To rotate or not to rorate...

ezaircon4jc · 03-28-2021, 01:44 PM

I know BMW say to not rotate the tires. That said, would there be any benefit at all to rotating the tires with a staggered setup. I know due to the stagger the swap will be side to side only. I've even toyed with the idea of having the tires swapped to the other side wheels.

AnotherM · 03-28-2021, 02:05 PM

No benefit at all. Save the money and get an alignment or replace the tires.

ezaircon4jc · 03-28-2021, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by F10c550i

No benefit at all. Save the money and get an alignment or replace the tires.

No wear issues, just wondering if there could be any benefit.

OnlyGerman · 03-29-2021, 08:40 AM

There actually is a benefit to rotating side to side. Just take it to a tire shop and get it done, no more than $20-30.

AnotherM · 03-29-2021, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlyGerman

There actually is a benefit to rotating side to side. Just take it to a tire shop and get it done, no more than $20-30.

What benefit would that be exactly?

OnlyGerman · 03-29-2021, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by F10c550i

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlyGerman

There actually is a benefit to rotating side to side. Just take it to a tire shop and get it done, no more than $20-30.

What benefit would that be exactly?

Allow more even thread and suspension component wear on a particular side would cause extra wear on tires. pretty common sense bud.

AnotherM · 03-29-2021, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlyGerman

Allow more even thread and suspension component wear on a particular side would cause extra wear on tires. pretty common sense bud.

Waste of time and money to rotote this way.

OnlyGerman · 03-29-2021, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by F10c550i

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlyGerman

Allow more even thread and suspension component wear on a particular side would cause extra wear on tires. pretty common sense bud.

Waste of time and money to rotote this way.

Not sure how 30mins and $30 max is such a hassle to maximize tire life...

Unspec · 03-30-2021, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnlyGerman

Not sure how 30mins and $30 max is such a hassle to maximize tire life...

Or free if you own a jack

ezaircon4jc · 03-30-2021, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unspec

Or free if you own a jack

Wish I could do it myself. Since my CABG those days are gone

Unspec · 03-30-2021, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

Wish I could do it myself. Since my CABG those days are gone

Oof. Maybe get a local kid to do the physical work, and you provide the tools lol

Hell, if you were local to me I'd pop right over and help you out.

ezaircon4jc · 03-30-2021, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unspec

Oof. Maybe get a local kid to do the physical work, and you provide the tools lol

Hell, if you were local to me I'd pop right over and help you out.

Appreciate it! You're only about 2800 miles away!

Surly73 · 03-31-2021, 06:56 AM

I've posted my story about this numerous times before so I'll try not to drag this out. I realize that the OP is about a staggered setup and my experience was with square. Years ago I shared the opinion that it's easy to do myself and if I do it often enough, BMW must be wrong.

On both my E39 and E90 platforms, I was educated otherwise, at least for top tier summer rubber. I'll try to make a long story short.

Because I do everything myself and I was a relatively low mileage driver even prior to COVID I could rotate tires every 3000km (every 1800miles). I thought it was a no brainer.

On my E39 I started chasing handling issues. I could feel squirmyness or bump steer requiring mid corner correction, especially if crossing over road crown or through tire grooves in the road. I thought bushings and ball joints. I did a routine rotation and suddenly stability had returned, turn in improved, and the amount of steering input required to negotiate a turn reduced. Everything was fixed, the difference was immediate and dramatic.

I keep spreadsheet records of every time I touch the car. I traced it back that I had just returned the wheels to their original positions when I got that set of summer tires new.

I stopped rotating on my E39 ever. I went through two sets of rear summer tires for every front. Winter tires went in sets of four due to different driving habits.

I repeated the experiment on my E90 w/704 suspension and PSS. As soon as the rears went on the front the front got all squirrely and unpleasant. If I did not have the previous 704 BMW experience I might not have noticed the difference but I found it extremely unpleasant. I immediately put them back and never rotated on that car either.

I haven't even entertained the idea on my F10.

Standard rear alignment settings wear the rear tires in a conical manner. When you put cones on the front of a car with good steering (I don't put the F series in that grouping) it doesn't feel right.

My take away - If you bought a BMW for precise driving then follow BMW's direction and don't rotate. If you don't notice or care and want to minimize tire expense - do whatever you like.

Again - I experienced and learned this personally not just read about it.

On staggered side-to-side: Just last week when I put my summer rubber back on I elected to switch LR and RR since my summer tires are not directional. RR has slightly higher wear. Considering less driving due to pandemic, I think I can get another year without buying two more PS4S if I even out the rear wear. I am carefully observing for any odd effects. Since I switched two cones for one another I'm not causing the same problem as a front/rear rotation.

ezaircon4jc · 03-31-2021, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surly73

...
On staggered side-to-side: Just last week when I put my summer rubber back on I elected to switch LR and RR since my summer tires are not directional. RR has slightly higher wear. Considering less driving due to pandemic, I think I can get another year without buying two more PS4S if I even out the rear wear. I am carefully observing for any odd effects. Since I switched two cones for one another I'm not causing the same problem as a front/rear rotation.

THANK YOU! That's just the info I'm wanting. The tires are fairly new, so it's not close to rotation time anyway.

Surly73 · 03-31-2021, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

THANK YOU! That's just the info I'm wanting. The tires are fairly new, so it's not close to rotation time anyway.

I don't know if you'll buy much. On all of my RWD BMWs, RR wore noticeably more than LR but it was less pronounced with the AWD F10. Still observable though.

EDIT: Oh! Worth mentioning... On my E39 w/704 (the BMW I had the longest and knew the best) on most types of summer rubber it would "feather" the outer edges of the fronts. I believe it's specifically called heel-toe wear. In that "era" it seemed that all sport suspension (704) BMWs did this to their front tires. Certain limited numbers of tread patterns seemed to accentuate this (Toyo T1-S) while other seemed to be designed to combat it (Toyo T1R) or simply didn't show it as much because of huge edge tread blocks (Michelin PS2).

This wear seemed to really kill winter tires. The sipe edges were all rounded off and lost their ice grip in the outer third at least. If you did a L/R rotation (assuming non-directional tires, only my PS2s would have allowed this) it could be a positive in evening out the heel-toe wear or it could totally trash those tread blocks. It would be interesting to see. My E90 did this a lot less and I'm not sure my F10 does it at all.

03-28-2021, 01:44 PM	#1
ezaircon4jc Major General 4484 Rep 5,365 Posts Drives: 2019 540i M Sport Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: San Diego iTrader: (0)	To rotate or not to rorate... I know BMW say to not rotate the tires. That said, would there be any benefit at all to rotating the tires with a staggered setup. I know due to the stagger the swap will be side to side only. I've even toyed with the idea of having the tires swapped to the other side wheels.
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03-28-2021, 02:05 PM	#2
AnotherM Cole 321 Rep 498 Posts Drives: 2016 m5 CP Join Date: Oct 2020 Location: AZ iTrader: (0)	No benefit at all. Save the money and get an alignment or replace the tires.
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03-29-2021, 08:40 AM	#4
OnlyGerman Major 364 Rep 1,261 Posts Drives: F15, F13, F10, E60 Join Date: Jul 2019 Location: Sunshine State iTrader: (0)	There actually is a benefit to rotating side to side. Just take it to a tire shop and get it done, no more than $20-30.
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03-31-2021, 06:56 AM	#13
Surly73 Lieutenant Colonel 535 Rep 1,873 Posts Drives: '11 535xi 8AT KWv3 MPE MHD xHP Join Date: May 2012 Location: Oakville, Ontario iTrader: (1)	I've posted my story about this numerous times before so I'll try not to drag this out. I realize that the OP is about a staggered setup and my experience was with square. Years ago I shared the opinion that it's easy to do myself and if I do it often enough, BMW must be wrong. On both my E39 and E90 platforms, I was educated otherwise, at least for top tier summer rubber. I'll try to make a long story short. Because I do everything myself and I was a relatively low mileage driver even prior to COVID I could rotate tires every 3000km (every 1800miles). I thought it was a no brainer. On my E39 I started chasing handling issues. I could feel squirmyness or bump steer requiring mid corner correction, especially if crossing over road crown or through tire grooves in the road. I thought bushings and ball joints. I did a routine rotation and suddenly stability had returned, turn in improved, and the amount of steering input required to negotiate a turn reduced. Everything was fixed, the difference was immediate and dramatic. I keep spreadsheet records of every time I touch the car. I traced it back that I had just returned the wheels to their original positions when I got that set of summer tires new. I stopped rotating on my E39 ever. I went through two sets of rear summer tires for every front. Winter tires went in sets of four due to different driving habits. I repeated the experiment on my E90 w/704 suspension and PSS. As soon as the rears went on the front the front got all squirrely and unpleasant. If I did not have the previous 704 BMW experience I might not have noticed the difference but I found it extremely unpleasant. I immediately put them back and never rotated on that car either. I haven't even entertained the idea on my F10. Standard rear alignment settings wear the rear tires in a conical manner. When you put cones on the front of a car with good steering (I don't put the F series in that grouping) it doesn't feel right. My take away - If you bought a BMW for precise driving then follow BMW's direction and don't rotate. If you don't notice or care and want to minimize tire expense - do whatever you like. Again - I experienced and learned this personally not just read about it. On staggered side-to-side: Just last week when I put my summer rubber back on I elected to switch LR and RR since my summer tires are not directional. RR has slightly higher wear. Considering less driving due to pandemic, I think I can get another year without buying two more PS4S if I even out the rear wear. I am carefully observing for any odd effects. Since I switched two cones for one another I'm not causing the same problem as a front/rear rotation.
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