This is my first car in many, many years that doesn't have a staggered tire set-up. I'm a little rusty on my best approach....

At 17k miles my front tires (all 18" Bridgestone Dueler H/P Sport) are beginning to show pretty significant wear (not close to the wear bar but still worn) while my rears look almost brand new. Should I just run them (the fronts) to the wear bar and then replace or go ahead and rotate all four and buy all four at a later date.

Opinions.

 

You're past due for a rotation. The only reason not to rotate is when (as you mentioned) running staggered sizes.

 

are you AWD or 2WD?

I was under the impression that people don't encourage rotation of AWD tires...

 

i rotated my 225/45-18" pirelli p7 summer rfs at about 5000 miles when the outside edge of the fronts started to show some feathering wear from cornering

i used front to back rotation, no crossing

wear was exactly even fronts to rears and also across the tread of each tire, 6/32" remaining of the new tread depth of 10/32", ie 1/2 worn

i run 42 psi front / 37 psi rear, set using a tire pyrometer

scott

 

Michelin says rotate. See link:

http://www.michelinman.com/tires-101...-rotation.page

 

2wd

 

you should rotate about every 5K, keeps the wear even. This applies to AWD, RWD or FWD. have one of each and we rotate every 5K. I have done this for 30 odd years and usually get really good mileage out of my tires. when I replace them they are all worn down so I don't feel like I "lost" anything when I change them.

 

i forgot to rotate at 5000 and by close to 10,000 the front were almost bald. ended up buying a whole new set of tires, non runflats. i will not miss that 5000 mark again

 

Miles - good thing you're 2WD. If you were 4WD and there was significant difference in the front wear vs the rear wear when you rotated back to front is may have set off the wheel spin sensors and screwed up your handling. That happened on me with an old Subaru Outback I had. Had snows still on one axle and all season on the other; car was all over the road until I figured out what was wrong.

 

Michelin says to use the criss-cross rotoation but my Michilen A/S Pilot tires are designed to run only one way so I do the front to rear rotation...It's not the type of rotation that makes a diference but that fact that you rotate at all. Most tire warranties require rotation every 5-7K miles or they won't honor the wear warranty..