On an 04 Max SE, I have three tires (both front, and rear driver) with roughly 10K miles on them. These are Bridgestone Potenza 960AS Pole Position Tires. The Rear passenger tire is virtually brand new (same tire). Anyone have any recommendations on tire rotation procedures for this situation?

 

I'd move it up to the front passenger if I were you (the virtually new one).

 

Should I do the rotation now, or wait until the tires reach a certain mileage?

 

Wait until 12-15k

 

The goal of tire rotation is to keep the tread depth on all 4 tires as close to the same as possible. That is why you should move the front tires (that wear faster with FW drive) to the rear and the rear tires to the front. I rotate my tires every 7.5 K miles (when I change the motor oil.)

The essentially new tire has slightly more tread than the other 3 tires. I recommend that you measure the tread depth on the other three tires to see if they are all the same. I suspect that the two on the front have less depth than the one on the back.

So move the new tire to the front now and leave it there until its tread depth is close to the same as the other three. If my guess is correct, you should also move the other back tire to the front at the same time.

If there is not much difference between the tread depth of the current two back tires, you can simply go to a normal tire rotation schedule -- between 5 and 10 K miles. If there is a substantial difference between the two back tires, you will need to leave the new tire on the front longer (to wear it down more) and rotate into the other front position the other 3 tires (to spread the wear over all of them).

The tread depth does not have to be exactly the same before you go back to a normal rotation -- but they should be close -- particularly for the two front tires and also for the two rear tires. In other words, you want the two front tires with basically the same tread depth and the two rear tires with basically the same tread depth. And the tread depth of all 4 tires as close to the same as reasonably possible.

 

Move best/good tired to front, you'll be safer.

 

Sarara - Probably best to have best tire on front, as over 60% of the weight of the Maxima is on the front tires.

But there are lots of factors.

As the front handles most of the weight, does all the propelling the car forward, does the turning, and does most of the braking, the front tires will definitely wear faster.

Then there is the consideration that it is not always good to have the two tires on the drive axle(s) with different outside diameters (which is the case when one has good tread depth and one does not). Thankfully, this disparity is not as likely to damage our FWD Maximas as it could the differential of a RWD or 4WD vehicle.

And there is the problem of skidding in wet weather. Most often, the rear is what skids, as there is less weight back there to press the rubber against the pavement. Having deeper grooves (more tread) on the tires gives more room for the water to escape, which reduces the chances of skidding. By comparison, the greater weight on the front tends to force the water out, even with grooves that may not be quite as deep.

But then hydroplaning is a function of both the front and rear tires, so, if I ever plan on driving at freeway speeds on wet roads, I will not wait to see the crown of Lincoln's head on the penny (traditional way of determining there are less than two thirty-seconds of an inch of thead left) before replacing my tires.

I guess I am saying there are many ways of looking at this tire situation. The easiest answer is to just throw the good one on the front and have at it.

 

Is shorter tire rotation frequencies still necessary? I thought that most people rotated their tires around 5K of driving. But some are saying 7.5K, 10K, 12K... I do 90% city driving. So I suppose that I wear my tires out faster than some of you highway drivers. Perhaps that is where I came up with the lower rotation number?

 

The more often you do it the better. I'd say 7.5k is to long and 12k is asking for trouble. I recommend every 5k to most people and less if you are hard core about tire care. It gets worse when you live in areas with bad road conditions like chicago, new york, or gravel in the country. I rotate mine every 2-3k. Call me crazy, but the 15 minutes it takes is worth it if I can eek out 80k miles.

 

Could you not use your spare assuming it's full size, that way at least the 2 tires will be close to the same in terms of tread depth

 

It's better to have equivalent tires (size, brand, tread depth, if at all possible) on the same axle. I rotate my tires every 6 months or 6k... I have lifetime balance and rotation from Wal-Mart.... $30 until my tires are useless. Most of my driving is either < 5miles in the city or 80+ interstate trips.

 

traction is usually in the back but move it up front cause everybody know front tires get worn out faster. and don't forget to re-torque!

 

One thing that sucks about directional tires is not being able to rotate side to side. I have greater wear on the drivers side due to taking off ramps and most right turns much faster than left turns (due to not having to cross traffic to turn right)

 

Put the newest tire at the right front immediately. Given there is LESS THAN 2/32nd inch tread difference between the front driver and front passenger tire. If there is more than 2/32nd inch difference, leave that tire in the rear, or you risk thrashing your transaxle.

If there is less than 2/32nd difference put the new tire at the passenger front, wait 10k miles for the next rotation. Then resume the recommended 5k-8k rotation intervals.

If you don't have a means of measuring the tread depth. Go to a tire shop, if they don't have the gauge, beat them with a tack hammer.

Like said before the more often the better. I rotate and balance my tires every 1k miles, but I work at a tire shop!

 

This is a common misconception. Even if it's FWD, it's always safer to have more tread on the rear tires. This prevents the rear end from coming around on you from something as easy as changing lanes. Of course if you have decent tread on all four tires(Like you should), then you'll be safe either way. But FWDs want more tread on the front for the simple fact that they wear faster up front, not because it's safer.

Classic scenario:
You need four tires, you can only afford 2 tires until next paycheck, your vehicle is FWD.

What you want to do is replace the worst tires, and rotate them if necessary, to the rear.

If you replace the fronts for the simple fact that they wear faster in the front, you are PROCRASTINATING ! You know you needed four tires, so why are you putting the two you are replacing up front? To get more life from the old tires in the rear? It just doesn't make sense, you want those gone asap.

Remember, it is safer to understeer than oversteer.

 

^ +1 Here's something I found a while ago: click me!

 

I've heard the saying to put bald tires on the front and rubber in back if u only have 2 good tires too...i dont get to that point though.

 

Couldnt be more wrong. I worked for Michelin, always ALWAYS put the newer tires on the rear. We had video after video showing the difference between newer tires in the front vs rear. You are asking for trouble when you put new tires on front vs rear.

 

I agree with this information if there is a big difference (> 2/32") between the tread on the new tire and on the 3 older tires. But in this case it was said that there is very little mileage difference between the wear on the remaining 3 tires and the new tire. In that case, put the new tire on the front.

"light" also gave some good advice earlier in this thread.

 

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...12_18_full.jpg

 

What is that?