New to Telsas and I’ve been watching demos of the smart-summon / auto-park features on Youtube. I keep cringing when I see the car turn the wheels in place while stopped because I was always taught that you should be moving while turning the wheel, even if just a little bit to decrease wear on the tires. Then when I found out the wheels actually turn while you’re parked playing a game with the steering wheel I was horrified. Is it just a misconception I’ve had all these years that this is not healthy for the tires?
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Tire wear while at rest
- Thread starter desertSunrise
- Start date
It's fine man. Move on. Your OCD is all over here.
It's fine. Sure, it decreases wear on the tires if you didn't do it... but you aren't doing this over and over again on the same patch, so it's not unevenly wearing the tires. Plus, I guarantee you are doing this already if you ever have to parallel park, park in a regular parking spot, or make a 5-point turn to turn around or something...
If you're not... well, I don't want to have to try to wait for you to parallel park
If you're not... well, I don't want to have to try to wait for you to parallel park
Puddles
Member
You're getting your balls broken here.
I was taught the same thing when I was learning to drive, however it wasn't to reduce tire wear. We were taught that turning the wheels while stopped could cause premature wear of the steering linkage system...tie rod ends, ball joints and bushings. We were taught that turning the wheel while moving cause less stress on these parts. I don't know if that's true. I took our instructor at his word (he was a high school shop teacher after all...LOL).
To this day, I try to turn the wheel only when moving forward or backward, even if only at a creep. It make me cringe when people turn the steering wheel with the car at a dead stop.
I was taught the same thing when I was learning to drive, however it wasn't to reduce tire wear. We were taught that turning the wheels while stopped could cause premature wear of the steering linkage system...tie rod ends, ball joints and bushings. We were taught that turning the wheel while moving cause less stress on these parts. I don't know if that's true. I took our instructor at his word (he was a high school shop teacher after all...LOL).
To this day, I try to turn the wheel only when moving forward or backward, even if only at a creep. It make me cringe when people turn the steering wheel with the car at a dead stop.
Puddles
Member
I remember as a kid, (quite sometime ago), my father teaching me that steering without rolling would wear out the linkages. The more I think about it, I do think this could be a kind of urban mythology. If you compare the rigors of daily use to twisting the steering wheel every now and then while stopped, there’s probably not a big comparison.
The way I learned it is it will create a flat spot on the tire due to the friction in one spot, but as someone else said that could just be an urban legend.
Ivan Abundance
Member
The story I'd heard was that turning the tires while stopped could mess up the alignment. This was my dad, who'd been a front-end mechanic in the fifties. Those were bias-ply tires, too. Still, I've never seen nor spoken with anyone who's had it happen.
