Hi all, I am new here. I got my mini cooper last year in xmax. I am from Toronto, Canada (is snowing now) I wonder if it is necessary to rotate my tire. According to tirerack, tire rotation is necessary every 10000km. I have 17000km on my car now. When I take to my local Mini Dealership, I was told they dont recommand it and they won't rotate for me. Please give me some advice. Thank you

 

I have been told not to rotate them as well. I hear that they wear better when you dont rotate them.

 

I was told not to rotate the MINI tires as well. When I had my old "summer" rims and tires removed by a local shop (they installed new rims and tires I got for winter) they actually wrote RR, LR, RF, LF (Right Rear, Left Rear, Right Front, Left Front) in chalk on the ones they removed. I asked why, he said so if I put them back on they will be in the right spot...said that putting them in the wrong position can actually throw off alignment, even if just the slightest little unnoticable bit. Is that true, anyone know for sure?

rock on,

-boognish

 

if you have more treads in the rear it is better to let the fronts
wear out completely than to rotate them...otherwise the car will
tend to be tail happy especially in cold, wet weather when
you put the worn tires on the rear.

If you do plan to rotate tires, it is best to rotate them every
3k-5k miles depending on how quickly the fronts are wearing.
You don't want the front to visibly wear too much more than
the rear before you rotate them.

i just let my tires live its life at its designated corners without
rotation because i like to have consistent performance each
time i take the car out. when you rotate tires the tires need
to re-breakin at the new camber and toe angles. imho, this
is kind of a waste of time especially for weekend cars like mine.

 

It is my opinion that MINI doesn't recommend tire rotation for your very situation. They would rather not have cases on their hands where customers rotate their tires after a normal increment has passed creating unsafe driving conditions.

Your car will go through front tires before it goes through rear tires if they aren't rotated. I learned my lesson - my runflats are finished, winter tires are on, and they will be rotated.

If you end up rotating - front to back, back to front for directional tires, and some other crazy diagonal method for non-directional tires (can be found on tirerack.com)

Edit: OK here's the link - it's not so crazy afterall - I just had to sit and look at it for more than 2 seconds to get it: http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=EZ3&url=/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=43

mb

 

I had mine rotated at my first service on my 05 S at just over 12,000 miles. The fronts were, shall we say, rather rounded on the edges and I wanted the lesser worn tires on the front for the Run for the Corners trip.

To avoid any problems on the trip I had them do a full re-balance and front and rear alignment as well, to make sure I didn't have any issues after the rotation. It drove beautifully and I know have over 14k on the original runflats with just the one rotation.

Other than the edges wearing more in the front, I probably would have had no need to rotate them. Especially given our harsh 60F winter weather here in the Phoenix area

Dan

 

Hi YZDJ

So where did you get your tire rotatation done? with mini or outside, so what happen to your tire pressure moniter system, you have to reset it as well?

 

I ditched the stock wheels/runflats as soon as I got the MINI home. Since my new tires are the same size f/r, I will rotate them every 5K miles myself. Just get a floor jack and some jackstands, you can do in less than 45 minutes.

 

Yeah, or about 20 minutes if you're quick with wrenches Anyway, if you have 17,000kms its definitely too late to start rotating.

 

Mini of North Scottsdale did the rotation when i had it in for the oil change at 12,000 miles. They check the air pressure and reset it if necessary, nothing special.

 

If you're willing to replace your tires when they become worn sufficiently to lose their resistance to hydroplaning, rotating them will safely extend their useful life. Or if you NEVER drive in wet conditions. I say this because there are always some folks who want to run 'em till they're slicks.

Aside from that, you just need to think about whether you prefer to replace them two at a time or four at a time.

 

Mini are covering their As---S its a liability thing.Any one knows that tires should be rotated.What they are guarding against is someone who runs the fronts bald then sticks them on the back.First stop the car (despite abs) trys to swap ends because traction on front is much greater than rear.Rotate them every 5000 mi (3 times a year for average driver) and you will get max mileage out of tires and also have a better balanced car in all conditions.Dont rely on the traction control or abs to get you out of trouble if you neglect your tire maintanence.This is also why the tire manufactures recommend snow tires on all 4 corners in winter for the same reason.They dont want a new high traction snow on front end with a regular all season on the back of car for slippery conditions.That is a recipe for a spin.

 

as you said, IF you are going for best tire wear. but for performance
oriented guys like me, i would not rotate it.

 

I'm not sure that rotating the tires diminishes the performance in any way. By rotating the tires, you're simply practicing good maintenance and promoting even tire wear. I would think that tires that are worn evenly would out last and out perform tires that are allowed to wear unevenly for too long.

It seems to me that in the case of a car that has a radical alignment that causes unusual wear you have two choices: frequent rotation or frequent replacement.

 

I agree

 

berky- no one cares.

 

it's like grading cheeze. you have a set angle that the tire is wearing.

when you rotate that cheeze, it takes you a little until you get the full
contact patch with the grader. until then, you don't get the full performance
of the tire. when it's a weekend car like mine, we want full performance
each time we take the car out. therefore, I don't care to rotate.

for you asians, it is like grading daikon.

 

Gotcha And because it's not your daily driver, the miles are low enough that you don't have to replace the tires too frequently. But, if you did elect to rotate them frequently, the effect on performance would be negligible. Maybe not worth the effort in your case.

 

Just had black tie in for the first oil service and had the dealer reattach my bum seat trim. Patrick MINI was pretty on top of everything and was very pleased as ususal with the place.

I had my tires rotated as well, just over 9k on the car now. It seems as if I have less traction now than when I first brought it in. Now it has been super crappy cold and snowy all the time lately here in Chicago-grand but this is bad. These tires suck. I know they are OE mud and snows, but still, I am not running 200+ horses here. I really need an aftermarket set of wheels and tires when spring rolls around. Grip is at a minimum with these Goodyears and I am wondering if the rotation had anything to do with it.

TJM

 

Yep, the Goodyear RSA's do suck as performance tires. They're probably OK as a middle of the road touring tire. And, as kenchan pointed out, tires do wear a certain way based on which corner of the car they're on. If you hadn't rotated them prior to 9000 miles, it may take several hundred miles for them to start working fully in their new positions.

When you do get the new tires, make tire rotation every 5000 miles part of your routine. Or... don't rotate at all and get used to buying two at a time as they wear out.

 

I had a bit of spare time yesterday afternoon so I rotated my tires for the first time at 4618 miles. As most of you know, using a floor jack at the front jackpoint can lift the whole side of the vehicle so moving tires front/rear is easy. I also took the time to clean the brake dust and grime off the inside of the wheels while I had them off. My Toyo T1S's that have been on since the first day I got the car seem to be holding up quite well, I'm pretty sure I'll get at least 20K out of them with rotating if not more.

 

On my first MCS (2004), I never rotated the stock tires (16" Dunlop SP5000 Runflats) and by the time the car had 17K miles, the front were pretty worn out and the rears still had 75% thread left, in other words, they looked good. I decided to rotate anyway that late in the game. Thankfully, never had any handling issues but aside from the wear in the front tires (Now in the rear) I quickly realized the mistake of my negligence with not rotating earlier: TIRE NOISE. See, the rear tires wear in a different pattern than the front, so when you leave the rears for that long, the tire wears out in a "scalloped" pattern creating lots of steering wheel vibration and annoying tire roar noise when they were moved to the front.

Fortunately, I sold the car even before I got to purchase a new set of tires.

When I got my new '05 MCS last year, I bowed not to repeat the same mistake again with the stock tires, so I began to rotate them religiously every 5K miles. The 16" Dunlop SP5000 are wearing evenly and beautifully. I hope to juice out at least 30K miles out of them before I have to replace the entire set. The car currently has 8,700 miles on the odo.

So it is your choice: Purchase new tires every 15K-20K miles or have your current set of rubber last to the 30K-40K mile mark and promote good even wear. Frankly, I highly recommend the later approach.

 

I wish to god i had seen this about 10k miles ago, I am on about 17K since June this year, the front two are significantly more worn than the back two. Also I have 2 bubbles in one of the fronts, so I am replacing all 4 of them with Yokohama AVS ES100's from Tirerack, and I will be rotating religiously every 5k miles.

 

MINI also says that a 10,000 mile oil change interval is about normal. (that's carzy, and another thread)

Rotate your tires every 5,000 and they will last longer and your car will handle better. If you replace your tires 2 at a time you are more likely to have handling problems, not nessasarily because of wear, but because you'll have 2 brand new tires with good grip and 2 tires that have been heat cycled and have become harder and slicker.

Every 5,000 miles move the fronts straight back to the rear (same side of the car) and move the rears to the front and swap sides. It's called cross rotation.

 

Agreed... unless your tires are a directional tread pattern.