On 10/25/2013 2:11 PM, dpb wrote:
On 10/25/2013 6:59 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
...
I learned a lesson on my Subaru about tire rotation. I waited about
twice as long to rotate the tires as I should've. It didn't take long
before tires started wearing really badly. The lesson I think is rotate
on schedule or not at all.
All rotating does is camouflage the wear by moving a given wear pattern
to another location. If the vehicle is set up properly and the tires
are properly inflated, they shouldn't have such differential wear.
I don't know where you are getting your info from, but considering that
on a FWD car the weight distribution is roughly 60-40, that puts most of
the vehicles weight on the front tires. Not to mention the front tires
are steering the vehicle and doing most of the braking putting even more
wear on the tires. Like I said, every single FWD car that I've owned
(including one of my current ones) have always worn down the front tires
quicker than the rears. And I'm not talking about wear patterns (I only
had that problem on a Honda Accord)...I'm talking about tread depth. Let
me Google something real quick...OK I'm back. Read this....
snip
Tire rotation or rotating tires is the practice of moving automobile
wheels and tires from one position on the car, to another, to ensure
even tire wear. Tire wear is uneven for any number of reasons. Even tire
wear is desirable to maintain consistent performance in the vehicle and
to extend the overall life of a set of tires.
By design, the weight on the front and rear axles differs which causes
uneven wear. With the majority of cars being front-engine cars, the
front axle typically bears more of the weight. For rear wheel drive
vehicles, the weight distribution between front and back approaches
50:50. Front-wheel drive vehicles also have the differential in front,
adding to the weight, with a typical weight distribution of no better
than 60:40. This means, all else being equal, the front tires wear out
at almost twice the rate of the rear wheels, especially when factoring
the additional stress that braking puts on the front tires. Thus, tire
rotation needs to occur more frequently for front-wheel drive vehicles.
snip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_rotation