[mindanalyzer]

This is about tires rotation for 2014 X3 Xdrive28i (standard 18" non-staggered wheels)?

My 4 tires have 14k miles and the wear is at 5/32 for all of them (digital indicator) but the front tires look much worse specially to the sides (I admit that I am a bit aggresive driving at times). I have never done any rotation, and I guess the BMW dealer did not do the rotation at the 10k service

Would you recommend to swap the front and rear tires? :dunno:

thanks

ps: Last night, after some rain, I went to start my vehicle and received the message that I needed to stop and check my tires because the air pressure was low. I selected the vehicle status option in the idrive menu and it showed the 4 tires in yellow; This morning I went to a gas station and pump air in all tires (32F/35R psi) but found it weird that I got this message at the same time for all of them. After pumping air, I did the reset of the TPM system and the 4 tires changed to green

 

[Jay Arras]

There's mixed views on the rotation of tires. But on BMWs, even with same size tires on every corner, the suspension set up creates unique wear patterns for each tire. And, it is generally recommended that - especially if tires are "directional" - that they not be cross rotated.

 

[The X Men]

If you are an aggressive driver, you probably should not rotate the tire. I would instead check front wheel alignment due to the uneven wear.

What was the PSI of the tires before you pump it up?

 

[mindanalyzer]

If you are an aggressive driver, you probably should not rotate the tire. I would instead check front wheel alignment due to the uneven wear.

What was the PSI of the tires before you pump it up?

I dont understand this logic; If I am an aggressive driver I would observe more side wear in the front tires and in my opinion it would make sense to swap the front and rear tires so that the wear evens out. What am I missing here?

No idea about the green-yellow threshold but apparently the PSIs went below that (I have not coded it so I cannot see the PSI values)

 

[slowmachine]

I was in my local shop today and asked the owner, a man with about 40 years experience in BMW service, about BMW's recommendation against rotating same-size tires front to rear. He thinks it is foolish. They rotate front to rear at each oil change. He did say that he has personally seen brake problems from rotating the directional wheels, which are designed to increase airflow across the brakes, to the opposite end of the same axle. My wheels have arrows cast near the hubs to indicate the direction of rotation for proper airflow.

Mike
2011 X3 xDrive28i

 

[Autoputzer]

Every tire manufacturer recommends rotating tires (when applicable) to improve tread life. BMW's have a lot of negative camber in the rear (tires tilted in at the top). They have less negative camber in the front, but a lot of caster. Caster increases the negative camber when the tire is turning. Rotating them will even out the wear. If you have a RWD/FWD, the tires on the driving axle will wear faster.

Run-flats (at least mine) wear as if they're underinflated. You can slow down the edge wear by bumping the pressure up over what's on the door decal.

 

[The X Men]

I dont understand this logic; If I am an aggressive driver I would observe more side wear in the front tires and in my opinion it would make sense to swap the front and rear tires so that the wear evens out. What am I missing here?

No idea about the green-yellow threshold but apparently the PSIs went below that (I have not coded it so I cannot see the PSI values)

There will be less contact patch for a period of time after your rotation, until the tires wear in. You might want to drive less aggressively during that time.

 

[Autoputzer]

There will be less contact patch for a period of time after your rotation, until the tires wear in. You might want to drive less aggressively during that time.

This adverse effect can be diminished by more frequent rotation.

I had some problems with some Michelin "green" tires recently. That caused me to read the owners manual for the tires. They required rotation every 6k to 8k miles to maintain the warranty.

DIY tire rotation is easy if you have a floor jack and a spare tire.

 

[dukedkt442]

I rotate tires every oil change, at 5k miles. My tires wear evenly well past 60k miles. Fronts traditionally have positive camber plus some toe in, and BMW rears have negative. If you rotate frequently, contact patch is largely unaffected.

I even go the extra mile once a year, and have the tires/wheels broken down and the tires swapped side to side, so I can further increase even wear without affecting keeping the tires/wheels unidirectional.

All four tires needing air is due to a combination of all tires losing air over time, and colder ambient air temps leading tire pressure.

 

[Autoputzer]

I rotate tires every oil change, at 5k miles. My tires wear evenly well past 60k miles. Fronts traditionally have positive camber plus some toe in, and BMW rears have negative. If you rotate frequently, contact patch is largely unaffected.

I even go the extra mile once a year, and have the tires/wheels broken down and the tires swapped side to side, so I can further increase even wear without affecting keeping the tires/wheels unidirectional.

All four tires needing air is due to a combination of all tires losing air over time, and colder ambient air temps leading tire pressure.

That's dedication. My M3 had staggered, directional tires. I just left them alone. But, they wore fairly evenly. Directional tires seem to have gone out of vogue, replaced now by asymmetric tires. Back in the '90's a lot of cars had staggered, directional, and asymmetric tires. You had to buy four different tires for the cars.

I did have the tires on my Chevy pick-up flipped on the rims. Even with an alignment within spec's it was eating the outside edge. So, at half-life I had them flipped. I end up getting slightly over 74k miles on the tires. They were down to the wear bars (2/32nds inch), but it rarely rains here, and when it does I just STFD.

 

[farg]

That's dedication. My M3 had staggered, directional tires. I just left them alone. But, they wore fairly evenly. Directional tires seem to have gone out of vogue, replaced now by asymmetric tires. Back in the '90's a lot of cars had staggered, directional, and asymmetric tires. You had to buy four different tires for the cars.

I did have the tires on my Chevy pick-up flipped on the rims. Even with an alignment within spec's it was eating the outside edge. So, at half-life I had them flipped. I end up getting slightly over 74k miles on the tires. They were down to the wear bars (2/32nds inch), but it rarely rains here, and when it does I just STFD.

The more things change............my 1971 2002 came with Michelin XAS tires from the factory. XAS, as in asymmetrical.

(what kind of person remembers this stuff??)

 

[GetMore]

I just read the on-board users manual, and it said not to rotate front to rear. I think it actually said damage could occur.
I find this very strange.

 

[Autoputzer]

I just read the on-board users manual, and it said not to rotate front to rear. I think it actually said damage could occur.
I find this very strange.

Which user's manual? Yeah, there'd be damage if you rotate staggered (wider tires in the back) tires front to rear. The wider tire would likely rub against something if put on the front.

 

[TriStateBMW]

I read the same that the X3 tires should only be rotated side to side however, experience has taught me that they shouldn't be rotated at all. 2 years after buying my BMW I took it to the dealership and similar to previous cars I had owned, I asked the service advisor to rotate the tires. They were rotated without any advice and I had to pay for it as I was told it's not covered under the maintenance program. Thereafter, whenever there is a flat the TPM indicates loss of pressure in the wrong tires as it seems the TPM sensors are on the wheel and also got rotated!! I've asked the BMW service center to fix it several times however, whenever the tire pressure gets low I find that they haven't fixed it! And now close to 45K I've been told by the dealership that I should replace rear tires as they are worn out. Bottom line no benefit from rotation and I wouldn't do it again!

 

[Autoputzer]

I read the same that the X3 tires should only be rotated side to side however, experience has taught me that they shouldn't be rotated at all. 2 years after buying my BMW I took it to the dealership and similar to previous cars I had owned, I asked the service advisor to rotate the tires. They were rotated without any advice and I had to pay for it as I was told it's not covered under the maintenance program. Thereafter, whenever there is a flat the TPM indicates loss of pressure in the wrong tires as it seems the TPM sensors are on the wheel and also got rotated!! I've asked the BMW service center to fix it several times however, whenever the tire pressure gets low I find that they haven't fixed it! And now close to 45K I've been told by the dealership that I should replace rear tires as they are worn out. Bottom line no benefit from rotation and I wouldn't do it again!

I rotated my OEM tires every 7.5k miles. But, those OEM RFT's were so bad that I got rid of them at 30k miles. I purposely ordered my car with a square set-up (all four tires the same size) so that I could do a four tire rotation pattern. With four rotation stints (each tire on each corner for 7.5k miles), the tread wear was almost perfectly even at 30k miles.

"6-" means about 5.75/32nds of an inch. "6+" would mean about 6.25/32nds of an inch of tread.

Tire rotation is critical on a FWD car, since the front tires do all the steering, about 70% of the braking, and all the pulling. The rear tires are pretty much just along for the ride.

BMW's have a lot of negative camber in the rear wheels. Also, the rear wheels do all the pushing (except on X1's and Active Tourers), accelerating rear tire wear. So, rotating is also beneficial on square-set-up RWD BMW's.

With a floor jack, hand tools, and a spare tire, tire rotations are free. Keeping even wear on all four tires means that a set of tires will last longer. If that extra mileage gets you to when you sell the car without having to buy another set of tires, that could save you a lot of money. If I was leasing with a 36k mile plan, and if I could have tolerated the RFT's another 5k miles, my aggressive rotation (and over inflation to even out the wear across each tire) would have saved me about $1000 in an excessive tire wear charge at least turn-in.

 

[kevink4]

My factory tires seemed to wear pretty smoothly. Just the rear tires wore more. Then I started losing air in one of the rear tires when it was about 3/32's, so I just replaced them. Not even 30K, so I bought a different brand.

 

[angih]

I'm on my 2nd X3. I rotated the run-flat tires on the first and never had any problems. I would also add that the service advisor never advised against it, but said it wasn't necessary. I had even wear on my tires.

On my current X3 I forgot to rotate the tires and now have much more wear on the front tires to the point that they need to be replaced at around 20k miles.

Hope that info is helpful.