I bought a set of tires from a shop a few months ago. I noticed front right tire is starting to cup on the edges, so I decided to take it in. Shop does free rotations for life too so I had them rotate while I was there. I have about 4 k miles on them now

What threw me... he said for radial tires you only want to rotate front to back, never left to right unles you have to. Everything I've seen says for rwd to take back to front, and cris cross front to back. Any ideas?

He also said to try to keep the rotations to every 3k miles. Not that I mind doing it every 3k esp since hes doing it for free... just seems too often. Is this guy just giving me some BS to avoid doing something about the issue or looking into it further? He also aligned it when installing the tires.

BTW, these are 205/70r14 bfgoodrich control+ if that makes a difference.

30 years ago front to back / back to front was the rotation pattern for radials.............

I think the old-wifes-tale was that the regular rotation pattern caused tread separation or something like that.


Nowdays you can do the cross-pattern on radials (unless you have a directional tread design).


See

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=43

for rotation patterns.


Although I've had better luck using the FWD pattern on my 4x4 (part-time) pickup for even tread wear.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Ed's right, the "never cross-rotate radials!" thing is many years out of date. Of course, directional tires have to be installed so as to turn the right way when you're driving forward.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Hmm, well, we will see what happens in another 3k miles. I'll get under the car and take one more peak at the front end to make sure nothing failed after the rebuild.

Somehow I get the uneasy feeling that I will not get the 70k miles out of htese tires as per the rating.

If the front tires are "cupping" then you have alignment/suspension issues. Rotating the tires will not fix the problem.

usually cupping is from a worn shock not being able to keep the suspension action under control. ever see a car going down the road with a wheel bouncing like crazy? only wears a certain spot on the tire. i would have a reputable alignment shop give the front of your car a good shake down.

zedpapa

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1970 dodge dart w/225 /6 bored .040" over, holley 390cfm w/vac. sec., compcams 252s, clifford shorty headers w/2.5" exhaust w/flowmaster, f-body 11" front discs, aluminum A-833OD, 8 1/4 w/3.21 SG
soon to have 5 gears!!!

Kesteb yes thas true, it doesn't fix the problem but everything wears evenly then so you at least get some life out of the tires....

If after another 3k miles thigns get worse, I may have to take it to another alignment shop. Dang I wish I had access to an alignment machine, $60 for eveyr time to put it on the rack can get costly.

The front end was gone through before the new tires were put on 4k miles ago. New torsion bars, strut rod, lca and uca moog bushings. The shocks, kyb gas-a-just, were only a couple of months old with maybe a total of 5-8k miles on them now. New UCA's as well at time of front end rebuild, and LCA's were replaced at the same time of shocks (when I moved to disc brakes).

So everything in the front should be in new condition, but like I said I will take a look at it again when I get the chance.

Don't wait.
Take it back to the shop that did the front end work. They didn't align it correctly and you'll ruin your new tires.
Rotating will just disguise the problem.
BTW, ford doesn't recommend any rotation anymore, especially on fwd cars.

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aed
/6>V8

Well, I took a look under the car today, took the tires off, shook everything - no detected play.

That doesn't mean much though, because the torsion bar was still under tension. Releasing the tension or removing the bars all together guarantees the need for another alignment so I'm not sure if I have to go that far. If it comes down to getting another alignment, I'll do that then.

Radle, they did align it correctly according to the alignment printout... unless the alignment machine is off or something in my front end went bad unbeknownst to me. Thats the tricky part, guy won't put it on the alignment machine unless I pay for another alignment, because he says if you hit a curb or anything else your alignment gets thrown off and he can't be held liable for that. I don't blame him, but puts me in an awkward position because I'm nto sure what to do now