Tire rotation - I'm confused

[noncom23]

Originally Posted by hopz

BMW engineers carefully studied the concept of tire roation, economics etc, and concluded rotation is not worth the time and money. (if your wheels are properly aligned and inflated, etc...)

Fagedabboudit.

Incidently, got a discount coupon this week from the stlr on rotating my tires...

[wmc430]

Originally Posted by El Jeffe

I got nearly 70K miles from my original Michellin Energy tires and never rotated them. And the wear pattern was just fine. Don't bother with rotating them.

i was wondering how long the Michelin Energy would go...i just replaced mines at 42K but it still had some tread left. reason i replaced them was because i saw cracks all along the edges and inside the tread itself. tires is going on 4 years.

btw, the steering is very "light" with new the Michelin Energy tires. not sure if this is normal or not. almost seems like I have servotronic now. i bought this X5 4.4 used with 10K miles so I wouldn't know how it drove off the dealer lot.

[wmc430]

Let me also add that the shop said my tires were evenly worn (no rotation done before), which meant no alignment needed for the new tires.

I was actually surprise, probably because I keep thinking the rear (with the large camber) tires would be worn unevenly.

[rayxi]

Originally Posted by buschy

from what I have been told because it changes the direction of the tires for a more even wear. if you change sides and dismount the tire there is no point. because the tire still rotates the same direction and it does not help with wear?

Tires can wear unevenly across the tread on a given tire or they can wear unevenly between different tires. Are you suggesting tires can wear unevenly in the radial direction due to direction of rotation? I'm having a hard time imagining how that's physically possible. Sure you can flat spot a tire if you lock up the brakes but changing the direction of rotation isn't going to fix it.

[buschy]

Originally Posted by rayxi

Tires can wear unevenly across the tread on a given tire or they can wear unevenly between different tires. Are you suggesting tires can wear unevenly in the radial direction due to direction of rotation? I'm having a hard time imagining how that's physically possible. Sure you can flat spot a tire if you lock up the brakes but changing the direction of rotation isn't going to fix it.

I am not a tire expert, but that is what I was told by one. I believe the rotation and changing the rotation direction has to do with feathering on the tires.
There is a reason that the tires are not directional, I assume so that they can be flopped.
Also when rotation non staggared tires, the rotation pattern is to move the drive(either front or rear) wheels straight back or forward, then cross the non drive wheelswhen moving to the front or back. I have to say that rotating tires has always improved logevity for me. This is my first vehicle with a staggared setup so I dont know. but, I was told rotating them acrooss will even wear and improve logevity. who knows.
But you know BMW has also said that they put lifetime tranny oil in their cars( I guess some of them ) but I tend to change that too, its worked in the past, I have a 81 accord with 346000 miles on it still running, so I would have to think that maintence things are necessary. oh well I think that everyone has a different opinion on everything, but that is what we are here for to her them right?

[kvin]

I have actually asked my service advisor on this issue. He has been working at BMW for more than 15 years and he reassured that rotating tires are not necessary on BMW and especially on X5 - since its a 4wheel drive car.

[Boston X5 4.4]

My understanding is that if you have a staggered set-up with asymmetric tires you can't/should not rotate tires on the X

- Rear to front rotation is obviously not possible because of the wider rears
- Because of the negative camber the inside of the rears will probably wear sooner than the outer tread. In theory it is possible to rotate symmetrical tires from right to left etc. by taking the tires off the rear wheels and flipping so it is now outside in. But the Michelin Diamaris tires that I have are asymmetric so the tire pattern is different across the tire so you probably should not flip them on the wheel.


Either way I prefer the peace of mind with new shoes