Lexus says not to crisscross tires on rotation. I thought this was just done with directional tires. What's the deal here?

 

It's funny you mentioned that, but the book is correct in that it's a front to back swap with the spare moving to passenger rear and passenger front going to the spare position.

I actually had to draw a diagram for the Lexus dealer because I asked them what type of rotation and he said they do a cross. I was going to show him the service manual but left it at home and since I was in rush just sketched it out and they followed the sketch to the T.

Just seems strange the service advisor wasn't aware of this. Maybe they rarely see LS and other models do call for the cross. Who knows, the dealer I go to and service advisor I have is great all around in any case. I'll just bring in a sketch each time I guess.

 

I would probably think tire rotations falls under the "things we don't really care about" category. There is maybe ten different ways to do them, most techs just do front to back.

 

I never rotate my tires. I find when it is time to replace them all four have the same amount of tread left.

 

Yeah I use to be somewhat lackadaisical about tire rotations as well, but after my last car, which was AWD, and a few tire fiascos due to having to buy tires in complete pairs and junking almost brand new, $200 tires because Michelin decided to discontinue one type, I've changed my ways lol.

I rotate as specified on the button.

 

My LS and SL wheels are staggered so rotations are not going to happen. I used to rotate on my awd suv, but the front wear quicker than the rear so I move the rears to the front and buy two tires every 3 or 4 years. Even if Michelin discontinued my tire, they would make an updated replacement. So I would keep running the same play

 

There was a time when rotating criss-cross was taboo. The reason being that belts in the tires, settle a certain way and to have the tire rotating against that settlement of the belts would be a bad thing. I believe that thinking has passed, but since I have a staggered setup and directional tires, it's not an option anyway. That said, if I didn't have that setup, I wouldn't worry about it and replace tires as a set when they're worn.

 

I don't really agree with the owner's manual on this. Because when and if I blow a tire, I want a nice new tire available to me. And, I would not use the spare but on a very limited basis anyway and get the blown tire replaced. I also want the spare wheel and tire to remain clean, I don't want a mess down in the spare wheel well. But maybe the most compelling reason is, my wheels are the OEM 19" bling-bling chromes, and the spare is the painted wheel. So ... it will not be going into the rotation.

Every other car I own calls to criss-cross them. I'm not sure it makes much difference on modern tires. If I follow the book (except rotating in the spare), and swap front and rears on the same side, it would be much easier / quicker than criss-crossing. I do this job myself.


Jason