Kfd82

Just watched the service guys rotate my tires. They went LR to LF and LF to LR, same on right side.
Is this acceptable? I always thought you were supposed to go LR to RF, RR to LF and move the fronts straight back.

Anyone have info? Should I ask them to do it differently or is what they've done considered normal now?

anthony2558

Yes. I believe the tried and true way to rotate tires is move the fronts to the rear, keeping them on the same sides and flipping the rears to opposite front sides. This way you'll never get a tire in the same position untill the 5th cycle.

rangerrick

If the tires have a directional tread pattern then they rotated them correctly. Directional tread tires have arrows on the sidewall pointing in the direction they need to be mounted.

Tx King Ranch

I've always heard that's the correct way but every time I've done it I've had balance and wear issues. I remember back in the early days of radial tires (Firestone 500's) they said keep them on same side of car always. I just rotate mine front to rear only and never have issues. Who knows

TB15XLT

Front to rear is correct.

Not X pattern.

HuskyOwner

Bias ply tires of ancient times were rotates in an X pattern. Modern radial tires are normally rotated front to rear and remain on the same side.

moguy1973

Interesting. I've always been told for as long as I've owned cars should be like this if they aren't directional or different sized:

LarryXLT

At a lot of places (including dealership service depts.), the tires aren't worth the damage they do to the wheels.




Makes me often wonder if rotation is worth it. Run the tires until they are crap (usually the fronts)...and get new set.


Less chances for the guy who was washing dishes at Applebee's last week to damage your wheels.

Tx King Ranch

I've always heard that too moguy but never had good luck with it. I use Discount Tire for mine and they always want to cross them, I have to tell them front to rear only. They did the cross thing on my '13 KR with the Pirelli tires and they never would balance after that. Tires got noisy and just didn't feel right. After about 500 miles I made them put them back like they were and all was fine! This was on the initial rotation at 6k miles. Crazy.

statikuz

Side question on rotation, I have 6536 miles and just got the oil changed, per the truck telling me to do so. I asked the service advisor to rotate the tires as well (I assumed that it was part of the typical LOF package but who knows).

Whoever did the work put:

TIRES DO NOT NEED ROTATING AT THIS TIME

on the repair order.

From the Ford scheduled maintenance guide, it says to rotate tires at every oil change. From my conventional wisdom it's good to do it every ~5000 miles or so.

Is there a good reason that they would NOT do it?