My M3 is 9 months new and has 4,620 miles on it. I just had the tires rotated in a diagonal pattern. I know it's sooner than the manual recommends, but I want them to last a long time. I've read in a couple of places that stock foam tires don't have the longevity as eventual replacement tires will have. I went to Autowerkes in Freeport, ME. You could eat off the floor in that place! They work with high-end foreign cars. That's where I got my car inspected, too. When they put it on the lift, I could see the underside for the first time! How completely different from an ICE undercarriage! For my peace of mind, I'll have the tires rotated every 5,000-6,000 miles.
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Rotate Tires Early
- Thread starter Kat Jacks
- Start date
Hmmm that’s what I thought. Will this rotation pattern harm the tires?
I used to take my BMW to Voit's shop. He's come a long way from his small little shop in Gardiner. I rotate my wheels, myself. When I had it aligned at VIP, they let me walk under the lift, as they adjusted. Some ICE vehicles have undertrays to smooth the airflow.
I generally don't care too much about tire longevity. For max safety and performance, I like to keep relatively fresh rubber on the road, so 2yrs is it for me, regardless of miles. I swapped out the OEMs after one year.
When I looked at the Michelin website, it seemed to me that they rec'd diagonal rotation, but since Tesla rotates front-to-back, that's what I do.
MLXXXp
Member
The OEM tires are asymmetric, not directional.
An asymmetric tire has an "inside" sidewall and an "outside" sidewall and must be mounted on the wheel as such. It can roll in either direction and thus can be rotated diagonally.
A directional tire is designed to roll in one direction and must be mounted on the wheel such that it will turn in the direction indicated on the sidewalls when moving forward. It can only be rotated front to back (unless removed from the wheel and re-mounted reversed to go on the opposite side).
As as aside: Some directional tires have arrow markings on each sidewall to indicate the direction of rotation. Others have "left" on one sidewall and "right" on the other to indicate which side the tire goes on when you read it on the outside. I kind of prefer the left/right marking method. (Do any tires have both marking methods?)
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S
SR+ with 18" Primacy. Only got 23,000 miles out of them and rotated them. Replaced them with the Michelin Pilot AS4s, nice improvement. No foam and they are just as quiet or maybe more so now that they are new. They also have a 45,000 mile warranty. They will never make it that far so I plan to get some mileage credit when it comes time.
MLXXXp
Member
I have to eat some crow here. I picked up a Model 3 18” Aero Wheel and Winter Tire Package today. Instead of the Pirelli Sottozero Serie II tires pictured on Tesla's store web site, I was given Sottozero 3 tires. Unlike the Serie II tires, which are indeed asymmetric, the version 3 tires are directional.
So, (at least in Canada) Tesla does sell directional tires (as well as asymmetric ones).
danarcha
Member
Aren't all winter tires directional? They should have a "V" shaped tread that has to roll the proper direction (point of the "V" hits the ground first) to push water and slush from under the tire out. If you reverse the direction, they suck water and slush underneath the tire which would be pretty bad.
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MLXXXp
Member
A good number of them are but not all. As I said, the Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II that Tesla pictures as what they provide with their Model 3 18” Aero Wheel and Winter Tire Package are asymmetric, not directional (though my package came with directional Sottozero 3 tires).
Another couple of examples of asymmetric winter tires are the Dunlop Winter Maxx and the Cooper Discoverer True North.
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