Why do you rotate tyres, and is tyre rotation necessary?
You may have heard other car owners talking about tyre rotation and wondered why they needed to do that.
Of course, rotating tyres is important, and you have at least three good reasons to start learning how to do it. Not everyone is handy in the garage, I know. What’s important is that you have a trusty mechanic to bring your car to for a car rotation.
In this article, I’ll try to convince you why you need your car’s tyres rotated and point you in the right direction for other resources about car tyre rotation pattern.
3 Reasons for Rotating Tyres
#1 To Achieve Even Wear and Tear
Rotating the tyres ensures that the rear and front tyres will have even wear and tear. Most modern cars are FWD, which means that the front wheels carry the brunt, while the rear tyres are there for the ride, so to speak. Thus, the front and rear tyres wear differently.
In the case of FWDs, the front tyres wear faster compared to rear tyres, and this becomes evident after driving several thousand kilometres. If you have not yet rotated the tyres and noticed some of these signs, you shouldn’t waste any more time. Get the tyres rotated ASAP.
#2 To Avoid Accumulation of Brake Dust
If you strictly follow a car maintenance schedule, you’ll notice that it includes tyre rotation every 8,000-13,000 kilometres or so. Aside from balancing the wear on all four tyres, rotating also cleans up the build-up of brake dust, ensuring that your brakes are working correctly.
Brake dust and rust accumulate on the front wheels in FWD vehicles because these wheels are involved in 80 per cent of the braking process. Dust build-up indicates that tyre rotation is overdue.
#3 Extend the Life of Your Tyres
When the front tyres have more stress than the rear tyres, they wear faster. The weight of a load or the terrain cause the pressure on tyres. When you rotate the position of the front tyres and take them to the rear, you expose them to less weight and fewer turnings, increasing their lifetime.
At that point when you rotate their positions, the rear wheels will not have been exposed to significant wear and tear yet, so they can still be used as front tyres.
The rear wheels (now acting as front wheels) will eventually become as worn as the front wheels (now in the rear and not working as hard). It will come to a point when you need to replace all tyres, but by rotating, you extend their overall usability.
Why You Need to Maintain Even Wear and Tread Depth
Rotating tyres maintains even wear and uniformity in tread depth.
It improves your car’s braking and turning ability
Deep treads ensure that there is friction between the road and the tyres, so that when you apply brakes, your car does not skid. This means you have a car that’s safe to drive and has efficient handling characteristics.
It saves you money
Rotating the tyres of your car increases their lifespan and saves you from buying a new set right away. In other words, it buys you some time and gets you the most out of your tyre tread’s useful life.
Well, if you have money to burn, you can easily buy a new set when the two driving tyres (the two front tyres in our example) are worn out. That means you’re throwing away two rear tyres that still have their treads relatively intact. What a waste that would be!
Learn More about Tyres
For many of us, we want the most from our tyres, right? Learning when and how often to rotate tyres can help you do that and avoid buying a new set of tyres prematurely.
Do you just swap tyres from front to rear in all instances, or is there a tyre rotation pattern that you can follow? You can read about that in another post. If you found this article helpful, you can read and learn more about maintaining cars here!