How often should Tires be rotated

I just recently started checking out this site and have found alot of usefull info based on everyones experience with the LGT. I was wondering how often or at how many miles does everyone rotate the tires?

I rotate my own.......every 10k

I believe the interval by Subaru is 7500 miles which I use.

i just go 6000mi. or every other oil change (kind of bs - i run synthetic) but still i'd say b/t 6000 and 7500 would be adequate interval

Thanks, I know the owners manual says 7,500 K but was just wondering what other people did for standard driving.

every oil change (3k) and after every driving event (autox/track).. if the tires are directional, I get them unmounted and "flipped" every other oil change.

I do mine every 7,000-10,000 miles.

Every other oil service...

if the tires are directional, I get them unmounted and "flipped" every other oil change.

 

That must make for an expensive tire rotation.

every 5K for me

That must make for an expensive tire rotation.

Plus I don't need to give the tire monkeys any more chances to scratch my wheels.

I rotate mine the same time I do my synthetic oil change every 5K miles. However, the correct rotation interval for you is dependent on several factors. First and foremost is tire wear. We are fortunate in that tire wear is pretty consistent front to rear (AFAIK) due to the car's AWD, unlike FWD/RWD vehicles where the tires can wear twice as fast at the driven end of the car vs. the undriven end. It still pays to rotate periodically to minimize any discrepancies in the tires' wear rate and pattern F-to-R. If you're running a tire that has a 30-40K life span then every 10K miles might be OK. But, if you're running S-03s or some other super-sticky rubber 10K miles isn't a rotation interval, it's a replacement interval:) Better be rotating those bad boys every 2K-3K. Also, like Keefe said, competition use obviously accelerates wear so rotation intervals need to adjusted accordingly.

That must make for an expensive tire rotation.

 

nah, my tire shop knows me too well, and they treat me very well.

This may be obvious to some but don't forget to check the tire pressure after the tires are rotated.

 

They where rotated (front to back) at my last service and my car's handling was worse afterwards. I thought it was due to the wear characteristics of the tire but I just realized this last night that the tire pressure was off and that may be the problem.

I do a "rotation" by swapping out the snow tires, so the summer tires get about a 10,000 mile interval, while the snows get maybe half that.

This may be obvious to some but don't forget to check the tire pressure after the tires are rotated.

 

Thank-you soo much for mentioning this. I rotated the other day and intended to change my pressures (run higher in the front then rear) but forgot.

I do it every other oil change.

I don't go real long, 3,000 to 6,000 miles.

Interesting tid bits here, but when I owned my '95 325i, the manual said that the tires should not be rotated, but rather left on the original wheel and replaced in pairs (front or back) when they wear out. Also, it was discussed frequently on the Audi board (when I had my A6Q), that you really need to make sure the tires are all of the same relative wear, because tires of slightly different size will rotate at different speeds, which puts undue stress on a 4WD system that tries and detect wheel spin by comparing the relative speeds of the wheels, possibly even heating up the viscous fluid.

actually every time you drive they go through rotations

Interesting tid bits here, but when I owned my '95 325i, the manual said that the tires should not be rotated, but rather left on the original wheel and replaced in pairs (front or back) when they wear out. Also, it was discussed frequently on the Audi board (when I had my A6Q), that you really need to make sure the tires are all of the same relative wear, because tires of slightly different size will rotate at different speeds, which puts undue stress on a 4WD system that tries and detect wheel spin by comparing the relative speeds of the wheels, possibly even heating up the viscous fluid.

 

that's based on staggered wheels with directional tires ON TOP of the fact that your 325i is RWD, not all wheel drive.

that's based on staggered wheels with directional tires ON TOP of the fact that your 325i is RWD, not all wheel drive.

I assume you mean directional tires on wheels that have different widths or offsets between the front and backwheels, right? In that case each individual wheel/tire is unique to its location on the car and cannot be moved to another corner.

Every 5k on my WRX and my wife's Forester.

that's based on staggered wheels with directional tires ON TOP of the fact that your 325i is RWD, not all wheel drive.

 

Actually, the BMW manual did not make mention of directional tires, nor did it come standard with them in 1995. And yes, I knew it was RWD. The rest of the post applied to my A6, which was AWD like the Subaru, albeit a different way of doing it. But the principal was the similar.

I assume you mean directional tires on wheels that have different widths or offsets between the front and backwheels, right? In that case each individual wheel/tire is unique to its location on the car and cannot be moved to another corner.

 

I think that's what he means, but just to clarify, the '95 325i did not have directional tires, and all 4 were the same size. BMW simply felt (at least at that time) that it was better to just leave them in place and replace them as pairs.

 

 

Another thing most people don't realize is that the rears are very important for the sake of stability, and in fact, some tire manufacturers recommend the best tires be put on the rear - not the front. In slippery conditions, the rear tires offer stability in turns, and if the rear is not stable, then grippy front tires will cause oversteer, which is very dangerous to the typical driver. Most lay-drivers can feel and react to understeer (if bad tires were on the front) and avoid a dangerous situation, but it takes some skills most people don't have to correct for oversteer.