Tire rotation at 15,000 after missing tire rotation at 5,000?

[macosxaddict]

I have a 2008 Prius. At 5,000 miles, I happened to be on a road trip across the country, and was in Canada at the time, so I stopped at a Toyota dealership to get an oil/filter change and tire rotation. They told me they don't normally rotate the tires at 5,000 miles, so I didn't get the tires rotated until 10,000 miles.

Now I'm at 15,000 miles. The manual recommends tire rotations every 5,000 miles, so I'm due. But I wonder if I should wait another 5,000 so that I get even wear with the original 10,000 miles in the initial configuration? My theory is that I want to have an equal amount of wear in each of the two configurations.

A possible confounding factor: most of the first 5,000 miles were highway driving, and most of the recent miles were suburban and short highway driving. Does this change the answer?

[efusco]

I wouldn't sweat it too much. If you haven't rotated for 10k miles you probably should go ahead and do it now. I haven't rotated my tires in about 20k miles and have kind of decided it doesn't matter much with my hydroedge tires since they're unidirectional they just rotate front to back anyway.

[macosxaddict]

Originally Posted by efusco

I wouldn't sweat it too much. If you haven't rotated for 10k miles you probably should go ahead and do it now. I haven't rotated my tires in about 20k miles and have kind of decided it doesn't matter much with my hydroedge tires since they're unidirectional they just rotate front to back anyway.

Well, it's now been 5,000 miles. The question is whether I do it now or wait until 10,000.

[dogfriend]

The best way to determine is not by mileage, but by wear pattern. Measure the tread depth across the profile of the tire (i.e. measure in each groove). Determine if the wear is even and equal on all of the 4 tires. If it is, then you can leave them as they are. If the fronts (for example) have less tread depth, then you can rotate the fronts to the back to even out the difference.

BTW, some people believe its safer to have the "better" tires at the rear of the car. In this case, you wouldn't rotate at all but would replace the fronts when worn out and rotate the rear tires to the front and put the new tires on the rear.

[richard schumacher]

Ditto that last. Not rotating both increases safety and maximizes the value you get from each tire.

[Boo]

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

Ditto that last. Not rotating both increases safety and maximizes the value you get from each tire.

Hi Richard,

I've heard that before. Maybe it was from you. I have no knowledge of this stuff, but I found this on a google search:

"CLICK & CLACK TOM AND RAY MAGLIOZZI
Rotation debate spins around
November 6, 2004

DEAR TOM AND RAY:

The owner's manual for my 2000 BMW 328i says in the interests of safety and handling, I should not rotate my tires.

It also implies that tire rotation will not extend the life of the tires in a meaningful way.

But the instructions with my new tires (not to mention those from the tire reseller and the mechanic who services my car) all suggest periodic rotation.

To rotate, or not to rotate? – Larry

TOM: This was one of the great civic debates of the 20th century, Larry.

We've always felt that tire rotation is of marginal value in terms of saving money. Why? Because the cost of tire rotation roughly equals the amount saved by extending tire life.

RAY: You can see why mechanics like it. Not only is it an easy few bucks for us, but it also gets your car into the shop again so we can sell you other services – like engine flushes and fuzzy-dice reupholstering!

TOM: Our feeling has always been that if the tire rotation is free, do it.

In other words, if you're having your brakes checked, and the wheels are already off the car and your mechanic is nice enough to rotate them for nothing, then do it. That's what we do for our customers.

But if you have to pay for tire rotation as a separate service, it's pretty much a wash, as far as we can tell.

RAY: As for BMW, it figures that anyone who buys a BMW places handling above a few bucks. And in many cases, its cars come with directional tires, which are only supposed to be rotated front to back.

TOM: BMW cites safety because the front and rear tires develop different wear patterns. And for at least a little while – until the wear evens out, which is the point of tire rotation – you might have slightly inferior handling with newly rotated tires.

RAY: It's a technicality, and very few drivers would ever notice it, but BMW is, technically, correct.

TOM: Still, we see nothing wrong with rotating your tires. No harm will be done, in our opinion."

[dogfriend]

I would add that if you are going with the no-rotation plan, you still need to inspect for uneven wear because you could have an alignment or other mechanical issue that could cause a tire to wear unevenly. I think this is why most of the auto manufacturers recommend rotation - it will tend to even out any issues and the entire set of tires should last longer.

I think the no-rotation scheme works well for front drive cars because the rear tires don't see much wear (they basically get dragged around) and the fronts will wear rather rapidly due to turning and driving forces. I am following the no-rotation scheme on the Prius because I was forced to replace a damaged tire at 15k - so I bought a new set for the rear and plan to rotate those to the front when the OEMs are worn out within the next 5 -10k (I'm at 28k).

On rear drive vehicles, I think it makes more sense to rotate because the turning and driving forces are split. On my auto 4wd Ford Explorer, rotation is important because the 4wd drive system is activated when the front and rear driveshaft speeds differ from each other - if you don't rotate, it can cause the 4wd system to malfunction due to different tire diameters. This isn't just a theoretical possibility - I have seen this problem reported on the Explorer forum.

[Boo]

Thanks dogfriend. I think I'll continue to do no rotation for my Prius, which now has about 10,000 miles on TripleTreds that have never been rotated.

[ETP]

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

Ditto that last. Not rotating both increases safety and maximizes the value you get from each tire.

ditto/I rotate my tires off the car and buy new ones. This has worked so far unless a vehicle has a really bad front end design.

[lys]

I've done the Prius tires rotation recently (DIY at 20,000 km, 12,500 miles) because the not rotated tires of my wife's Corolla has develope some "plains" in the rear tires after 45,000 km (28,000 miles), and it sounded as a bearing failure.

But asking for a warranty issue at the 45,000 km service, they discovered the plains and did the rotation (always speaking of the Corolla). Just now my wife says the sound is alleviating, so the service did it correctly.

It seems there is a problem with so front-weight cars, when only 1 person on board, that the rear tires become uneven in irregular roads, the shock absorbers don't work fine and the car tend to bounce a bit at the rear.

Now, I'm a believer (converted).