2018 AWD Tyre Rotation. Any views?

[gavioliuk]

It is many years since I have seen it specified to rotate the tyres on your car.  I note that the handbook recommends rotation every 3,000 miles.

Searching on line there is advice to rotate and as much not to rotate from tyre dealers and manufacturers.

Any comments from members?

[Scottydog007]

I stopped rotating tyres a long time ago after having a car that had handed tyres. The tread was different one side to the other, and there was a arrow showing rotation. This didn’t stop Quickfit putting 3 left-handed tyres on and one right-handed.

What I found is the front most often wear out quicker, and wear out together. Or they should do if you do not have tracking issues. So when the front wear out I some times ask my tyre centre (not Quickfit) to move rear tyres to the front and put new tyres on the rear, or I ask for their suggestion.

I had a Honda CRV which I did 250,000 miles from new so changed the tyres quite a few times. I had issues with tracking on the CRV and Honda never solved this, so I lived with it so a year. I then found a tyre centre that was brilliant. They offered different tracking adjustments, and they told me Honda did not have this equipment so often they would send the Honda cars there.

The CRV needed more adjustment than conventional cars, the tracking cost £90 but I was given a computer read out of before and after changes, the problem was solved.

I try not to throw my RAV4 hard into corners so I guess I reduce wearing out the tyres. I tend to break coming into a corner go around a bit slower then power out. I suppose this goes against helping to charge the Battery.

 

[PeteB]

11 minutes ago, Scottydog007 said:

y not to throw my RAV4 hard into corners so I guess I reduce wearing out the tyres. I tend to break coming into a corner go around a bit slower then power out...

Which is exactly what the safety organisations (and Police) say you should do - steer, accelerate or brake, but only one at a time.  To remain a member of the RoSPA Advanced Driving section I have to take a demanding test every three years, and braking or accelerating during cornering would at best reduce my grade at worst cause an embarrassing fail! (But I am expected to use just enough throttle during a bend to compensate for the extra drag of cornering, to balance the car and keep the speed constant, which gives a safer, smoother more comfortable ride and probably helps save a tiny bit of tyre wear too).

11 minutes ago, Scottydog007 said:

...So when the front wear out I some times ask my tyre centre (not Quickfit) to move rear tyres to the front and put new tyres on the rear, or I ask for their suggestion....

This is the most commonly recommended action regardless of FWD, RWD, 4WD etc. for safety to minimise the risk of aquaplaning on unexpectedly encountering standing water at speed (although one or two tyre shops have still tried to persuade a friend that on a front wheel drive car they should be no the front).  It's been my preference for many years although now I have another consideration.

Luckily my RAV4 came with tyres that aren't handed, and as I got a full sized spare wheel, and I've bought a matching tyre plus 5 all seasons (not handed) that for now I'll treat as winter tyres and get my dealer to swap twice a year until the summer tyres reach 3mm (they're swapping on Monday s it happens).  That means I want all 5 tyres to reach 3mm at about the same time, so I (well, my dealer actually) will be rotating with that partly in mind, though safety comes first.

I understand from many posts on here that for AWD/4WD vehicles there's a strong recommendation that all four (or 5) tyres are identical so that also means if there's any intention to swaps brands or models they should ideally all be replaced at the same time.  In the past I've often swapped 2 at a time, keeping matching tyres on the same axle, which apparently isn't a problem on FWD cars.

[gavioliuk]

I assume most are ignoring the handbook recommendation to rotate wheels every 3,000.

Any further comments?

Edited October 22, 2019 by FROSTYBALLS
Bumping removed as against forum rules

[philip42h]

Back in the day when I drove a FWD car and tyres on the front wore out after 10-15k miles I'd wear out the fronts, move the rears to the front and put a new pair at the rear. Initially because the company car lease company insisted it be done that way and subsequently because it made economic sense to me.

In the last ten years for driving a AWD RAV I have found a couple of key differences:

• While the do front tyres do wear slightly faster than the rears the difference in wear rate is markedly smaller than on a FWD car
• I have been getting something like 50k miles out of a set of tyres as opposed to 10-15k

While I was running separate sets of summer and winter tyres, I would swap front to rear once a year (for each set) as I swapped between the seasons - well why not? Now I am running all season tyres I may consider swapping front and rear once a year (certainly no more frequently) simply to even out the wear.

But I suspect that the decision really turns on how many miles you do in a year or in the time you expect to own the car. If you are doing modest mileages, the tyres will become time expired before they wear out. At higher mileages you may well want to swap front and rear to get best value out of the tyres. At higher mileages still you might choose to wear out the fronts so as to change just one pair at a time.

Does that help at all? ... I'm pretty sure that it doesn't ... 😄

[gavioliuk]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

Back in the day when I drove a FWD car and tyres on the front wore out after 10-15k miles I'd wear out the fronts, move the rears to the front and put a new pair at the rear. Initially because the company car lease company insisted it be done that way and subsequently because it made economic sense to me.

In the last ten years for driving a AWD RAV I have found a couple of key differences:

• While the do front tyres do wear slightly faster than the rears the difference in wear rate is markedly smaller than on a FWD car
• I have been getting something like 50k miles out of a set of tyres as opposed to 10-15k

While I was running separate sets of summer and winter tyres, I would swap front to rear once a year (for each set) as I swapped between the seasons - well why not? Now I am running all season tyres I may consider swapping front and rear once a year (certainly no more frequently) simply to even out the wear.

But I suspect that the decision really turns on how many miles you do in a year or in the time you expect to own the car. If you are doing modest mileages, the tyres will become time expired before they wear out. At higher mileages you may well want to swap front and rear to get best value out of the tyres. At higher mileages still you might choose to wear out the fronts so as to change just one pair at a time.

Does that help at all? ... I'm pretty sure that it doesn't ... 😄

Thank you.  Your comment on modest mileage covers me which will only be 6,000 per annum.