My Lexus manual shows tire rotation to be: "Front to Rear / Rear to Front" - (Bridgestone Alenza A/S02 235/50 R20 RFT)
I see no arrows for the tire rotation direction on the sides of my tires.
When there is no directional arrows usually side to side or criss cross rotation is OK, even recommended.
I thought in the past that side to side / criss cross tire rotation was best for more even tire wear.
Your experience welcomed

 

Probably easier to just have a blanket statement about following this method vs trying to explain to people about directional tires. Instructions that are good in all situations.

 

I found nothing wrong with @Amigo‘s post — being a very recent enthusiast and not paying attention before, I had no idea about directional arrows and the various ways of rotating tires. I always thought it was front to back or back to front.

Not everyone on this forum is on the same playing field and can use helpful info such as this, when their knowledge is very limited.

I have already learned so much from this forum and now, I’ve just learned something else.

 

Well exactly, that's why I suggested the manual is playing it safe and not getting into all the possible details. I personally don't see any reason not to do a cross tire rotation if the tires installed or not directional. Half the manual is written by lawyers...

 

In addition to the arrows on the sidewall of the tires, the directional tires will be (or should be) very obvious when looking at the tread. The tread would look like they are going one way and looks like it's pointing towards a certain direction. Also, the tires will also state on the sidewall which side needs to be on the outside and the inside (unfortunately, there are morons in the world that work as a "certified tech" and mount the tires backwards and/or inside out/outside in, so always a good idea to check this when getting new tires).

I agree. There's really no point to criss-cross tire rotations. OP, have your fronts go to the rear and the rears to the fronts on the same side, UNLESS, you have staggered tires (in which you would NOT rotate your tires).

 

If you have non-directional tires you should do some type of cross pattern to optimize even wear. If you have directional tires, rotate front to back. If front to back rotation is not giving you even wear dismount, mount, re-balance to accomplish a cross pattern rotation. If you have AWD, x pattern seems best. If you have different sized front and rear tires, rotate left to right.

Tire Rotation Examples

 

Cross pattern rotation use to be something done to normalize treadwear for both front and all wheel drive vehicles. As with almost all all wheel drive designs today, the 'all wheel' part is typically only very briefly active when starting off from a stop, after that the front wheels almost exclusively drive your car, the NX system is one example of this. The rear wheels are only momentarily driven. Tread contact with the road has improved with more sophisticated suspension designs as well, leading to a very even tread wear. Plus with the advent of superior tread designs that most always use a directional tread pattern, I think car manufacturers have simply dropped the 'cross' aspect of tire rotation so as to not confuse the owner. I've owned several cars over my 40 + years of driving and almost all of them have followed a simple back to front rotation. I've never found any serious problematic tire wear on my tires. Yes both outer and inner treads wear a little more but nothing serious. Plus tires wear so much better now then in the past. A life span of 60,000 miles for good tires is almost expected nowadays with committed rotation schedules.

The only major tread wear killer is from worn suspension components like tie rod ends etc. Which is why a good inspection should be done with the rotation by a capable suspension tech (yes I know I didn't say mechanic because they rarely do tire rotations) who will look at your tire tread and possibly suspension for 'loose' (= worn) components.

 

Agreed. I’ve always done the A pattern on my AWD cars.

 

Informative diagram

 

Note the gas-only NX is full time AWD.

 

The gas only NX (and RX) are mechanical part time All-Wheel Drive. Connected by a drive shaft and with
a rear differential there is no power transfer to the rear until the front wheels slip and change speed relative
to the rear wheels. GX and LX vehicles are driving all wheels all the time "full time All-Wheel Drive".

The Hybrid AWD vehicles, UX, NX, RX are also part time, the Motor Generator Rear (MGR) will be given
power when the front wheels lose traction.

 

This is only true of the NX250, the NX350 does have full time AWD, as does the RX350. This was a new enhancement to the NX in 22 and the RX in 23, they took the usual Toyota AWD system and beefed up the rear clutch to support constant (but variable) drive at the rear. The NX250 retained the more typical Toyota AWD system.

 

I agree, I only use that tire rotation for my car with directional tires. I plan to ask the guy I get tires from when the tires need rotation. He also recommends rotation @ 7500 mi. Just got the car last week.

PS: Only marking I saw on the tires is indicating outside vs inside.

 

Honestly I wouldn't give the cross pattern all that much credit for helping out with a more even tire wear result over the life of the tire, plus it's more confusing a task to do.
Your outer edge treads wear from under inflation and hard cornering. Your centre treads will wear more than edges if tire is over inflated. Your right side tires inner treads will wear more than your left side tires inner treads since on a right turn you actually are turning a sharper or smaller radius resulting in slightly higher inner tread wear. This happens because the suspension geometry 'tilts' the vertical position of the tire so it 'leans' a little to provide a stable better tracking turn.

For the most part, except for those doing hard right and left turns in mostly city driving, Your tire wear results you will find comparing your left to right side tires is a wash, hardly no difference. So there's not, if any, benefit to using a cross pattern on today's modern unibody cars / suvs.

And above all else as mentioned earlier, if you have unidirectional tires, like Michelin Cross Climate's, then you can't rotate them to other side due to tread pattern. So why confuse the situation that really isn't an issue. Back to front, front to back easy peasy.

 

Why do the have the "outside" marking for, thread seems to be symetrical. Only time I had tire with those markings, thread was asymmetrical. Inquiring minds.