Tire rotation directly addresses uneven wear. This service repositions your car’s tires to ensure the treads wear consistently together and you get the greatest amount of mileage from the full set.
What Is Tire Rotation?
Generally speaking, tire rotation involves changing the position of each tire on your vehicle. Typically, manufacturers recommend it every 5,000 to 7,000 miles – the same time you get your oil changed.
Tire rotation is a key aspect of preventative maintenance for your vehicle. Aside from extending their lifespan, this service allows a professional to visually inspect the tires for other performance-decreasing factors: Damage, low air pressure, balding or improper balance leading to vibrations. For your vehicle, tire rotation:
- Helps distribute wear evenly across all four tires to increase the lifespan of the treads.
- Takes into account the wear that front versus back tires experience due to torque and friction from the actions of accelerating, braking and turning.
- Ensures the front of the car receives newer treads after the 5,000-mile mark and that the tires will be less susceptible to blowout.
- Evens out side-to-side wear.
Why Tire Rotation Is Important
The typical passenger vehicle has four tires. Yet, wheel position influences how much wear a tire will experience. Other factors like type of vehicle can accelerate the amount of wear the front tires experience. For instance, a truck built for performance versus a sedan.
Ignoring these factors causes the front tires’ tread depth to wear far quicker than the pair in the rear. Considering your vehicle’s performance, tire rotation:
- Ensures the treads are providing sufficient traction
- Helps your vehicle handle better, especially in slick, slippery conditions
- Improves how consistently your car brakes
- Helps reduce the amount of stress placed on the drivetrain
- Creates a safer driving experience
Along with performance and safety, rotation may help ensure your tire warranty remains valid. Long term, this service allows your tires to wear together, rather than prematurely blow out. This action also increases the chance you’ll replace all four tires together rather than in pairs, which helps better preserve the vehicle’s balance.
When to Perform Tire Rotation
In most parts of the country, tire rotation is performed every 5,000 to 7,000 miles, based on your owner’s manual. Yet for those living in colder, snow-prone climates, tire rotation is also the time to replace your summer set with winter or snow tires.
These studded tires should be added at the beginning of every winter season or once your summer tires have been on for 4,000 miles in a 12-month period.
Tire Rotation Patterns
Rotation patterns vary on a few factors, including:
- The type of tire
- Whether they are directional or non-directional
- Whether you have a spare in the trunk
- Tire size in relation to each other
- Whether you have a front, rear, all or four-wheel drive vehicle
In general, common rotation patterns include:
- Rearward Cross: Rear tires get moved to the forward axle, while being kept on the same ends of the vehicle. The front tires go to the rear axle, where they are situated on opposite sides.
- X-Pattern: Your tires get switched in an X-shaped crisscross pattern, so they are moved across and to the opposite side.
- Forward Cross: The front axle tires go straight to the back and the rear tires are moved ahead to opposite positions.
Are you looking to get your tires rotated, in conjunction with an oil change? To make an appointment with DaSilva’s Auto Body, contact our Naugatuck shop today.