Looking for spare 18" wheel...

[goinsurfin]

My dealer service guy said that tire rotations are not necessary for this vehicle because it's permanent 4WD....anyone refute that?

That said, it would still be good to rotate in a spare so that the wear can be consistent.

I was told the same thing by the dealer....not to rotate the tires. The statement just doesn't sound right... I plan to rotate the tires with the full-size spare every 5000 miles.

 

[richpike]

I was told the same thing by the dealer....not to rotate the tires. The statement just doesn't sound right... I plan to rotate the tires with the full-size spare every 5000 miles.

Wow - that floors me. The only reason I can see to not rotate tires is on something like a Porsche 911 that has directional tires of different widths front to back.

Wow.
-Rich

 

[DJRCO]

It makes some sense actually, well that is, if you believe the following. I was told by a high end BMW mechanic not to bother unless it was VERY often, around every 1500 miles. The reasoning is that once a tire gets a wear pattern it can not be easily reversed, meaning that even if you move it the wear pattern will continue. So the logic is that leaving a tire where it starts has less detrimental effects than moving it around in terms of wear patterns.

Now having said all of that I think that by rotating you MIGHT get more mileage out of a tire but my own personal experience does not directly support this. I plan on rotating my next set very frequently on the LR3 to see if I can evade the nasty wear patterns cased by the large variance in camber between the front and rear. I only rotated once on this set (badyears) and they seem about the same in terms of tread-life but have very different patterns.

Hope that helps....

Darrin

 

[richpike]

It makes some sense actually, well that is, if you believe the following. I was told by a high end BMW mechanic not to bother unless it was VERY often, around every 1500 miles. The reasoning is that once a tire gets a wear pattern it can not be easily reversed, meaning that even if you move it the wear pattern will continue. So the logic is that leaving a tire where it starts has less detrimental effects than moving it around in terms of wear patterns.

Now having said all of that I think that by rotating you MIGHT get more mileage out of a tire but my own personal experience does not directly support this. I plan on rotating my next set very frequently on the LR3 to see if I can evade the nasty wear patterns cased by the large variance in camber between the front and rear. I only rotated once on this set (badyears) and they seem about the same in terms of tread-life but have very different patterns.

Hope that helps....

Darrin

No offense, but my faith in BMW mechanics is zero - after they failed to fix the transmission in my 3-series after multiple attempts (and only 30k miles on the odo!) they told me I would have to live with it. Believe me, that went over like a fart in church.

In general, "patterns" are caused by something repetitive. If you rotate the tire, it only makes since that the tire wll wear differently. Plus nwoods has very valid points on the work that different tires do in different positions.

I would also highly encourage you to read the warranty info on your tires - in most cases the manufacturer requires documentation of routine rotations for the warranty to be valid. I'd trust a tire manufacturer's recommendation over a tech's

-Rich

 

[DJRCO]

Actually I trust my own experience and it has been supported what I was told. The reason it even came up is that in my BMW owners manual it states Page 107: "In the interest of safety and optimal vehicle response, we advise against rotating tires. Braking and traction may be adversely affected." The dealer wanted to rotate but the tech (who I knew personally) advised me against it.

As I stated in my earlier post I have rotated my tires once on the LR3 and now have front and rear wear patterns on both tires and no significant increase in tire life as a result. What I did notice was a VERY significant increase in road noise after the rotation and to this day.

Just an FYI. I trust you will make a reasoned decision from your OWN experience.

Cheers,
Darrin

 

[richpike]

Actually I trust my own experience and it has been supported what I was told. The reason it even came up is that in my BMW owners manual it states Page 107: "In the interest of safety and optimal vehicle response, we advise against rotating tires. Braking and traction may be adversely affected." The dealer wanted to rotate but the tech (who I knew personally) advised me against it.

As I stated in my earlier post I have rotated my tires once on the LR3 and now have front and rear wear patterns on both tires and no significant increase in tire life as a result. What I did notice was a VERY significant increase in road noise after the rotation and to this day.

Just an FYI. I trust you will make a reasoned decision from your OWN experience.

Cheers,
Darrin

Fair enough - best of luck.

-Rich

 

[techboydino]

not buying it either. with the absolutely horrible wear from the stock goodyears, it's hard for me to swallow not rotating anything. even when i had directional it still remounted and rotated them. no matter what i feel that i got maximum possible mileage from doing so. ive been in the business too long to do otherwise. i still recommend it no matter what.

 

[craiglud]

So... Anyone have a 18" 5 spoke they are looking to move along to another LR3 owner? I'm planning on rotating and adding my full size spare to the rotation pattern.