The owners manual states that you should not swap front and rear wheels.
Is this BS or will I have to have the tires taken off the rims to do rotation.
I have factory 16" Rims

 

It is kind of odd, the auto manufacturer says do not rotate, and the tire manufacturer says we should rotate the tires front to back every 5000 miles...

 

Even the dealer recommends a tire rotation (and balance) every 5K miles. I skipped the $100 they wanted to charge, and did my own front to back. Requires one jack, one jackstand, socket, torque wrench and an hours worth of work to give the wheels a good cleaning.

 

I believe that the MINI CO. puts that directive out because of some directional tires that are sold nowdays. Some brands will have a arrow on the sidewall showing the direction of the tread/tire rotation. "Those" should not be rotated. Other tires brands without any arrow for rotation are ok .

Just sayin............

 

Also, since MINI does the 'maintenance' for 3yr/36K miles, it's one less chore they have to do.

 

But even some manufacturers state to rotate directional tires from front to back. This link is from Dunlop one of the OEM tires manufacturers for the MINI.
http://www.dunloptires.com/care/faqs.html#rotate

I personally have not rotated the tires on my Clubman and i am finding that the wear is about the same on both the front and the rear. I have the Dunlop SP Sport 01 ROF so they wear rather fast anyway.

 

Tires will need to be rotated. My fronts wore significantly more than the rear tires. They do all the work on our car so will have the most wear.
Dealer requires they rotate tires every 5k for tire warranty to be in force. Of course, by 20k miles, you have paid for a set of tires with what they charge .
If you have directional tires, pay attention to the arrows.
Cheers,
John

 

My '92 325i manual also says not to rotate the tires, as it can compromise the vehicle's handling. It's a BMW thing. I have always cheerfully ignored that and rotated and balanced.

 

True to a point, they charged me $30 to rotate my tires.

 

on my '05 MC with the stock 176/65/15 continentals (non-runflats) I do not rotate....I let the fronts wear down then move the rears to the front and put new tires on the rear....seems like I get about 30K mi to 35K mi a set......anyone else do this?

 

Why would you not put the best (new) tires on the front, where ALL the work is done - traction, steering, even most of the braking load...

 

good question....seems counter-intuitive I know but this is what I have gleaned from the experts on the other MINI forums: if the best tires are on the fronts, you are more likely to get oversteer problems on emergency maneuvers, so you always, esp in a front wheel drive, want to have the best grippier tires on the rears to prevent breaking traction while swerving which would cause oversteer ( the rear of the car would swing out while making a fast curve). There is a great video on the Michelin website showing identical situations of what can happen when the better tires are on the front rather than on the rear...cool video..here it is:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/536225...wers_you_to_m/

 

If you just ended up replacing the fronts, the rears would last a very longtime, and the rubber would get old.

Also, with better tires on the front, the rears would have less traction. For the street, most drivers are better off with the car not getting tail-happy in emergency situations.

 

After watching the Michlen video I felt as though I had learned a valuable lesson; even though it should have been almost intuitive to put the best tires on the rear; possibly a habit from putting the best tires on the driving wheels from rear wheel drive vehicles?!

 

You guys have fun with the newest tires out back. I will keep my best on the front. Perhaps in an extreme situation of very rapid lane change with limited traction, you will have an issue, but 99% of the time, the optimum traction on the front will serve you better. To me it is like saying not to wear a seat belt because it can kill you. in .001% of cases...true. All the rest, not so much.
Regardless, enjoy your minis

 

I guess they changed the owners manual because mine says:


From page 93 of the 2007 Owners Manual -
The manufacturer of your MINI recommends that you swap the front wheels with the rear wheels and vice-versa at intervals of 3,000 to 4,000 miles. This will counter the varying rates of tire wear at the front and rear axles, which will have a positive effect on the handling characteristics of your MINI. The direction in which the tires rotate should be kept the same.

I'm sure when they say swap wheels they mean wheels and tires, haha.

 

I just looked at my on-line copy of the Owner's Manual and on page 104 it does say "the manufacturer of your MINI recommends that you do not swap the front wheels with the rear wheels .......".
I find that to be very suspect. All tire manufacturers recommend that the tires be rotated, on a regular schedule, for optimum service life. In the case of directional tires, they must stay on the same side so that the rotation is always the same.
I have always rotated my tires on a 7500 mile schedule. My previous car got 105k miles out of a set of (OEM) Bridgestone Potenza RE92s. My second set (Potenza G009s) had over 80k and still had good tread with routine rotations. With the "Ghost" I am rotating at each oil change. During my OBC directed service I had the dealer rotate them and they had no qualms about doing it. (of course, I did pay for that labor)
The only concern that I can think of is that a MINI compact spare will not fit on the front of an 'S' because of the larger brake disk. In that case, with a flat, one must move the rear wheel forward and put the spare on the rear.

I just looked at the Michelin video and noted that they start off with "So you forgot to rotate your tires....." Then they go on about replacing only two and why to put them on the rear. The initial comment says a whole lot. Rotating the tires is the best option.

 

I'm getting ready to order a Clubman S thus week but having owned 13 BMW's I have never rorated tires on them. They specifically tell you not to rotate them and this was long before they started using run flats. The rears tires on the BMW's always wore out first and was always an issue as to get 4 at a time or replace the rears.

 

So I'm not the only one scratching my head on the wheel issue.
I'll rotate and argue with mini later if it comes to that.But the run flats will be history when it comes time to replace tires.

 

my dealer told me that MINI does not recommend rotating, but its fine if i want to do it. he said that without rotating, he usually replaces the front twice before replacing the rear. in other words, the rears last 3 times longer than the fronts.

 

I have the Continental ContiProContact OEM All Season tires. Since these tires are non-directional and the Clubman is fwd, I should rotate using the x pattern. Is this correct?

Ex. Rear left would to go front right, front right goes to rear left, rear right goes to front left, front left goes to rear right

 

Non-directional tires on a Front Wheel drive car (and no spare) rotate by the 2 rears cross over (Opposite sides) onto the fronts and the fronts go directly to the back on the same side.

Just did mine Saturday at 3500 miles.

 

My dealer did my last rotation when I had it in for annual maintenance. Makes a difference on wear and tear. My last Mini I got over 30K miles out of the runflats thanks to rotating every 5K.

 

Some dealers charge extra for tire rotation.

I have two sets of wheels. I change them so often I end up rotating tires at least every 1000 miles. With a floor jack, four jack stands, a torque wrench, and wheel hangers, it is quite easy to DIY.

 

Always a dollar short and a day late...page 113 in the 2010 manual says it is okay to rotate between axles 'to maintain an even wear and tear...'.