Tire Rotation?

Probably move between front and back on same side to maintain correct direction of rotation.

 

Just my laziness here, not saying you should do this. But I never rotated the tires on my Gen2. 200K and I was getting about 75 K per set. When the fronts were done the rear didn't have much left. My driving was about 75% highway miles.

 

The tire booklet that was provided with my owner's manual showed the criss-cross pattern, but further explained that you should defer to your car's owner's manual If it showed anything different. The owner's manual shows from to back, as has been noted.

What's up with that?

The recommended (and perhaps tire warrantee required) rotation interval of 5,000 miles seems especially ridiculous if just going back and forth on one side.

I wonder how/why Toyota came up with 5k?

 

As little as I drive now, I could go 5 years without rotating... Or, like Tom said, never rotate. I might just leave those OEM Toyo tires as is, and see how they do.

 

Having snow tires in the mix, rotation just comes naturally. Toyota says keep them on the same side, so I go along with it. One benefit: only the curbside rims get chewed at all. Plus: the snow tires are directional.

 

At my Firestone auto center your tire mileage waranty will not be honored unless you rotate every 5K miles. Isn't Bridgestone owned by Firestone? If so that would explain the rotation interval.

 

I never rotate them except off the car. Always get two at a time and put the new ones on the back. 42 is the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Adequate tire inflation is the answer to great tire wear. At 42 for Prius and 51 for Honda I have never worn the center out or had catastrophic failure.

But I have had cat failure.

 

I noticed this in the usa online manual and did a check with my physical manual which is in Japanese. the rotations for the Japanese manual are different. it is front to back and back to front but with a criss cross only for the back to front tires. that way every tire gets to move to all four corners each cycle. I'd take a photo if anyone needs it.

 

Please do post a photo.

Thanks.

 

i didn't rotate my oem's for 42,000 miles. now, i'm getting a flat spot or something noisy in one of the rears. they still have good tread, and very even wear. i tried cross rotating them, and that made the noise 10 times worse. i may just buy another goodyear for the bad one, or maybe two new michelins.

 

as requested. I presume thats because jdm stock tires are bidirectional? pls check usa stock tyres first if you intend to follow this rotation pattern. I also noticed usa manual engine oil specs for 0w20 only but jdm spec seems to allow for 10w30..

 

I am a unidirectional type person

 

Related question. Does anyone have experience with this brand of tire? Looking to get 4 for my son's Caravan,

 

Australian manual shows the same (only with English Text except for the spelling of TYRES is TIRES). But it also has an option of "VEHICLES WITH FULL SIZE SPARE TIRE" - which I'm told isn't available. From what I see, my Bridgestones aren't unidirectional.

I had a friend in the tyre sale business, he said he NEVER rotated his own tyres - would do customers if they requested. His philosphy is 1) you put your best tyres on the back because most spin-offs are when the back end loses traction - I quizzed Dunlop headquarters about that, and they confirmed it in writing; 2) should there be an alignment or mechanical problem, you may not pick it up in a 7500km rotation, and end up ruining 4 tyres instead of just 2. 3) he let the fronts wear out (faster than back, particularly in FWD) - move the backs to the front, same side, so they rotate the same direction and put new tyres on the back. (He was also adamant that steel belted radials should run in the same direction for their entire life unless you're going to rotate them ridiculously regularly.) I've been doing that for nearly 40 years now. My car, at service has a note sitting on the dashboard "Please don't rotate my tyres".

 

Perfect.

 

This is starting to take on the characteristics of one of the extended warranty threads.

Do what you like. The fact remains that the automaker employs (and/or engages via their vendors) engineers highly specialized within certain fields. The sum experience of these highly specialized engineers is summarized in the automaker's recommendations.

If someone decides to do something different (and may have done so for "years") that's fine - but unless you're a tire/suspension engineer, it's highly unlikely that what you're doing is better than the recommendations that are provided from the manufacturer.

Just speaking as an engineer that has been part of various industries, and witnessed first-hand the effort that goes into providing manufacturer's recommendations...

 

Yea, but....

The brochure that came from my tires' manufacturer recommends a rotating protocol that sees each tire moved to all 4 possible positions, "unless the automobile manufacture suggests differently".

As such, one cannot help but pondered if Toyota is recommending a sub- optimal "front-to-back only" protocol simply because it does not trust the person changing the tires to check and follow the specific recommendations for the tire.

In other words, to make the decision on how to rotate idiot proof.

On a related note, I think that a 5,000 mile rotation interval make more sense if I tire is going to be mounted in 4 positions, rather than just two positions. I also think that when recommending the rotating interval, the tire manufacture may feel it best to suggest just one interval regardless, to keep it "simple".

Or to put this a different way, I have concluded that it is a waste of my time to have my tires rotated front to back every 5,000 miles. And the risk of dinging to the black powder coat (already done on my first change) or damage caused by another opportunity to over torque or under torque, out weighs any benefits.

If I drove fewer miles a year, I might think differently as I would want to have the wheel taken off anyway to check/service the brakes (I had sticky/frozen caliper issues on our 2010 more than once).

 

Never tried that on any car but has anyone else done that and can report the results?