tire rotation

[andrewplen]

I just hit 7K on the MP5 and am going to rotate the dunlops. The tires are clearly asymetrical but does that automatically mean they're unidirectional? should I rotate front to back but not side to side?

 

[cbcbd]

edit:
You can just do a front->back, back-> front rotation for front drive.

 

[drumsbeloud]

edit:
You can just do a front->back, back-> front rotation for front drive.

is this because of the tread design?

 

[asterix]

I always thought this was a thing with radial tires - you never cross rotate. Maybe this is an old-wives-tale???

 

[loccusst]

I thought you were supposed to go front to back then to front on otherside of car? The only tires you should have to keep on the same side of the car are directional tires.

 

[mazdamp3_18]

please post in the correct section...

this thread belongs is rims/tires/suspension

 

[Excitmnt94]

asym tires have to be rotated simply front to back...because they are both asym and unidirectional.

 

[mazdamp3_18]

hey excitmnt
you car looks good...

i used to have a 2001 golf TDI with 2.75inch straight pipe and a few other mods..

i miss my tdi... but i dont miss the poor handling...

800+miles on a tank of gas is lovely

 

[Mazda P5 driver]

It depends on the tread, directional or non directional. Directional I believe can only be done on the same side. so front to back, i think non direction get moved diaganally. It has almost nothing to do with front wheel drive except that is what gives the tires its uneven wear if you do not rotae, ie front will wear faster than the rear due to the 60 40 weight difference over the front.

 

[ounkny]

Yup, that's correct. What that also means is that if you were to have uneven tire wear, you wouldn't be able to "balance it out" simply by switching the rims to the other side, since the tires on the left always stay on the left. With a proper alignment and good driving etiquette, that shouldn't be a problem.

Incidentally, there was an interesting article in Grassroots Motorsports about this issue of unidirectional tires. For those that read GRM (abbreviation for the magazine), you know that Tire Rack has a column there. What they did was they tested unidirectional tires mounted forwards and backwards.

What they found was that wet traction was reduced when the tires were mounted backwards, but not as much as you might think. Furthermore, dry traction was barely affected at all, if I remember correctly. The whole experiment is kind of dumb if you consider that you would never want to do that to begin with, but the point was that if someone accidentally reversed the direction of their tires, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

[andrewplen]

lot's of good info. thanks for all the replies. so I guess it's just front -> back and back -> front

 

[Mazda P5 driver]

I just hit 7K on the MP5 and am going to rotate the dunlops. The tires are clearly asymetrical but does that automatically mean they're unidirectional? should I rotate front to back but not side to side?

I have also heard the best time they recommend to rotate is at 5k miles, personally i do it at every 2 oil changes, so every6k just for convienence. I wore out a set of tire almost every one down to the wear bars. So it does work.

 

[ounkny]

IMHO, I can't see the difference between rotation intervals, provided that the interval is not too long, and the interval is consistent. For example, for normal driving, I don't think there would any significant difference between intervals of 3K, 5K, and 7K.

For spirited driving, I would probably go with a shorter interval like 3K (basically every oil change).

If anyone can provide reasons why a specific interval is optimal, I'd sure like to hear it because I can't figure it out.

 

[Stealth5]

if they have an arrow on the side for the direction theyre supposed to roll, dont cross rotate

 

[Excitmnt94]

thanks man...im kinda partial to the look also. i could never imagine getting that kinda range out of the 1.8T. i do get great mileage though when i drive with some restraint...about 29 MPG. but when i just flog it all the time...uh oh.

hey excitmnt
you car looks good...

i used to have a 2001 golf TDI with 2.75inch straight pipe and a few other mods..

i miss my tdi... but i dont miss the poor handling...

800+miles on a tank of gas is lovely

 

[mazdamp3_18]

i dont care what other people say...

vw makes some great cars...

i used to have an 84 rabbit gti with a ton of mods also..

i totalled it though

 

[Andy]

The oem Dunlop's are directional. They must stay on the same side.

 

[asterix]

Hey another question - what exactly is "balancing" the tires. My dealer sent me a coupon - $29.99 for tire rotation and balance, like that is a big bargain. I rotated the tire myself in less than an hour - am I missing something if I don't get 'em balanced??

 

[EticketP5]

The only thing you risk with not balancing is getting a vibration at the 50-70mph range. as the tires wear down the balance will change - god Idea to always balance the front tires, you'll rarely feel the rears if they are out of balance..... A good tire shop should do this for you for $20

 

[ounkny]

asterix, you're right about the tire rotation. Dealers charge a lot for this service when it really involves nothing.

However, most people can't balance their own tires, since you need a special machine. The machine can determine if the wheel is not "balanced," which would otherwise cause vibration or other bad things to happen, especially when driving at highway speeds. To balance the tires, they typically put those funny looking weights at a certain location on the inside part of your rim.

So if you need your tires to be rebalanced, $29.99 isn't such a bad price. If they're fine, don't bother.