Questions about tire rotations come up often here. I just bought 4 new tires for my RX and started doing the math on the value of tire rotations.

I paid about $800 for 4 new tires at Costco with the hope of getting 50,000 miles of use on them. If I followed Lexus recommendations and paid them about $50 to rotate the tires every 5000 miles, I would spend another $500 on tire rotations. $500 is worth about 30,000 of tire wear. I would have to get an additional 30,000 miles of tire wear on those tires from rotating them just to break even much less saving any money.

I am not sure what the most optimistic expectation for extended tire wear from rotating the tires regularly but I would guess that it might be something like 10%. If this was correct, I would be spending $500 on tire rotations to get an additional 5000 miles of tire wear which is worth about $75 based on my original $8000 new tire purchase. In other Lexus wants me to spend $500 to save something like $75.

My conclusion is that paying a dealer to do tire rotations is a complete suckers bet. I won’t do it anymore. If I don’t feel like rotating them myself, I will just replace them 10% sooner and be money far ahead.

Can anyone explain how the tire rotation math makes any sense except for the dealers bottom line.

 

I've been saying this forever. With my ES which is FWD, I never rotate. I'll replace front tires, keep rear ones and eventually replace two more and move the newer ones to the front. With my wife's RX which is AWD, I do rotate every 10 or 15K miles just to keep the tread depth close for all four. But never every 5K miles - complete waste of money and merely a donation to the stealerships.

 

You'd actually only spend $450, since you wouldn't do a rotation at 50K. Still, though, your point is well-made. $50 is an outrageous price for a tire rotation. Most any independent shop would do it for half that, and most will do a rotation for free if you are buying other services from them. Likewise, most tire shops include free lifetime tire rotation if you buy the tires and installation from them. I thought Costco offered this, but you'd know better than me.

It seems very likely that never rotating tires is going to result in the fronts getting worn on the outside long before the rest of the tire, or the rears, are worn out. The fronts will likely wear out first, even if the wear is even across the tire. That means you end up buying two tires at a time, which is more time wasted doing tire buying transactions. At least one study has shown that the best tires should be put the back of the vehicle, not the front, which is contrary to popular thinking. (The study concluded that non-professional drivers are much better at handling understeer situations than they are handling oversteer.) That means even buying two tires results in a 'rotation' of the good rears to the front.

Everyone has an opinion on this topic. For me, tire rotations are worth doing, but only if the cost/rotation is low or zero.

 

We are leaving safety out of the equation. You don't want one end of the vehicle with more grip than the other. This can be an issue in wet or snowy conditions or in dry conditions with aggressive driving or emergency maneuvers. Imagine cornering your vehicle on a snowy day with less tread in the rear - your car may spin out! This happened to a friend of mine who had just purchased new tires for the front only.

 

What study says the best tires should be on the rear of a FWD vehicle??

 

I don't recall the source. It was a science show or, perhaps, a MotorTrend episode. Testing was performed with a cross-section of non-professional drivers driving a vehicle across a wet skid plate. The vast majority of drivers could recover from an understeer situation (front tires lose traction), but few if any could recover from oversteer (rear wheels lose traction.) The conclusion was non-professional drivers should do everything they can to keep the rear wheels from sliding. (Performance driver training, or spending a lot of time in a go-kart, can teach adeptness in both scenarios. Very few drivers have either...)

Granted, if I'm driving a FWD or heavy front-bias vehicle and starting from zero in the snow, I want the best traction up front. That's not the danger zone, though. The danger zone is 50mph and vehicle swaps ends.

I just did a quick search and found several (non-forum... ) sources that recommend the best tires go on the rear axle. The author of this one: Shouldn't the new tires go on the front? - The Globe and Mail must have watched the same thing I did.

 

Doesn't Costco rotate tires you purchased there for free?

 

My local Muffler Brothers will rotate my tires for under $20, with no other service.

On the merits, whether at 5K or 10K, keeping the tread wear even across the four tires seems like a virtuous thing, from a safety perspective. IMHO

 

My dealer has service schedules #2 and #3 every 16K km (10K mi) which includes tire rotation whether they do it or not, so no win for me .

In any case, I still do tire change (winter-summer & v.v.) on my own as most of the time it doesn't coincide with #2 or #3 and it'll cost me CA$98 for dealer to do tire change and TPMS programming and RX can't keep two set of codes. My mistake was not buying "all-weather/4-seasons" instead of getting a winter set and should have been a win-win for me for #2s & #3s.

 

Yup. I was going to say the same thing.

 

Its also free at discount tire, if you want the tread wear warranty which is usually the manufactures warranty, you have to rotate it per the vehicle's manufacture interval (for rx's its every 5k), lets say you buy a 80k mile rated tire wears to the wear bars at 40k youll get 50% credit or discount to a new set of the same tires since the tires only lasted 50% of the rated miles. You have to rotate it every 5k to be eligible, and the credit is only good towards the same tires brand and model you previously bought.

 

Can I ask what tires you purchased?

Many of the tires that the RX comes with seem to only get 25k or 30k. I rotate my own tires every 5000 miles and my OEM Michelins will be lucky to get to 35k. Not sure rotation does a whole lot for the life of the tire on this vehicle.

Would love to find something that would last 50k.....I am using 18" so some of the Continentals are off this list since they do not make a compatible 18"

The $50/rotation is highly overpriced. A tech could do this in 10 minutes while the oil is draining....should be free with a dealership oil change in my opinion.

 

I've never asked Lexus service this question, but I'm curious if they check the balance on each tire with rotation. I know discount tire does.
Also

 

My dealer doesn't check wheel balance but they have recently installed Hunter's Quick Check Drive™ provided as a complimentary service . Comes as a win

 

Probably few check the balance. I wonder if my dealer even checks that the lugnuts were reinstalled. Theyve been quite sketchy lately. When I had a balance issue with my ES, they tried to convince me that all FSports ride that way. Unreal.