Do you really need tire rotation?

[SammichLover]

Do you do tire balancing at the same time? I called local BJ's tire center. They charge $8 for rotation and $32 for rotation and balancing.

I'm rotating them at home and have not bothered with rebalancing any of my tires, yet. I've not felt even the slightest vibration out of them so I'm not concern at this point. I might at some point get my PS4S rebalanced where I had them mounted, depends on how long they are lasting or if I feel anything.

The track tires, because it is summer here, are going to be dead by fall anyway.

 

[mswlogo]

My policy is, I rotate before I see or measure a difference.

 

[billh13850]

More important for RWD. I in essence do mine 3x a years - putting snows on and off, and rotate summers in August.

 

[ngogas]

Nothing is “have” to. It’s suggested.

 

[djb2942]

In addition to normal driving, things like three-point turns, parallel parking, U-turns etc. put additional stresses on your front tires that your rear tires don’t have to deal with.

 

[cvhs99]

I got my tires balanced and rotated at costco as well for $21.99 in So Cal last week.

 

[follow.johnny]

I got my tires balanced and rotated at costco as well for $21.99 in So Cal last week.

If you have a local discount tires, they usually do this for free. I've gotten my tires balances and rotated for free.

 

[OCR1]

I got my tires balanced and rotated at costco as well for $21.99 in So Cal last week.

Wow! That’s a great price. How can they include the balance for such a low price?

 

[mswlogo]

I got my tires balanced and rotated at costco as well for $21.99 in So Cal last week.

I think I'd take my chances of not rotating before handing my car over to Costco.

 

[mswlogo]

Wow! That’s a great price. How can they include the balance for such a low price?

I'm sure they are hoping you'll eventually buy tires from them and they can inspect them while they have your car.

 

[BryanJ.Greene]

discount tire does it for free even for OEM non purchased from them tires?

The Discount Tire Certificate for Tire Replacement, Refund or Repair is just one way we look defects-from the moment they bought the tires to the final mile of legal tread depth (3/32"). Passenger, SUV or light truck tire road hazard warranty (if applicable) does not apply to tires used.

 

[boaterva]

Our 3 just turned 10K and also I just got a tire depth gauge. Going to see how the tires are this week. GF who commutes daily isn’t a speed demon and we don’t change tires for seasons, so... I’ll see how uneven they look. As below, AWD, so should be a good check on their being more or less even!

 

[lolder]

Rotated M3 LR RWD tires at 10 k $23 at my local mechanic. Measured tread depth and all were within 0.5 mm which is as close as you can measure. Driving sedately with RWD may wear rears about as much as steering wears fronts.

 

[sduck]

I hate buying new tires. Well, actually I love having new tires, but it's the time and expense I hate. So rotating them just makes sense. it's cheap insurance. I recently got mine rotated by tesla for the second time.

Also, a tread wear tester costs maybe 8$ - and is stupid easy to use. I recently tested my tires at 18K miles, and they had surprisingly even tread wear between the tires, which won't happen if you don't rotate.

 

[TT97]

FWIW, the latest version of the owner's manual recommends rotate tires every 10,000-12,000 miles or if tread depth difference is 2/32 in or greater (they also updated other maintenance requirements).

I get a feeling they changed it more as a way to reduce the burden on the Service Centers for tire rotations than for any scientific reason.

 

[digitalFan]

I got my tires balanced and rotated at costco as well for $21.99 in So Cal last week.

It used to be that Costco charged about $20 to rotate and balance tires not purchased from Costco. But that charge was only for the first visit. For subsequent rotations, it was free. Not sure if that is still the case.

 

[laalves911]

IMHO opinion, there's no need to rotate wheels. If you rotate, what you will achieve is that tires will wear more equally across front and rear. Let's say that, instead of replacing the two rear tires at 20k km and then the fronts at 40k km, you'll end up replacing all 4 tires at the same time at 30k km. Something like this.

I notice this very clearly in another car I have that has different tires from front to rear (thus cannot be rotated) and the above is more or less what happens. In my motorbikes, that also happens, toss two rears for each one front (in bikes, fronts and rears are always different sizes).

 

[ucmndd]

My RWD Model S eats rear tires approximately twice as quickly as the fronts. This is a byproduct of the rear axle doing 100% of the acceleration AND 95% of the braking through regeneration. So yeah, rotating is pretty important for longevity.

AWD cars seem to wear much more evenly.

 

[TesSpartan]

Why not have the Tesla service rangers come out and do it?

 

[Exscite]

It used to be that Costco charged about $20 to rotate and balance tires not purchased from Costco. But that charge was only for the first visit. For subsequent rotations, it was free. Not sure if that is still the case.

Thank you digitalFan-for mentioning that Costco will not charge for subsequent tire rotation, after the first. As far as I know they provide free rotation service only to tires bought at Costco (as is the case with my other cars). I'll have to check it next time.
Based on the chatter in this thread, I've decided to do my first Tesla tire rotation at Costco at about 7200 mile on my Model 3. Following the advice here, I had bought 4 jack-support pads at Amazon and brought them with me to Costco in Glendale CA. Indeed they used my pads to jack up the car and did a fine job (carefully) of removing the wheels, balancing and rotating them.
Total amount charged was $30 (including tax).