Tire Rotation Interval ?

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For suburban driving (i.e. 10% highway , 90% street) what mileage is your tire rotation schedule for a front wheel drive vehicle ? ... I'm guessing every 5,000 ~ 7,500 miles ? ... The same time you do an oil change ? Thanks in advance .
 
When/if I notice uneven wear. (Yeah, I know I should be doing it more frequently) Usually between 10k-20k miles. I'm probably more like 50/50 highway/city. My tires are generally all at the wear bars around the same time with this practice. FWD, RWD, & 4X4.
 
Personally, I can't sort out how rotating them more often than the recommended interval (6-10K) will help wear, in the long term. At least, enough to make it worth it. Highest inflation practical will help reduce wearing on the outside edge, which is what I see the most in FWD's. I've yet to see a car/van wear the center of the tire out first, in the case of 40-45 PSI in a 44-51 PSI tire - most of the time with a door-sticker inflation spec of 32-36 PSI.
 
I don't rotate tires, other than wheel alignment and balancing ..... and achieve even tire wear.
 
I do it religiously at 6K miles at my local DT. I haven't gotten a set of Michelin Defenders to the 90K that they're warranted to, but, given the credit that I get because of the regular rotations, I haven't paid full price for a new set of tires lately, either.
 
Originally Posted By: khittner
I do it religiously at 6K miles at my local DT.
Same for me and I find the life of the tires are extended (versus not rotating) and in the case of my PSD, re-balancing at rotation helps with the ride quality.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Between 6k and 10k.


Same ~ but moving more often to the 10k side of scale …
 
90% city like driving? I'd aim for 5k, or at least at oil change time (do both at same time). Tons of highway, tons of straight roads, then perhaps 10k.

Really, it comes down to, what works for you? If you go to 10k and notice horrible wear, then it's too long. If wear looks fine, then perhaps leave it at 5k--or run longer and see if 20k or even full life of the tire is ok. Prior car I had looked like it needed 3k rotations due to a bum axle (high toe-in) which was not worth fixing.

I've found that 10k is about the limit on my vehicles--I can see tire wear up front if I go out to 10k, so 5k is a good point. Despite no city driving, my roads have lots of twists. So I do 5k, unless if I'm busy and it just doesn't get done.
 
10K for my wife's Jag and my Saab. Less often for the Bronco and F-150. I keep the wear even with inflation. Higher in front than rear, especially the Saab (FWD).

Both of those are 4x4, and there it's all about inflation and rolling diameter. Changes with load and pulling trailers, etc.

All vehicles have a tire inflation gauge in the glove box
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud


In Canada we use snow tires every year so I rotate the summers when I put them back on in the
spring.

+1 Works out to between 8-10k miles for me, but I'm mostly hwy driving with some autocross abuse.
I just put the ones with the most tread depth on the front everytime.
I did flip my directional tires on the rims to even out the shoulder wear after two summers.
 
I do mainly highway, my wife does mostly city and tires get treated the same way. I have to switch summer/winter anyway so I rotate them at that time, so twice a year (or rather once a year per tire set).
 
Usually every 6-7k on the Sonata.

The Camry has a newer pair on the front since it doesn’t rain here. And it also has been sitting pretty much since February...
 
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud


In Canada we use snow tires every year so I rotate the summers when I put them back on in the
spring.


Same here, rotate them when I do the switchover. End up being about 8000mi per rotation on the summer tires and about 2-3000mi on the winter tires. All that will this year with the new car though, the mileage per season per car will be much lower.
 
Originally Posted By: ChrisD46
For suburban driving (i.e. 10% highway , 90% street) what mileage is your tire rotation schedule for a front wheel drive vehicle ? ... I'm guessing every 5,000 ~ 7,500 miles ? ... The same time you do an oil change ? Thanks in advance .


Not all FW drive vehicles are the same but generally 5000k miles is a good interval for tire rotations.

In addition to trying equalize tread depth from the drive axel to the non-driving axel, rotating your tires such that they will roll in the opposite direction at each interval ("X" pattern - RF to LR, LF to RR, RR to LF, LR to RF) will mitigate the heal-toe wear that naturally develops when the tread blocks exit the footprint. Some tread patterns are more susceptible to heal-toe than others, but all do it to some degree. The main issue caused by heal-toe wear is increase tire noise.

There are vehicles being manufactured today that have issues with fast/irregular tire wear due to factory alignment settings and also from out of spec, non-adjustable rear suspension setups. If you are aware of issues like this, fast inside shoulder wear on the rear positions for example, then you may want to tailor your rotation schedule and pattern to compensate.
 
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