So, I've had my MCS since June and just passed the 9,000 mile marker. I have been extremely busy and haven't had time to rotate my tires. It's been about a month, month and a half since I passed 6,000 mies (traditionally the point that I rotate).

I went to American Tire today for my free rotation and when inspecting my car, they informed me that my front driver tire had excess ware and recommended replacement of my front two tires.

While I do see ware, I didn't feel that it was even to the point of replacement. In addition, they say I should rotate, at most, every 4,000 miles and that due to my Dunlop r/f, they'll ware quicker.

While I normally trust American Tire for their professionalism and consistency, I'm really rubbed the wrong way by this assessment. I felt as though the guy wanted me to drop $850 on new tires because I was there and there was slight ware on my tires. It's unfortunate because I've worked with this individual on my 750Li, Z4, and 325i vehicles (which makes me even more mad because I felt as though he suddenly forgot the thousands of dollars on tires I've spent in the last couple of years).

Playing devil's advocate and wanted to see if anyone else was seeing ware around this mileage-marker that needed replacement. I don't drive my car too hard but I do take advantage of the hills when I can find the time.

Thanks guys.

 

First, it's "wear" not "ware".

It would be unusual, but not unheard of, to wear the front tires out in 9K miles- I'd guess 15K or so would be more/less average for unrotated fronts. If you don't rotate, they wear at about 2x the rate the rears do. Driving style and whether you look after inflation pressure are the keys to maximizing tire mileage, so its difficult to generalize. A person who drives very aggressively and runs low tire pressures can easily wear a tire out in 25% of the mileage of someone who drives conservatively and keeps the tires properly inflated.

The American Tire guy could be trying to sell you tires you don't need - it wouldn't be the first time. And it is in their best interest to be conservative. While it used to be that the wear bars at about 2mm were considered to be gospel, but you now see a lot of mechanics saying that this is taking it too far - that 3mm or 4mm really is needed for safety reasons. And tires seldom wear perfectly evenly, so there is some judgment involved and no binary right/wrong answer about exactly when you should replace.

I'd look at the tires yourself and make a decision - if they're at the wear bars, then I'd certainly replace. If you don't feel comfortable assessing the tire condition yourself, take it to another shop, preferably one which doesn't have a vested interest in selling you new tires.

My guess is that your tires are about 2/3rds worn in 9K so while your tires don't have "slight wear" they can probably go another 5K or so.

If you don't rotate, then just replace the fronts which can usually go 2x the rears. Or you could rotate now and probably go another 10K or more.

- Mark

 

One thing to note is that MINI recommends NOT rotating you tires in some owners manuals and then says nothing about it is others. And yet in others they say the tires should be rotated. Seems somewhat inconsistent.

As for rotating tires on my 08 Clubman. I never did and the tire wear was very close to even on all 4 tires. I may have gotten another 2K out of the rears.

If the car is aligned properly and not driven very hard then wear should be somewhat consistent. If driven somewhat aggressively then the fronts will wear more than the rears. If driven very aggressively then the fronts will wear at 2x the rate or more than that of the rears.

I do not drive my car either easy or very aggressive but in between and I got 25K out of the set of OEM tires (dunlop sp sport 01 DSST - Runflats). many people here see about 18K-22k out of a set of these tires. This included nine runs at a drag strip and 3 days of very aggressive driving on "The Dragon" in VA.

BTW it is not the run flat that make the tire wear quicker or not last as long it is the performance of the tire. Summer performance tires run flats or not will wear out sooner (less miles) than say a set of regular non performance all season tires.

It sounds to me like the guy at American Tire is trying to sell you something you do not need.

You can learn a lot about rotation of tires here. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...jsp?techid=43&

If you do rotate the tires make sure that all 4 have the proper air pressure and that they have rotated front to back only as the Dunlop summer performance tires that come as OEM are directional tires must run in the correct direction or you will loose a lot of traction. You can check the side wall of the tire for a marking that shows the direction the tire is to turn for forward motion. If they do a cross car rotation then you WILL have problems.

it will either be a arrow with a "D" in it or an actual rotation sign as in the picture below.

 

On my '08 Clubman my 15" OEM non-runflat tires wear more quickly in the front, as is the case for most front-wheel drive vehicles. I rotate them twice a year, which is about every 5k miles. On the last rotation the wear difference was clearly visible, and I now have about 17k on these tires.

I also use an inexpensive tread-depth gauge (about $3) to check the depth of all the treads across each tire each time I do the rotation. It's an easy way to spot any alignment issues, and it gives a very accurate tread depth reading.

 

On my 07 MC I have the 15"continental all seasons. I typically rotate tires every 10,000. I rotated the MC tires about then and they had fairly even wear all the way around. Tread depth was almost idential for all 4 tires. I drive fairly conservatively.

 

Rotate the tires every 5,000 miles and you will be surprised how much longer they will last.

To rotate you need to take the rear wheel off and replace it with the front wheel from the same side. Torque to 103 ft. pounds and you are done. When you jack up the front by the jacking point the back will also be off the ground. This job is so easy "A CAVEMAN CAN DO IT"

I do mine every 5,000 miles and wash the brake dust off if the inside of the wheels and inspect the tire for anyting that does not look right.

You should go to Lowes and purchase a Torque wrench (USA MADE) that goes to 103 ft.pounds. A 17mm socket, and a tube of neversieze.

All of our tires are the same size so it would be pretty dumb not to rotate them at all. My dunlaps have to be used on the same side due to being directional. Tires that are not directional can be X rotated. Cars such as a Corvette that use different size on the front and rear can't be rotated. I went to E-Bay and bought a "WHEEL HANGER" that is just a long stud that screws into a lug bolt hole to make putting the wheels back on a lot easier. It is well worth having.

The first time I removed my wheels the front lugs were so tight I had to use a breaker bar to get the lug bolts loose. I guess the dealer used an impact wrench on them when they replaced my rotors due to a recall. I know they were well over the 103 ft.pounds they should have been.

Ronnie948

 

Ronnie has the right idea.

The rear camber is much different than the front. All one has to do is stand at the back of your MINI and look the rear tires.

If you are going to be **** and rotate them, the sooner the better to acheive even tire wear across the foot print. It will also keep the NVH down from uneven and feathered tread blocks.....

 

Just wondering (and I've always had RWD before) or confused. I thought the rears always wore faster because angular friction (when turning) put greater wear on the (rear) tires than the amount of wear caused by drive wheels (especially with traction control). Rear tires are "dragged" at an angle across the pavement since they don't turn to face the angle of attack like the fronts.

 

I would just echo what Ronnie posted. I do mine every 5,000 as well. My MCS came with Goodyear OEM runflats and I got close to 39k before replacing (could have made 40k). Not sure how the Dunlops compare.

I will note that once mine got down to the 4/32 range, I did feel like wet traction started to suffer, especially in terms of being more susceptible to hydroplaning. Near end of life, it also seemed the wear that was occurring on the outside edges accelerated a bit compared to the rest of the tire when on the front. Mine is all stock for suspension.

 

Great information, thanks to all who posted helpful advice. I'm coming up on 5K miles on my MCCS, so getting ready to rotate. I'll need to get a torque wrench. I bought some extra long lug bolts and used a grinder to make my own wheel hangers. Here they are, with one of them ground down:



I have the Goodyear RF's. Learning they might last 40K is just depressing....

 

9k when not rotating the dunlop sp sport 01's sounds about right. I replaced mine at 12k when they were at ~3/32's rotating every 3000mi. My second set of tires lasted ~18k rotating at 4-5k (these were gyear eagle f1 a/s).