The tire rotation schedule in the official owner's manual cannot be correct

[tzhu07]

Let's say you follow the manual and rotate your tires every 7,500 miles, starting from a brand new car.

This means that at the 7,500 mileage mark, there is enough of a deviation in wear.

So then you rotate your tires for the first time, and drive another 7,500 miles. Doesn't that mean that the wear on all tires is now even at the 15,000 mileage mark? All four tires have equal miles in both the front and rear positions. In other words, there's no rotation required. The next deviation in wear will occur at the 22,500 mileage mark.

Conclusion:

Starting from a brand new car, rotate tires after the first 7,500 miles. Then rotate tires every 15,000 miles.

See my Excel spreadsheet for my analysis:



DISCLAIMER: This is obviously not official advice coming from Toyota. I'm just an owner of an FR-S, and this is my opinion. Generally speaking, you should still follow the owner's manual instead of listening to a random person on a message board. I am simply curious if others believe my analysis checks out.

[Brz-123]

You have made an assumption here which is that the only rotation is front to back. A left to right rotation, especially for symmetric tyres is also valuable and needs to be done. The reason being toe and camber impact wheel wear too. So the ideal 4 way rotation approach is front left to rear right, rear right to front right, front right to rear left and rear left to front left.
This then covers both front to back and left to right combinations and should be done every 7500 miles , so when you come to 30K miles all 4 tyres have seen the 4 corners of the car.

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[humfrz]

Originally Posted by tzhu07

Let's say you follow the manual and rotate your tires every 7,500 miles, starting from a brand new car.

This means that at the 7,500 mileage mark, there is enough of a deviation in wear.

So then you rotate your tires for the first time, and drive another 7,500 miles. Doesn't that mean that the wear on all tires is now even at the 15,000 mileage mark? All four tires have had equal miles in both the front and rear positions. In other words, there's no rotation required. The next deviation will then occur at the 22,500 mileage mark.

Conclusion:

Starting from a brand new car, rotate tires after the first 7,500 miles. Then rotate tires every 15,000 miles.

See my Excel spreadsheet for my analysis:



DISCLAIMER: This is obviously not official advice coming from Toyota. I'm just an owner of an FR-S, and this is my opinion. Generally speaking, you should still follow the owner's manual instead of listening to a random person on a message board. I am simply curious if others believe my analysis checks out.

Welp, tzhu07 , I think you are waaaaay overthinking this situation. -

It may make a difference if your driving down a freeway most of the time OR racing around a track most of the time.

I rotate the tires on my FR-S whenever they look like they need to be rotated.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Brz-123

You have made an assumption here which is that the only rotation is front to back. A left to right rotation, especially for symmetric tyres is also valuable and needs to be done. The reason being toe and camber impact wheel wear too. So the ideal 4 way rotation approach is front left to rear right, rear right to front right, front right to rear left and rear left to front left.
This then covers both front to back and left to right combinations and should be done every 7500 miles , so when you come to 30K miles all 4 tyres have seen the 4 corners of the car.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

That would be true for bias plied tires, but, when they came out with those new fangled radial plied tires, I was learnt that the rotation should be only made from front to back and back to front. That is so as the radials don't get all confused.

[tzhu07]

Originally Posted by Brz-123

You have made an assumption here which is that the only rotation is front to back. A left to right rotation, especially for symmetric tyres is also valuable and needs to be done. The reason being toe and camber impact wheel wear too. So the ideal 4 way rotation approach is front left to rear right, rear right to front right, front right to rear left and rear left to front left.
This then covers both front to back and left to right combinations and should be done every 7500 miles , so when you come to 30K miles all 4 tyres have seen the 4 corners of the car.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

If a left-right rotation is important, then why does the owner's manual show a diagram of only front-rear rotation?



Source from Toyota:
https://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/docu...f/OM18012U.pdf

[Brz-123]

Originally Posted by tzhu07

If a left-right rotation is important, then why does the owner's manual show a diagram of only front-rear rotation?



Source from Toyota:
https://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/docu...f/OM18012U.pdf

I'll answer it in three ways.

Firstly if you are using logic to refute the user manual, you should listen to and debate the logic others are giving and not bring the manual back in.

Secondly , I have had and still have other cars in my life and their user manuals and past experience has taught me to do it the way I am telling you.

Thirdly , manuals are meant to make it idiot proof. People change tyres to directional and asymmetric tread ones when they original ones wear out / or for more grip, different weather conditions etc . With those kind of tyres you are technically limited to only one type of rotation, front to back and vice versa. The Primacy tyres that it comes with are symmetric and non directional. So they can be moved around any way.

Now see what a tyre manufacturer says who is the specialist at it not a car manufacturer

https://www.bridgestonetire.com/trea...tire-rotation#



Learn if you wish, ignore if you wish. Good luck!





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[Brz-123]

Originally Posted by humfrz

That would be true for bias plied tires, but, when they came out with those new fangled radial plied tires, I was learnt that the rotation should be only made from front to back and back to front. That is so as the radials don't get all confused.

Nothing to do with radials chief. All to with asymmetric tread patterns and directional tyres. If you use the standard Michelin, primacy , pilot sport etc , they can be moved to any corner. Check the link on my post above.

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[Grady]

Originally Posted by Brz-123

Nothing to do with radials chief. All to with asymmetric tread patterns and directional tyres. If you use the standard Michelin, primacy , pilot sport etc , they can be moved to any corner. Check the link on my post above.

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It has everything to do with radials. Changing direction on a bias ply tire is no issue, it is a fiber cord that does not work harden. On a radial the metal will work harden. When you change direction it will flex the wire in the opposite direction and start to break stands. This does not happen much on modern radials but why take the chance.

[ZDan]

My strategy on street-only tires is to rotate them exactly once in their lifetime. On a fwd car that wears the fronts more quickly, I'd rotate when the fronts are worn to about half tread depth or 5/32" (which is 5/8ths of the way to the treadwear indicators).

For the BRZ the tires get removed/remounted multiple times per year for track events so I rotate them based on putting least-worn tire on the outside front and most-worn on the inside rear, generally...

Tire rotation doesn't usually increase tire life, it just spreads the wear out so they all need replacement at about the same time. Some people will skip rotating tires and just replace pairs as they need to be replaced, which IMO is fine...

[alphasaur]

How I rotate:
Summer: Mount summer tires, tires with more meat go on rear since they see more wear for me.

Winter: Mount winters. tires with more meat go on rear since they see more wear for me.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by Grady

It has everything to do with radials. Changing direction on a bias ply tire is no issue, it is a fiber cord that does not work harden. On a radial the metal will work harden. When you change direction it will flex the wire in the opposite direction and start to break stands. This does not happen much on modern radials but why take the chance.

That's the same reasoning I heard about as well. However, most tire manufacturers do recommend rotating left-right as well, albeit they typically specify shorter intervals (3000-5000 miles). I guess car manufacturers assume people will only rotate tires a the shop, hence tie tire rotation interval with oil change interval.
If you rotate your tires yourself, rotate them more often and you shouldn't have issues with the change in direction of the tire.

[ZDan]

Rotating radial tires left/right is not an issue. *MAYBE* it was in earlier radial tires, or maybe there was just an abundance of caution. I would bet a six-pack that modern radial tires are designed and tested for durability and reliability with changes in rotational direction.

https://www.bridgestoneamericas.com/.../tire-rotation

Straight Rotation

Straight rotation was developed in the early years of radial tires. This rotation method switches the tires front-to-rear but does not cross side to side. This rotation method is used for directional tread patterns.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

I've never rotated my tires. Too much work

[Impureclient]

I rotate maybe once a year or every 4k miles. The tires only last one or two rotations. How anybody could get 20-30k miles from a tire on this car is beyond me.