Why is Getting Tire Rotations Important? You may think because cars are mainly trouble-free today that you don’t have to do some necessary maintenance, including tire rotation. Not so fast. We’ll talk about why it’s still important to rotate your tires.
Why Should I Rotate My Tires?
Tire rotation is done to ensure tires wear evenly, thus extending their life and saving you money. Learn more about why and rotating four-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive.
Other Reasons Why You Should Rotate Tires
Ensuring you have even tire wear is vital for balanced handling of your vehicle. For instance, failure to rotate your tires on a front-wheel-drive eventually results in the front tires having significantly reduced tread than the rear tires. In an accident, the vehicle could be harder to control, particularly if the road is wet. Cars that have no suspension or have alignment problems may also cause unusual wear patterns on un-rotated tires, which shortens their life. One such distinctive wear pattern is tread cupping, which can cause increased high noise levels and vibration. By rotating the tires, it eliminates this issue. One final reason to rotate your tires on a regular schedule is that tire makers may require it, so as not to void their warranty.
Rotating Tires on Vehicles
Depending on their location and the vehicle’s drivetrain, tires wear differently. Here is more information on rotating tires on different drivetrains:
Front-Wheel Drive
Front-wheel drive vehicles wear front tires faster than rear tires due to the transfer of power to the road and in steering the vehicle. To correctly rotate these tires, you must move the front tires to the rear and vice versa. When moving the rear tires to the front, however, they must be placed on opposite sides of the car. So, move your rear right tire to the front left and vice versa.
Rear-Wheel Drive
With rear-wheel drive vehicles, they provide more balanced wear, because the rear tires deliver power to the pavement while the front tires handle the steering. This division of labor is all well and good, but the other functions, front and rear, produce different wear patterns, so it’s advisable to rotate the tires. Rotating rear-wheel tires is the opposite of rotating front-wheel-drive tires. Move the rear tires to the front, but stay on the same side. Move your front tires to the rear and move your front left tire to the rear right and the front tire to the rear left.
All-Wheel Drive
These types of tires need rotating the most to keep an even tread. Many of these vehicles have major differences in tread depth, which can place an unnecessary strain on the drivetrain. Rotating the tires on these vehicles need to be done often since many crossover vehicles are in front-wheel-drive most of the time and wear faster than the rear tires. A variance of more than 2/32 of an inch suggests these tires must be rotated more often. You will use the same process on an all-wheel-drive as you would a rear-wheel drive. Move the front right tire to the left rear, the front left to the right rear, and the two rear tires to the front, without switching sides.