Is tire rotation "required maintenance"?

You may want to consult your particular warranty statement, But tires are have their own manufactures warrenty

 

I don't know.
My approach as long as I was under "Toyota Care"--first two years, with no extended warranty, was to let the dealership do the rotations, when I let them do the Oil Changes.

Then at least it was in the service records.

Past that point I expect it's up to me. And my continued philosophy is that tire rotations are cheap, easy...usually quick.

I have the original OEM tires, so I'm probably nearing borrowed time with them anyway. But when I replace, I'll choose a place that offers free rotations.

 

between the tire and the car it makes no difference, however I cant speak of your "extended", your at the mercy of how the policy statement is written, especially if it says anything about tires.

I have driving off the lot and immediately replaced the tires and no one ever said a word throughout the service period of the warranty. never had an "extended" though.

 

Tire rotation primarily is to extend the life of your tires. I don't think Toyota cares about your tires a bit, as items of normal wear. It's up to you.
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I think you're probably OK not rotating the tires. I agree that Toyota doesn't care about your tires. The tire warranty could be affected, is about the only thing. If they are the original tires, there's not much warranty left with that mileage.

 

Right. It would be sad and funny at the same time if they wouldn't fix a problem because the tires were not rotated. Like they would say, "we're not covering your power steering failure because your tires weren't rotated". One does not have anything to do with the other.

Cheers!

 

I'd be spending my worries and anxiety cycles getting the extended contract money back,

 

Yeah, even though my personal approach is to just go ahead and rotate tires, because it's usually cheap (free) and easy, my speculation is that it wouldn't have any affect on the warranty coverage of the rest of your vehicle.

Toyota would have to prove that whatever components failure was a direct connection to not rotating your tires, which I would think would be nearly impossible.

As long as all your tires are in "safe" and operational condition, I don't see how Toyota could deny coverage.

 

Cutter if we assume MA means Massachusetts, then you are in the US and the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act applies.

The warrantor has to prove your action caused parts to fail; if you did not rotate the tires, it would be easy to prove that is why the tires failed, but it is wildly unlikely they could prove that unrotated tires caused the paint to fade.

"In addition, the warrantor may not impose any duty, other than notification, upon any consumer, as a condition of securing the repair of any consumer product that malfunctions, is defective, or does not conform to the written warranty. However, the warrantor may require consumers to return a defective item to its place of purchase for repair." So there really is no required maintenance, just suggested maintenance. If you fail to follow the suggestions, that gives the warrantor a defense he did not have. Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

i'm thinking, what if the tyres start wearing in a funny pattern, it affects your alignment and causes premature front end wear and rear?

 

I never "rotate" the tires, per se. Having snow tires on separate rims, I just incorporate the rotation into the switch over.

Tire rotation is purely to extend tire life, it would have no bearing on other mechanical items. One caution, beside tire rotation there's visual brake inspection, and fluid level check. So take a quick look at the brakes and check the dipstick.

 

Just rotate the tires yourself or write down in the maintenance log the tires were rotated. It is illegal in the United States for any car manufacturer to insist warranties are invalid if maintenance not done by certified tech or dealer. Anyone can do the maintenance as long as you can prove (receipts) or log (any type of maintenance log) can be provided-and if they try; lawsuit in federal court and you will win.

 

I can't imagine any instance where not rotating tires would cause warranty problems if anything else has issues. Don't worry about it.

Tire rotation is so that your tires wear evenly, front to back. You don't even HAVE to rotate if you don't care about that. You would just replace the front tires and motor on. The only problem with that would be your rear tires would age and sun crack, which might cause problems of their own...after 5 yrs on the job.

 

One spin-off of brake rotation is it's hand-in-hand with brake inspections, which are also part of maybe every other maintenance interval.

 

Incidentally I contacted a local Toyota dealership to inquire about swapping my winter tires-on-rims and storing them. I was told that if I'm going to be taking in my car for the annual Maintenance Service anyway, it includes a tire rotation and they can put on the winter tires in lieu of said rotation. I suppose when switching back I could ask them if they'd typically carry out a "rotation" when putting them back?

 

Yes. They mark the location the tires come off of, then swap them front to back at next install.

 

There you go. So if you use two sets of tires per year anyway you don't need to explicitly get them rotated (unless you're using the car very heavily?).