Do you use the spare when you rotate X5 tires?

[acitydweller]

You cant rotate if your X5 use 18+ wheels.

[2002Silver4.6is]

I do not understand the logic behind not wanting to rotate your tires. Why would rotating tires be an "old concept"?? I rotate mine every 5,000 miles. I have Toyo Proxes ST's that have over 12,000 miles that are wearing perfectly evenly and do not have any noise issues. I also have the rear camber neutralized to decrease uneven wear.

This is from the Tire Rack website:

Tire rotation can be beneficial in several ways. When done at the recommended times, it can preserve balanced handling and traction and even out tire wear. Tire rotation can even provide performance advantages.

Many tire mileage warranties require tire rotation to keep the warranty valid. When should tires be rotated? We recommend that tires be rotated every 3,000 to 5,000 miles even if they don't show signs of wear. Tire rotation can often be done with an oil change while the vehicle is off the ground. This is also a good time to have your tires rebalanced if you've been having any vibration issues than you suspect may relate to the tire balance. It's also a good time to inspect the tires for any damage, remove stones or debris from the tire treads, check for uneven wear by checking the tire tread depth and of course, checking your tire pressure.

Tire rotation helps even out tire wear by allowing each tire to serve in as many of the vehicle's wheel positions as possible, hopefully promoting even wear across the tire tread pattern. Remember, tire rotation can't correct wear problems due to worn mechanical parts or incorrect inflation pressures.

While every vehicle is equipped with four tires, usually the tires on the front axle need to accomplish very different tasks than the tires on the rear axle. The tasks encountered on a front-wheel drive vehicle are considerably different than those of a rear-wheel drive vehicle. Tire wear experienced on a performance vehicle will usually be more severe than that of a family sedan. Each wheel position can cause different wear rates and different types of tire wear.

It is an advantage when all four tires wear together because as wear reduces a tire’s tread depth, it allows all four tires to respond to the driver’s input more quickly, maintains the handling and helps increase the tire’s cornering traction.

When your tires wear out together, you can get a new set of tires without being forced to buy pairs. If you replace tires in sets of four, you will maintain the original handling balance. In addition, our suppliers constantly introduce new tires, each of which improves upon their past product’s performance. If you replace your tires in sets of four, it allows you to experience today’s technology, instead of being forced to match yesterday’s.

[2002Silver4.6is]

Originally Posted by acitydweller

You cant rotate if your X5 use 18+ wheels.

Why not?

[zacman]

I run staggered 87's with diamaris, and they have atleast 15k on them.. when i pulled them out for this summer i had the tires pulled from the wheels and swapped from side to side, the centers of the tire look great with about 40% tread left in them, and the fronts look good all the way around, however the rears were getting a little bit choppy on the inside, suprizingly minor for the mileage IMO.
So when put the 87s back on for summer I decided to try swapping them around to see if i could get some extra life out of the tires..(of coarse you cant rotate from front to back with the staggered setup, and some advice from my local tire store recommended that I try dismounting the tires and trade the left to the right and so on. SO I figured, IF I could notice the look of the choppy tire facing out, or excessive hum or tire noise I would replace them anyway.... but it would be worth it. Considering I wasnt putting my self at risk, safety wise.. couldnt hurt to get a bit more bang for my buck.. especially with a tank of premuim running me $80 a tank!!

shorlty after I did this we had crazy rain, I was anxious to see how the X would do...It Felt like I was running on a brand new set of rubber, and as far as road noise, UNNOTICEABLE, and Even the curb appeal, After running them a couple weeks, I cant even tell where the chopp was!!

IMO and expirence, not just with the X but several other cars and trucks, Rotating and balancing your tires is a crucial step in tire maintainence

[JCL]

Originally Posted by 2002Silver4.6is

I do not understand the logic behind not wanting to rotate your tires. Why would rotating tires be an "old concept"?? I rotate mine every 5,000 miles. I have Toyo Proxes ST's that have over 12,000 miles that are wearing perfectly evenly and do not have any noise issues. I also have the rear camber neutralized to decrease uneven wear.

It depends a lot on the suspension design. Beam axles, swing arm suspension, and other low-tech designs were cheap to design, cheaper to make, and compromised things like tire wear. Well-designed modern suspensions with all the features that BMW puts in there (geometry, etc) don't have the same issues. It is the same as many other maintenance steps that have been engineered out of modern cars. It isn't a conspiracy, many of these steps are simply no longer required in many cases. That includes low mileage oil changes, tune-ups, muffler replacements, and so on.

The Tire Rack website quoted above applies equally to Yugos and Ferraris. One size doesn't fit all.

I put over 70,000 km on my X5 3.0 OEM tires (17") with only regular pressure checks. I ran them at 32 psi, inspected them for damage regularly, ran them summer and winter, and never rotated them. Never had to rebalance them, or get an alignment, either. At 70,000 km they were wearing perfectly evenly. There was no noise. There would have been absolutely no advantage to rotating them during those 70,000 km (approx 42,000 miles). BMW actually do know what they are talking about when they recommend not rotating. If you have a specific problem due to imbalance, uneven wear, alignment, etc, then fine, fix it. However, I think that preventative rotation is old advice. If you do need to do it, then you perhaps have a tire mismatch and should address that.

To each his own, but I do maintain my cars well; I just don't complete certain maintenance activities that many of us were very used to doing 30 years ago (in my case), but which are no longer required. A caution here: I had 100,000 mile spark plugs in my X5. They were working fine when I sold the truck. A Toyota that I maintain for my daughter needed plugs after 24 months, as determined on my test drive following an oil change (twice a year in her case, with a small sump) Turns out that is the maintenance interval for plugs on that model. The manufacturers actually do know what they are talking about IMO.

[UncleBob]

Originally Posted by lo_jack

Please explain this:

not sure which part you mean but…
i don't have "staggered wheels", i.e. i have the same dimension wheel and tires front and back. i have a 3.0i.
the other part is…
in the "old days" with the tire technology and i suppose car technology of the time, tires were more prone to uneven wear. the idea of swapping position of the tires was to even that wear out and get more life out of your tires.
today, tires are better and i will assume that our cars keep their alignment longer. when i lived in the US in the late 70's, i remember taking my car to be aligned on a regular basis. today, my X5 is over 6 years old and it has never had an alignment. my tires wear perfectly evenly and i know this because i have a tread depth gauge and i measure them often. heck, i still have the original crappy michelin all-season tires, they just won't die!!! i've only put real winter tires on for two seasons. but the originals have over 30k miles and still have 4 mm of tread. time for new ones this summer for sure.

[UncleBob]

Originally Posted by 2002Silver4.6is

I do not understand the logic behind not wanting to rotate your tires. Why would rotating tires be an "old concept"??

if we turn that question around, why *would* you want to go through the hassle of rotating the tires if you don't need to?

i've never rotated my tires or had an alignment. my tire wear is perfectly even. so why should i rotate?

[manonskisjr]

Ok that sounds better Uncle Bob but you are being rediculous if you dont think you ever need your tires rotated, balanced or aligned. Remind me never to by a car in Switzerland. You should rotate if you have improper wear and you can certainly use your spare if you have 18's. Just did it 2 days ago.

[UncleBob]

Originally Posted by manonskisjr

You should rotate if you have improper wear…

exactly my point. the wear on my tires is absolutely perfectly even. i measure the tread depth on all tires on a regular basis with a good gauge.

if i have perfectly even wear, that means my alignment is good.

[2002Silver4.6is]

JCL... with the camber set up on the rear suspension how can your tires wear evenly?

/ / XXXX \ \ ??