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Tyre Rotation... Is It Worth It?


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so during the process of having my Falken's fitted I asked the mechanic after how many miles would he recommend me pop back in to have the tyres rotated..?? he turned around and said its not advisable to rotate tyres anymore on cars like BMW's, Lexus's, Merc's and Audi's..i was like WHAT?? :msn-oh: ..yes he confirmed these manufactures do not recommend tyre rotation anymore as the cars mainly 'rear wheel drive' ones tend to be setup in a specific way and rotating front ones to rears and vice versa will cause the car to ride and handle like a dog, I know most modern and mainly high performance cars like IS-F's wear different size width front and rears but i was under the impression cars that wear the same size all round should be fine for rotation?.. I then mentioned to him the Falkens are Asymmetrical treads and not directional tyres so can be rotated at some point.. he confirmed it doesn't make a difference if its a directional tyre or not he just wont recommend rotating in a Lexus IS due to the cars setup..

bumped into this guy when i was having mine fitted, so we got chatting about cars and he confirmed how nice my IS300 was and how nice Lexus cars are in general as he drove the LS460 once when he had to deliver it to Bournemouth and is the best car he has ever drove/delivered.. any way he confirmed his Michelin tyres are 12 years old yes you heard that right 12 year old tyres and only having two new fronts fitted as he suffered a puncture so best practise to replace two at a time. i still thought 12 years on the same tyre is unbelievable but took his word for it all the same..

now I am looking to extract as much mileage from my new sets as much as possible and was considering doing the rotation every say 5k miles so is this mechanic right by confirming its not advisable to rotate tires anymore on our cars or is he just talking bull? has anyone been rotating theirs if so are you getting a lot of life out of them by doing this or do you just stick to replacing the worn ones if and when they due and not bother with tyre rotation?

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I rotate mine on my IS200.

I run 225/40/18 all round so I can't see how rotating front to back and back to front is a bad thing? I make sure the best two tyres are on the back.

I understand that newer BMW's and the 2nd gen IS have a staggered setup, wider tyres on the back. So yes it would be unwise to rotate them as you'll end up putting wider tyres on the front and slimmer tyres on the back which will make the car handle like a crap! I think your mechanic is getting confused between a staggered set up and same tyres all round.

The benefits of rotating are quite noticeable. I didn't rotate the first set I had on the car and when I measured the tread after 9 months the backs had 3mm and the fronts 4.5mm. So if you rotate you should get even wear all round.

I think it's wise to rotate on the 1st gen IS as it eats tyres. I get about 12,000 miles from a set!!

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" any way he confirmed his Michelin tyres are 12 years old yes you heard that right 12 year old tyres and only having two new fronts fitted as he suffered a puncture so best practise to replace two at a time. i still thought 12 years on the same tyre is unbelievable but took his word for it all the same.."

Tyre rotation is a matter of personal choice, I always used to until my last Lexus which had much wider rears. However, I would certainly NOT be driving a car on 12 year old tyres. The tyres may have tread left but the tyre at that age is useless since the rubber will have degraded. It is not recommended to drive on tyres over 5 years old. The date of manufacture of a tyre is clearly noted on the sidewall.

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mmmh am still confused about the idea... read some articles online that are for tyre rotation and other articles against it.. with most against it saying rotation causes all four tyres to wear out faster.. i have never rotated tyres in my previous cars. but kinda considering it now as my IS worn the inner part of my previous front tyres.. strange thing is i have had the geometry altered at Wheels in motion but dont think it made any difference to the inner wear problem. maybe will have to get them to re-check it again as I am now running new sets all round...once I have had it checked again and adjusted, will rotate them every 5,000 miles..to see how long they last.

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