To rotate or not to rotate tires

My experience with several cars is this.............all tires have a certain wear pattern with an obvious difference between front and back. If you rotate, you introduce another wear pattern. This will eventually create noise......how much depends on alignment, tire pressure, and driver habits. I have not rotated my last two cars and noise has not been an issue......this requires that you maintain good alignment, tire pressure, etc. From what I have seen so far on my 85D, tire wear differences between front and back is not an issue.

Due to the negative camber, particularly in the rears, I would suggest rotating them. The rear tires wear quite heavily on the inside so rotating them will hopefully extend their life a bit.

I just changed all 4 DW's at 15,500 miles; the fronts still had perhaps 2-3k left on them, but the rears were totally shot due to excessive inner wear. I had only performed one rotation at ~6k miles.

On my 85D, tire rotation would not be beneficial because the wear has been very uniform. I measure tread depth regularly with a manual gauge and I can't find any differences whether be it front to back, left to right, or even L/C/R on each tire itself.

- K

Rotate. Front to rear but stay on the same side as Tesla Service does. Unless you have a P+, or P85D w/ staggered setup.

The most important rotation is the very first one. It should be performed at around 1500 miles. This will give each tire a turn on the drive axle to set up an even wear pattern. Tires rotated early the first time have a much better chance of not developing odd wear later in life. After that, rotate so that all four tires wear out at the same time. (Tires are similar to wallpaper in that you want them from the same batch --DOT number--if possible.)

Front to back, X-pattern, or some combination are equally fine (except with certain specialty tires that you rarely come across--a set of these tires come with two A tires and two B tires, which must be cross rotated). There is a lot of FUD concerning rotation. Much of it comes from when the North American tire manufacturers were trying to discredit radial tires.

jerry33 said:

Front to back, X-pattern, or some combination are equally fine

Click to expand...

Just be careful there, these days many tires are directional, so Front to back is ok, but in many cases you must stay on the same side of the car (no x-pattern without unmounting the rubber from the rims, which I don't recommend)

green1 said:

Just be careful there, these days many tires are directional, so Front to back is ok, but in many cases you must stay on the same side of the car (no x-pattern without unmounting the rubber from the rims, which I don't recommend)

Click to expand...

Right. Tread pattern irectional tires have markings on them and are front to back rotated. Asymmetrical tires (which are the OE tires on the Model S) don't. Asymmetrical plus casing directional tires have A and B tires.
Demounting tires is something to be avoided.

I went diagonal, after 4k, because I was getting cupping with the leading edge in the rolling direction. Going to the opposite side put the opposite torque on the rubber, and evened the tread blocks. The CS5's are now quiet again. YMMV.

These tires are asymmetrical, but not directional.

Anybody know how to rotate ones own Model S tires with only one jack? You can't fit a jack stand in if the jack is there holding up the car.

Duckjybe said:

Anybody know how to rotate ones own Model S tires with only one jack? You can't fit a jack stand in if the jack is there holding up the car.

Click to expand...

Check out jackpoint jack stands.

jerry33 said:

Check out jackpoint jack stands.

Click to expand...

Wow, those are pretty cool! Thanks for the tip.

jerry33 said:

Check out jackpoint jack stands.

Click to expand...

Nice! Thanks.

I went 35k miles on my P85D with 19" wheels with no irregular wear issues...

I rotated at 10k miles for the first time. 8/32" all around (L/C/R, all 4 tires). I'll probably rotate again at 20k...

For those who have rotated 19" Primacy tires on the 85D, have you noticed any noise following the rotation? I have a fear from a previous car of rotating then being constantly annoyed by low level "whomp, whomp, whomp" noise. It would drive me nuts in the Tesla.

kmtl said:

For those who have rotated 19" Primacy tires on the 85D, have you noticed any noise following the rotation? I have a fear from a previous car of rotating then being constantly annoyed by low level "whomp, whomp, whomp" noise. It would drive me nuts in the Tesla.

Click to expand...

No. That shouldn't happen. On your previous car did you use a torque wrench to properly tighten the nuts?

Here's a thread I started a while ago about skipping every other recommended rotation:

Skip Every Other Tire Rotation

This was before I knew better and let the VW dealer do it. I know, know...this is how we learn.

- - - Updated - - -

jerry33 said:

No. That shouldn't happen. On your previous car did you use a torque wrench to properly tighten the nuts?

Click to expand...

This was before I knew better and let the VW dealer do it. I know, know...this is how we learn.

Tire rotation is important, but also check for proper camber and toe specs when you do an alignment.
Some cars left the factory with incorrect alignment so be sure to check for inside wear on the rear tires.