Just had my 2002 MCS in for its 10K service. I asked about the tire rotation since I observed extra wear on the fronts (the little ribs on the outer tread on the Dunlop performance runflats). Service at MINI of Peabody (Massachusetts) was very nice about this and rotated for free even though this is not covered as a "maintenance" item.

Love the MINI... (just had to say that!)

 

>>>> On balancing, have the balance CHECKED first, before mounting the tire in the new position. Sometimes, treadwear will throw your balance off, and a 1/16 oz difference will raise havoc at 60+ mph.
>>
>>Seriously? Should I be afraid, if I'm rotating at home?
>>
>>

depends on how much wear you have, i waited till 10,000 miles before rotating mine and had about 50% left on the front versus 80% on the rear. swapped them around and no problems with balancing i can feel.

the only way i can see the above happening is if you reversed the direction of the tires by moving them from the left side to right side of the car. if you only rotate front to back, the tires would rotate the same way so this would not happen.

 

OK, minhi. That makes sense to me...I had just about decided that I was going to do front-to-back only, anyway.

 

Chitown,

I have an Electric Blue/White '02 MCS with DSST9000 17" run flats on the car. I
have roated the tires about every 5k to 7.5k miles. I currently have 35k+ miles on this set of tires. I would expect to get another 2k or so on the tires. The reason behind the high mileage highway miles and rotate!! Rotate!! Rotate!!

I let the dealer do the first rotation for me. I did the second with two floor jacks and an air wrench. Takes me about 15 minutes from the time I start till the air wrench and floor jacks are put away. Grante I dont wash them but the shoes are moved. The tires are moved front to aft.....

Hope this helps...

 

The dealer did my rotate and balance at my request. I have the 17" S-lites with Goodyear runflats. Wear at 10,000 miles was not too bad. I should get another 10K out of them. BTW, the cost was $100 for the balance and rotate!!!!!!! I about CHOKED. The last time I have it done at the dealer for sure!!!!

 

>>The dealer did my rotate and balance at my request.
BTW, the cost was $100 for the balance and rotate!!!!!!! I about CHOKED.

Hope they washed the wheels, and gave you a foot massage while they were committing larceny. BTW, isn't MINI owned by BMW, (Broke My Wallet) ?

Call the BBB on them. That is outrageous!

 

chi town!!!!
DO NOT CROSS ROTATE! if your tires have an arrow graphic on them indicating the rotation direction keep the the tires on that side. flipping them around to the other side goes against the engineered direction of forces and can cause our tires to blow off the rimms.
CHECK THIS. my run flats on 17's are direction spin. (tires came witht he car).

 

As a mechanically savvy person that knows that tires shoule be rotated on a regular basis, I assumed that it would be included in the Mini maintenance guarantee...

I was very disappointed that I was offered a tire rotation at a cost of $30 when I took my car in this morning. Free routine maintenance as a bargain price of $30.00?

Once again Mini... Great Car... Bad Service

 

BMW sees it differently, giving the nod to understeer vs. oversteer and uniform tire wear.
On the other hand, you can jack up the entire side of the car from the front jack point, so rotations at home are pretty easy.

FWIW, I took a recently purchased car to a local tire place for a balance. When I asked them to rotate them as well, they attempted to charge me an extra $20. When I protested (the tires are already off the car!), the tech relented, saying he had 'made a mistake'.

 

The manufacturer (MINI) recommends that the tires not be rotated due to the wear pattern is different on the front vs the back; if I am not mistaken this is written in the user guide that comes with the car.

 

What lbs psi do you torque the wheels too when installing back on the car????
Ronnie

 

For my 330i, that would be true. Its a staggered setup. Running Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's on that bad boy. (Great tires).

I rotate my MINI tires (front to back) about every 7 or 8 miles. Currently have 22K miles on my OEM runflats. Can't wait to dump em for non run flats. May go with the Michelin PE2's, or the Goodyear F1's.

 

I used to do all that but why bother rotating tires? When the fronts wear out I buy 1 pair at a time (cheaper that all 4) The new ones go on the back and the the rear tires move to the front. Always run your best tires in the back. Before you ask why, just think about it.

 

88 ft lbs. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

 

You guys must not drive very hard: I wear out a set of front tires in about 9K miles. It's hardly worth rotating, if the tires wear out first.

Also, it's worth noting that the rear tires last around 4x longer, so if you replace only the fronts and don't rotate, you will usually have the better tires on the rear, which is where they belong.

 

Thought about it...Since the rear tires wear out slower doesn't it make sense the more need for traction up front?


Paul

 

East Bay mini (SF Bat Area) does do tire rotations if requested under the 36 mo./36,000 mile maintenance agreement. However, if you don't request, they do not consider it. Weird !

 

I rotate my wheels every other car wash just so I can keep my white wheels clean. I take them off so I can keep the backs of the wheels clean also.

 

The rationale is that it's better to understeer than to oversteer. If you have relatively better traction up front then the rear of the car is relatively more likely to let go (aka oversteer.) Swapping ends is no fun and dangerous, especially for the majority of uneducated drivers.

Me, I like to rotate to keep the tread about even.

 

Wow, 44 really funny posts! I'm glad I found this thread, as I was in need of some light entertainment.
But now that I've gotten over my initial reaction, does rotating tires on a Mini really deserve 44 posts? Still, hearing that some tires need to be mounted the other way to be swapped from left to right (they would be directional, not asymmetric in that case--and please don't mount asymmetric tires backward!), and that some people are being told that they need their wheels balanced when rotating, is just plain scary.
A simple routine will provide many thousands of miles of happy driving: Every 3,000 miles, remove and clean your wheels and hub shoulders (where the wheel sits), rotate front to rear (not left to right), remount and torque to 90ft/lbs (don't worry about the psi.)

btw, use a racing jack (bought inexpensively from Harbor Freight) and lift the entire side of the car up from a point about 9inches behind the front jack mount. This will allow you to put a jack stand under each jack point, rotate the wheels and lower the car--or go around the other side, do the same, and have the car completely off the ground--like this:



Good luck.

 

BINGO!

 

Sounds good with RWD, however with FWD IMHO it would be better to keep traction to your power wheels. Swapping end with the MINI with DSC would most likeley be impossible unless you were in conditions that tread didn't matter where it was. It seem when I lock up the rear with the E brake on slick road to take a sharper corner (playin in the rain/snow) the front traction is more important.


I rotate to keep everything even also.


Paul

 

Every three thousand miles? Yike - you must be an old British car guy, Dr. Phil...

Do you change the oil and re-gap the plugs at the same time?

6^)

 

Well Paul, I'll go as far agreeing this much with you. "Any car is only as fast as the driver. All the HP in the world can't change that."
Guess you will just have to find out for youself, have fun.

 

I have been driving for 50 years and have rotated tires every five thousand miles. It is worth the effort, especially with performance tires.