Rotating tyres.. yay or nay?

[Nicolas33]

Hi all,

As the title wrote. Do you rotate your front and back tyres?

Got a new focus last months with excellent back tyres but front one well used..

Should I put the front tyres in the back to get more life out of them or not?

What's the standard practice around d here? A mates of a mate working on cars told me to do it but online states otherwise..

Thanks

[TitXlover]

I always do, seems to make sense to me. The front will always wear more.

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[Ken.K]

Why not replace the fronts.

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[k_j_jacobs]

never really thought about it until now, good idea tho

 

however all my tyres rotate :)

[Roogar]

I used to rotate but now I don't bother as u just end up having to buy 4 tires at once rather than just 2 🙂

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[dezwez]

I do

[Carl123]

14 minutes ago, Roogar said:

I used to rotate but now I don't bother as u just end up having to but 4 tireds at once rather than just 2 🙂

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Same here, my garage used to rotate my tyres (unbeknown to me) then at a later service I got told I need all 4 new tyres. That was an unexpected extra large bill that came as a bit of a shock at the time.

Told them not to rotate them in the future.

[spurswes]

My tyre mechanic always rotate mine,never had a problem 

[isetta]

my fiesta has done 18k miles. I have just swapped the fronts with the backs. I reckon then all 4 will need replacing at about the same time. I know that means I will need to pay out more in one go, but it defers spending anything on tyres. If I did not do this I would have to spend money on new front ones a lot sooner. I know some people would say this is a reason not to do it. 

also, if your front ones wear down the edges a bit you might get some more wear out of a tyre this way before you have to ditch it

[TangoDaz]

If you rotate the tyres as mentioned earlier yes you do need to buy 4 tires at once but at least they will be the same brand otherwise you may end up have different brands or types of tire on you car which even though not illegal it's not ideal 

[MrRedman]

Used to think this was a good idea but I reckon swapping the fronts as and when they wear down is better ,you don't want tyres that are really old on the front in case of a blow out they are probably better on the back ! Agree? 

[trailertrash]

Back in the day, (strokes stubble sagely) when full size spares were the absolute norm and not an expensive 'option' (even supposing one would fit...) it was customary, indeed recommended in the handbook, that tyres be swapped around, including the spare, with diagrams showing diagonal swap and the spare brought into use. Yes, it meant that one would have to buy maybe 5 tyres at once, but at least the wear was spread out over 5 tyres and not 4, a saving overall of 20%

[YOG]

I switch my tyres front to back every 3,000 miles/6 months, to even out wear. This also gives me the opportunity to properly clean the wheels, and give them a protective coating. When they are worn, I usually go down to Costco and get the higher discount for 4 tyres.

[ScaniaPBman]

The correct answer is your best tyres should be on the REAR axle.

THe reasoning behind this is fairly straight forward.

In extreme driving conditions such as snow,ice or just standing water on the road surface where grip is limited or hydroplaning occurs, it is much safer and easier to control the car when the grip is lost on the front axle rather than the rear.

There are several youtube videos attesting to this. Here's a sample...

ScaniaPBman.

[iantt]

i was waiting for someone to say to put best tyres on rear. lol i was goingbto say it but no one takes any notice when ive said it before.

[mjt]

I used to think they were best on the front but I've been convinced the ones with the best tread depth are better on the rear

[D13 HPD 95]

1 hour ago, iantt said:

i was waiting for someone to say to put best tyres on rear. lol i was goingbto say it but no one takes any notice when ive said it before.

+1 always new on rear something my grandad told me and always stuck in my mind 

[Micro]

2 hours ago, mjt said:

I used to think they were best on the front but I've been convinced the ones with the best tread depth are better on the rear

After partaking in a skidpan course where they demonstrated front vs rear wheel aquaplaning, i leave the tyres with reasonable tread on the back.

I did however swap mine round once they reached 4-5mm on the front, so theyve now equalled each other and i will replace all 4 at 2-3mm.

[BulletSponge]

As an ex tyre and exhaust fitter, my advice to anyone would always be to rotate your tyres with new ones going on the rear. As people have said its better to have greater tread on the rear in case of instances where you could lose the back end. The other issue is one that i doubt many here will have, and that is the age of the tyres. Rear tyres will generally wear slower and many people just leave them on that axle for years on end, but recommendations are for tyres to be changed after 5 years as the rubber goes hard and splits/cracks.

That being said I had an 11 plate polo which i pushed reasonably hard, had the fronts replaced after 3 years where i swapped the rears to the front, they still had 5-6mm on them, and they lasted till about a month ago, so a good 6 year innings on the original Conti's, had i not swapped im sure they would still be going strong but I would be very worried about the age and deterioration, even though there were no visible signs.

As a side note I also prefer to spread the cost of tyres, and replacing a pair always feels better than all 4 at once!

[YOG]

I always check the manufacturing dates on tyres before having them fitted. Just because they haven't been used, doesn't mean they were recently manufactured, or are even from the same batch.

Date of tyre manufacture: The date when a tyre was manufactured is marked on one/both sidewalls (near wheel rim). The code on the tyre usually preceded with DOT and ends with the week and year of manufacture. E.g. a DOT number ending in 2714 means the tyre was manufactured in the 27th week of 2014.

British Tyre Manufacturers’ Association Subject: Replacing Car Tyres – Important considerations:

http://www.btmauk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Replacing-car-tyres-important-information.pdf