe in. It’s just a matter of time before irregular wear shows up - which will exhibit itself as a vibration or noise
Rotating the tires prevents this irregular wear from becoming too bad. Needless to say you can rotate the tires once the noise or vibration is noticeable, but you’ll have to tolerate the noise or vibration until a new wear pattern developes - which make take longer than you have patience.
Good things said so far…
What I’d like to add…A lot depends on the vehicle. Many pickups and SUV tires really like to be rotated every 5-7k miles. I found (the hard way) that NOT rotating them regularly will result in pre-mature death. Skip just a few rotations and the tires could easily loose half it’s life.
Never had this problem with my wifes cars (mainly mid-size fwd vehicles). Usually get 60k+ miles with rotations every 10-15k miles.
What some people like to do is NEVER rotate and just replace the two tires that worn the most…about every 40-50k or so. This is a good method too…The only problem I have with it…is finding replacement tires. Sometimes the tires you’re replacing are no longer available…so you have to settle for a comparable tire…and many times they are not that comparable.
I think particularly with front-wheel drive cars that rotation roughly every 7500-10000 miles is a pretty good idea. Just think of the additional wear resulting in the front tires because they drive the car, steer and bear the weight of the engine. Depending on where you get your tires, it may be a service provided to you. I just got new tires from Sears and it included lifetime rotations. That would take care of some of the hassle of it.
that is true about them wearing evenly, however It would be better(since not everyone drives the same) to at least swap the fronts and rears every so often to keep them wearing evenly.
It depends. Do you have to pay for it(free with some replacement tire installs)? If you pay how much do they charge?
There are many good reasons to do it. I should do it more often as I own an AWD Subaru car but my mechanic properly measures circumference on tire and visually inspects and then performs if needed which is around every 10k-15 miles. He is pricey when he actually performs the rotation/balance ($48) but road tests it at various speeds which does not happen most places.
Many of us have differeing opinions on this. My own opinion is that…it depends.
On a vehicle with uneven wear, the problem should be corrected anyway. And, frankly, rotating tires can hide a slightly uneven wear condition by spreading it amongst the tires.
If the wear is even and the fronts are wearing faster than the others, it’ll prolong the life of the set of tires.
Mine wear fairly evenly between front and back. When the front gets down by the wear bars, the back isn’t too far behind. I live where bad winter weather is common, and I don’t want to start winter with any tire with less than, say, 20% of the tread left. And I drive a lot of miles and use high performance tires (not known for longevity), so I change mine every year before the winter anyway. In my case there really is no reason to rotate them. For an extra hundred dollars or so (an estmate of the value of the added miles I would have gotten out of them) I have good, deep, safe tread on for winter. That’s a big safety thing with me.
So, my answer is that there is no “correct” answer. It really does depend. But anyone who lives where there’s winter (or heavy raisn for that matter) who tries to squeeze some extra miles out of their tires by rotating them is, IMHO, taking a risk not worth taking.