How do I rotate my tyres?
Rotating the tyres on your car can help them last longer, but what's involved?Your car's tyres lead such a busy, multidimensional life. They turn through their own axis, they ride up and down over bumps, they roll in corners, they squat when the car accelerates or they dive under brakes.
All these inertial changes can and will have an impact on tyre life – particularly if suspension and steering geometry is less than perfect. Between toe control, camber and caster, there are at least three variables that could wear your tyres unevenly.
To spread tyre wear evenly, a handy trick is to rotate the tyres. This is not turning the wheel on its hub, it's physically removing the wheel and tyre to fit it on a different corner of the car. Be aware that if your car is fitted with unidirectional tyres, these must remain on the same side of the car.
Checklist
- Front tyres on front-wheel drive cars will frequently wear faster than the rears,
- Rear tyres on rear-wheel drive cars can wear at a faster rate than the front tyres,
- First check the service manual for the procedure to remove and replace wheels,
- Rotate the tyres on the car roughly every 10,000km,
- Unidirectional tyres should only be changed from front to rear, not side to side,
- Rear-wheel drive cars with wider tyres at the rear should not have tyres rotated,
- If in doubt, ask for expert help.
They're designed to displace water when spinning in one direction, not the other. To rotate these tyres, shift from front to back only, and vice versa. Do not shift the front driver's side tyre to the rear of the passenger side if the tyres are unidirectional. Seek advice or check with your dealer if you believe your car has unidirectional tyres.
Also, your high-performance car may have wider wheels and tyres at the rear, if it's a rear-wheel drive car. In no circumstance should you rotate these tyres.
For conventional tyres, remove and refit them at different locations every 10,000km or thereabouts. The RACQ has a useful web page to guide you through the rotation process.
And this handy article explains how to remove the tyre safely.
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