Should You Rotate Your Car Tyres?
It has previously been considered cost effective to rotate your car tyres in an attempt to extend their legal life, particularly if you spend a lot of time driving around roundabouts. Most car tyre manufacturers now agree that this is not a good idea.
Tyres that are partly worn are more likely to get punctured, particularly in the rain. This is obviously an accident risk if you rotate your tyres when the tread is getting low. They also are more prone to deflation. This is less of a concern when the more worn car tyres are on the front of the vehicle as the deflation will create an under-steer effect, and that is much easier to control than an over-steer effect which happens when the rear tyres deflate more. For this reason it is currently recommended that the least worn tyres should always be fitted at the rear of the car, whether it is front or rear wheel drive. This means that when front tyres are being replaced, the rear ones will be fitted to the front and the new tyres fitted on the rear.
Also, some cars are designed to have directional tyres fitted to the front of the car, and asymmetric ones at the rear. If you rotated tyres like these, you would run the risk of seriously altering the way the car drives. As ever, the best thing to do is check your car manual, or ask the tyre experts at Grippy what is the best thing to do for your particular car and tyre combination.