Tire Rotation Question(blew A Front Tire)

[dclexus]

I had bought 4 new Michelins last December with 37K mi. I have rotated them twice since then, the last just recently. The car now has 49K. My wife hit a curb this morning and blew out the RF tire :o . I bought a new tire to replace it and put the spare (a new tire) on the LF. I used the existing LF as a spare. I now have two brand new tires on the front and tires on the rear with 12K (these have been on the front for about 1/2 that time and the rear the other half.)

With this new situation, it would make sense to delay rotation until the front wear catches up with the back (I assume that the fronts always wear more quickly on these cars). Any thoughts on how long to wait for rotation (I was going to do it when the tread depth of the fronts got slightly less than the rear). I was thinking this might take 12-15K to occur.

Any thoughts?

Steve

2005 RX330 AWD

[afpj]

I had bought 4 new Michelins last December with 37K mi. I have rotated them twice since then, the last just recently. The car now has 49K. My wife hit a curb this morning and blew out the RF tire :o . I bought a new tire to replace it and put the spare (a new tire) on the LF. I used the existing LF as a spare. I now have two brand new tires on the front and tires on the rear with 12K (these have been on the front for about 1/2 that time and the rear the other half.)

With this new situation, it would make sense to delay rotation until the front wear catches up with the back (I assume that the fronts always wear more quickly on these cars). Any thoughts on how long to wait for rotation (I was going to do it when the tread depth of the fronts got slightly less than the rear). I was thinking this might take 12-15K to occur.

Any thoughts?

Steve

2005 RX330 AWD

I went through the same scenario recently. Are the new and spare tires of the same make and model? They should be the same tread pattern for AWD. Also, 12K miles isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but what matters more I think is driving habits, and resultant tread depth (or lack thereof). A tire guy told me that 2/32 inch difference would be OK on an AWD (between your new and old tires), and for normal driving habits and terrain, one would think 12-15K mi worth of wear depth is about that, and would be acceptable per your plan. Just for grins, we get ours rotated every 7500 mi, and had the front vs rear tread depths nearly 4/32 difference...came from the dealer that way (CPO) on our 05 RX AWD. Just recently replaced all 4 as one tire started showing it's belt, now we're at all even tread depth and want to keep it that way with every 7500 rotations. Just OC I guess. My $0.02. Regards

[dclexus]

Yes, all are the Michelins (same as came with the car). I was not aware that different tread depth front to rear would make a big difference. (this is the first AWD vehicle I have owned).

[afpj]

There have been previous threads about AWD and having different tires on different axles etc. No one knows for sure (at least that I've seen on the forums) what the acceptable difference in wear is, but the tire dealer (independent not Lexus) strongly thought that 2/32 inch difference between the axles would be fine. Brand new tires on the fronts and 40K mile tires on the rear may get into some problems, theoretically, with the viscous coupling unit detecting different rates of spin and therefore acting on it (as in heating up). I can't remember which thread had this, but someone had explained it in a bit more detail than I can. Yes, this is my first AWD too, and I'm learning as I go. It's far superior than the "AWD" function on my Tahoe, but the Tahoe's is switchable and the Lexus is full time.

Regards

[Grumpa72]

I have had to do this a couple of times (don't ask) and to me the solution was to do a back-to-front, front-to-back rotation, using your normal schedule. Do that instead of the normal cross rotation. In my case, I did an early tire rotation, as I described, so that the next rotation put the tires with the most tread on the front for the winter. This was for my wife's front wheel drive car. More tread = more traction. I am not sure if our RXs are biased with more or less traction to the rear or front. However, I would prefer to do rotations as opposed to waiting for the tread depths to be equal.

[FZ6 Dude]

I have had to do this a couple of times (don't ask) and to me the solution was to do a back-to-front, front-to-back rotation, using your normal schedule. Do that instead of the normal cross rotation. In my case, I did an early tire rotation, as I described, so that the next rotation put the tires with the most tread on the front for the winter. This was for my wife's front wheel drive car. More tread = more traction. I am not sure if our RXs are biased with more or less traction to the rear or front. However, I would prefer to do rotations as opposed to waiting for the tread depths to be equal.

So is the best way to rotate front to back always??

[KBRX330]

Go 10,000 miles then rotate front to back every 5000.

[KBRX330]

I have had to do this a couple of times (don't ask) and to me the solution was to do a back-to-front, front-to-back rotation, using your normal schedule. Do that instead of the normal cross rotation. In my case, I did an early tire rotation, as I described, so that the next rotation put the tires with the most tread on the front for the winter. This was for my wife's front wheel drive car. More tread = more traction. I am not sure if our RXs are biased with more or less traction to the rear or front. However, I would prefer to do rotations as opposed to waiting for the tread depths to be equal.

So is the best way to rotate front to back always??

Yes, I always do front to back....150k no issues