complete noob to tire rotation

[biosses]

you dont need to balance the tires during a rotation,

you only balance tires if you remove them from the rim

From my experience that is not always the case. The only way to find out is to hit the freeway after your rotation.

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[calonzo]

what your saying is correct, however, swapping tires from side to side is not nessessary,

front to back is sufficient,

when i buy 4 brand new tires, i normally run the vehicle until the front two tires are worn down about 50% then i swap the front tires and back tires, this pretty much wears all 4 tires evenly,

when the tires get down to their wear bars i replace them,

i only rotate once during the lifetime of the tires

I had thought of doing that. I think I will start doing that now, too.

 

[Gruber]

I had thought of doing that. I think I will start doing that now, too.

Rotating tires every 5, 10, 15 or so kmiles is only needed if you really want to make sure you use every mile of the possible tire life, or if you want to comply with the manufacturer's prorated warranty, or if your wheels are significantly misaligned, or you are a perfectionist and you just like your threads in the front and back to be as equally worn as possible at all times.
Otherwise, a couple of rotations over the tire life are sufficient.
Of course going often to the tire shop for tire rotations will increase the chance you buy your next tires there.

 

[tacthecat]

Other than tires like the Conti's that come on the CTR you can get 40-80k miles on a good set of tires. Front tires, even on the best aligned vehicles, typically wear unevenly (inside/outside edge) due to steering forces and periodic cross-axel rotation tends to even out the wear. If you wait until the wear is evident to the casual observer, it's too late to recover. Of course there's the unidirectional tire exception so follow their recommendation. Every other oil change (10-20 k miles) is a good recommendation.

 

[nine2nine]

phew im glad i can wait that long. I was th inking i had to do it every 5k miles

I would never go 15K between tire rotations the most should be no more than 7.5K

 

[tacthecat]

I would never go 15K between tire rotations the most should be no more than 7.5K

Your choice, just mentioning Honda recommendations which you can follow, or not.

 

[BarracksSi]

I'm leaning towards wearing down the fronts, then ditching them, moving the rears to the front, and buying new tires for the rear.

Why? To maintain good grip in the rear and avoid snap oversteer -- which is more dangerous than simple understeer.

The thing is, I also want to get better summer tires once the OEM all-seasons wear out, so it might be best to just wear down all four evenly for now.

FWIW, it's no more or less expensive to buy two tires at a time versus four times simultaneously...

 

[Gruber]

FWIW, it's no more or less expensive to buy two tires at a time versus four times simultaneously...

This may depend on where you buy tires. I never buy without discounts, and these are not available if you buy only two.

 

[Gruber]

im not sure why you would want tires with more tread on the rear as opposed to on the front,

this makes no sense in a FWD vehicle

It's OK to have a different opinion, but I suspect you are not aware that this is actually usually recommended. (regardless of FWD or RWD or AWD, when buying 2 new tires, to mount them in the rear, and to to mount the used tires in the front). So I'm just telling you about it.

 

[BarracksSi]

im not sure why you would want tires with more tread on the rear as opposed to on the front,

this makes no sense in a FWD vehicle

Read again the reason I gave before.

The only times you'll want more oversteer are when you're racing around and trying to get the car to turn more quickly (so that you can start feeding in power sooner and exit the corner faster).

The rest of the time, on public roads, you'll want the tail to stay in control and not step out when you don't want it to.

If the fronts lose grip first, it's an easier correction to make -- just back off the gas to reduce the force they're taking and let them regain their grip.

If you're afraid of, say, hydroplaning, then you need fresh tires anyway.

 

[BarracksSi]

dude....your driving a honda civic FFS.....not a formula one car

... and?

 

[Dario1101]

This was my first car and I didn't rotate my tires until 21k miles. Big mistake. I'm at 3 years, 34k miles and one set is already almost gone and needs replacing. Silly me.

 

[calonzo]

This was my first car and I didn't rotate my tires until 21k miles. Big mistake. I'm at 3 years, 34k miles and one set is already almost gone and needs replacing. Silly me.

Even the tires that you had on the rear for the first 21k miles? They should have hardly any wear.

I changed my original tires at 45k. New car tires don't have great tread wear. They use high performance tires. I replace them with all season tires with higher tread wear and good wet road performance.

 

[Dario1101]

Even the tires that you had on the rear for the first 21k miles? They should have hardly any wear.

I changed my original tires at 45k. New car tires don't have great tread wear. They use high performance tires. I replace them with all season tires with higher tread wear and good wet road performance.

The rears are good, but the front barely has any legal thread left. I'll take a picture if you want me to. I rotated the backs to the front and vice versa so hopefully the original fronts (now in the back) can last long enough where I can change the both of them.

 

[calonzo]

The rears are good, but the front barely has any legal thread left. I'll take a picture if you want me to. I rotated the backs to the front and vice versa so hopefully the original fronts (now in the back) can last long enough where I can change the both of them.

I don't need a picture. But if they don't have enough tread, I would change just the 2. Don't take a risk on a blowout or hydroplaning.

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