Tire Rotation Every Service Interval ???

you said it; you have to pay for the privillage; and when the car was running ok and you bring it in for a scheduled service/oil change watch what happens after you drive away.

Why would you have the dealer do a non-warranty service anyway? Only people with too much money do that. Sensible people follow the manufacturer's guidelines and have a reliable impendent shop do the work. Most people also get too many oil changes too.

It's not going to happen. Right in the driver's handbook they say "If you do your own servicing or have another mechanic do it, make sure you retain your receipts in case you have a warranty claim to make in future". I just bought 2 gallons of Castrol synthetic and 2 oil filters at Cdn Tire for $65 total - that'll cover the first 2 oil changes and I'm leaving the tires alone. It's the only way you can recognize suspension problems early anyway. If you start rotating everything, you don't know what's going on. You can always buy 2 new tires when you need them, and 2 more later on anyway. What's magical about buying 4 at a time? I'm very happy with my new van, and I'm not going to let the dealer screw that up.

Good advice! The Japs do that kind of stuff. A number of years ago one of my youngsters was driving a Honda that blow an oil seal, while on an Interstate going back to college. When the oil light came on she drove a few miles to the next exit to seek help.

Honda rejected the warranty claim for a new engine we installed, saying she must have used an oil that was too high in viscosity, causing the seal to blow.

Luckily one of my fleet services shops was the one submitting the claim. We had maintenance records to prove the oil was changed by Hondas warranty standards. After they paid me the claim I sold the car and no longer bought any more Hondas.

By the way our dealer cost for that new 4 cylinder Honda engine was $4,200, back at a time when a new domestic V8 could be had for around only $3,000 ;)

If I were the dealer, I'd tell the dumb customers that I do the rotation so I can do a proper examination of the brakes and suspension with the wheels & tires off, hahaha!

GM knows that, so they have made the oil change interval longer (I think), and dependent on driving conditions as "monitored" by the vehicle. It will tell you when to change the oil. I say monitored in quotes because there is no oil condition sensor, they only track engine revolutions (not distance travelled) and temperature. Cold weather driving shortens oil life. I'm just over 6000 mi., but the monitor tells me I have 10% left on my oil.

GM reckons they're saving the world millions of barrels of oil each year with this. Either that or they want to see more engines fail at just over 100,000 miles, hahaha!

Not to give too much credibility to the goodwill of dealerships, but I damaged a set of good tires by not rotating as often as the tire company recommended...(And they gave free rotations)..

I believe it was 10,000 miles. I went a lot longer and the tires got noisy, started cupping.

I started the rotation cycle, and have had no more problems. (Those tires now have 70,000 on them)

This is the kind of advice/anecdote I was looking for. I wonder if some fairly minor suspension anomalies can cause this, and that rotating the tires avoids it. Are there any tire guys here who can comment on this?

If it's a good idea, I'll rotate them myself, but if it's just make-work for the dealers, I'd just as soon not bother.

Don't rotate your tires. We'd much rather you pay us early for alignments and ball joint repairs. Those nickel and dime maintenance things cut into our expensive repairs. Heck, if you have an accident because the insides of your tires are worn out, we can even sell you a new car.

Mark

I had the front end aligned and checked. That was not an issue, apparently.

You can easily rotate them yourself, and that is what I do now.

Especially after some shitteauxs used impact wrenches on my lugs and warped my rotors.

How can anyone take you seriously when you post under the name of "Mark and Ellen Smith".

"You" wouldn't be getting anything from anyone anyway - I do alignments and ball joints myself also.

If you had a brain, you'd explain "WHY" the tires should be rotated so many times - that is if you actually knew!

Many FWD cars have cupping on the rear tires. I'm not one to rotate because it is just to much of a PITA sometimes. My Regal OEM tires had

65,000 miles on the rear set and plenty of treat for another 15k or so, but I got tired of the noise from the cupped tires.

My Sonata just clicked 50,000 miles today. Fronts have been replaced at

47,000 in time for the snow and the rear are still good and not cupped. I'll probably get another 20 to 30,000 out of them. Different cars, different driving habits, different suspension makes each situation unique so keep an eye on them.

If you don't like the tires on your car, rotating them assure even wear so you can replace them all at the same time. Otherwise, putting on two at a time is OK. I've done that for years.

No one said not to inspect the tires. Rotating won't stop problems that occur from hitting pot holes or curbs. Only takes a few seconds to peek at them once a week or so and more detailed when it is on the lift for an oil change.

That's an interesting point, because alignment is usually covered 1- year/12K miles. So, right, if you start to rotate and equalize the wear you can't tell if the alignment or other suspension parts are off to get free warranty service.

On Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:02:05 -0500, Happy Trails cast forth these pearls of wisdom...:

If you have to ask this question, then those "service monkeys with power wrenches" must know a hell of a lot more than you. BTW - what is a power wrench?

On Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:37:48 -0500, Happy Trails cast forth these pearls of wisdom...:

Ignorance is bliss isn't it? GM engines are not at all known for failing "just over 100,000 miles" - hahaha! But, I don't suppose accuracy matters that much to people who post stuff like that.

Having read your post's in this group, I must ask, are you old enough to even have a driver's license?

What a stupid statement. First off, I did not say there were a lot of GM engines fail at just over 100,000 miles, I just suggested, in a joking way, that they would want to see "more" fail. Going from 1 failure to 2 would "more" would it not?

Secondly, how is anyone to know what GM is "known for"? Just because some anonymous voice on the internet named mmarlowe says so? When you make supposedly knowledgeable statements like that you should always quote a reference, otherwise people think you are just making it up or merely stating your own opinion, which may have very little resemblance to the truth.

Ignorance does seem to be quite blissful - for you!

We are having a useful discussion about modern car tire wear here. If you do not wish to add to it, then please do not post anything. any more silly, argumentative comments will be ignored.

We are having a useful discussion about modern car tire wear here. If you do not wish to add to it, then please do not post anything. any more silly, argumentative comments will be ignored.

Go Gens!