Evening the tyre wear

Alan Surrey

Alan Surrey

Member
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Is it a good idea to swap tyres, nearside to offside in order to even out the tyre wear?
My rear nearside tyre has a lot more wear on the outside than on the inside. If I swapped it with the newer, less worn rear offside, the edge of the tyre that was on the outside would now be on the inside (and the direction of rotation of the tyre remain unchanged) maybe it would even things out and I might get a few more miles before having to replace the big money rear tyre.
QP 4.2 running Michelin SP sport.
What do you think?
 
I'd get your tracking sorted, personally.

I mean, if you're going to take them off the wheels and swap them I can't see a particular reason why not, but my head's spinning.

C
 
I guess in theory, however some tyres are now designed with a tread pattern that is not symmetrical so the outside will always be the outside if swopped across, with 'outside' marked on the tyre.
 
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I assume to do that you would need to take them off the rims? In that case savings may be negated against the fitting and balancing costs.
 
philw696 said:
There was a time when we always rotated wheels and tyres but those days are in the distant past really and not many cars you could do it on today.
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Including circulating the spare, when you used to have a proper wheel and tyre!
 
mjheathcote said:
Including circulating the spare, when you used to have a proper wheel and tyre!
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When I worked for Honda nearly 20 years ago they stopped putting spare wheel kits in cars to reduce weight for emissions.
As the average age of buyers of new cars was 55 it became our biggest selling accessory.
Kerching :)
 
It will work as a stay of execution for the rear tyres. How long depends on the level of wear tbh….
It’s the geo set up that makes the difference here - so placing the lesser worn unit on the side that wears heaviest ( & vice versa) will bring them quickly to the same level of wear as each other.
Getting geo/tracking done before replacing the ‘big money’ rears is essential to avoid repeating the scenario

Just checking- you’re not thinking you need to remount the tyres to the rims, are you…. Simply swap the wheels over from one side t’other… Take you 20 mins…!
Not sure why people are getting hung up on handed b0ll0x here…:yeah:
 
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Good Evening!

On The Tyre Wear, I agree with the others, check your tracking, not worth the hassle, some tyres are 'handed'.
 
TimR said:
It will work as a stay of execution for the rear tyres. How long depends on the level of wear tbh….
It’s the geo set up that makes the difference here - so placing the lesser worn unit on the side that wears heaviest ( & vice versa) will bring them quickly to the same level of wear as each other.
Getting geo/tracking done before replacing the ‘big money’ rears is essential to avoid repeating the scenario

Just checking- you’re not thinking you need to remount the tyres to the rims, are you…. Simply swap the wheels over from one side t’other… Take you 20 mins…!
Not sure why people are getting hung up on handed b0ll0x here…:yeah:
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MOT Failure if not on the car correctly.
 
TimR said:
It will work as a stay of execution for the rear tyres. How long depends on the level of wear tbh….
It’s the geo set up that makes the difference here - so placing the lesser worn unit on the side that wears heaviest ( & vice versa) will bring them quickly to the same level of wear as each other.
Getting geo/tracking done before replacing the ‘big money’ rears is essential to avoid repeating the scenario

Just checking- you’re not thinking you need to remount the tyres to the rims, are you…. Simply swap the wheels over from one side t’other… Take you 20 mins…!
Not sure why people are getting hung up on handed b0ll0x here…:yeah:
Click to expand...

Tyres can be either non symetrical on pattern or directional on rotation, or neither.
If directional you can't, or shouldn't just swop over from side to side as the rotation of the tyre will be going the wrong way to what the tyre manufacturer designed.
Even before this, it was always recommended not to change the rotation direction of the tyre, as the tyre 'set itself' in one direction.
This may have been ******** but if the tyre manufacurer states a rotation, I wouldn't want to ignore this personally.
Anyway just swopping from side to side won't acheive what is required anyway, the tyre would need to be remounted, so the inside of the tyre now on the outside.
 
TimR said:
Not sure why people are getting hung up on handed b0ll0x here
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Well, I'm going to go with the 'If you put the on the wrong way, they force water into the middle of the tyre as opposed to out of the edges and thereby massively reducing your traction in the wet'

But it's probably just ********....

philw696 said:
MOT Failure if not on the car correctly.
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And that. I wonder why ;)

C
 
CatmanV2 said:
Well, I'm going to go with the 'If you put the on the wrong way, they force water into the middle of the tyre as opposed to out of the edges and thereby massively reducing your traction in the wet'

But it's probably just ********....



And that. I wonder why ;)

C
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The tyre Manufacturers are the Experts in this field for sure.
 
It was 40 years ago when Lotus started fitting Goodyear Eagle directional tyres to their facelift Lotus Excel SE.
My dad had a previous generation Excel on 14" rims, Goodyear NCT, and we went to the Lotus garage to check out this SE model.
Being a car nerdy 17 year old I noticed the change to 15" rims (so big!!) and the new tyres, that Lotus had mounted at the factory with the rotation the wrong way!
 
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