Tire Rotation for non-staggered i3?

[archieb]

Has/is anyone rotating their front and rear tires? Does BMW recommend rotation on the i3?

 

[alohart]

I think BMW is silent on the subject, maybe because so few i3's have non-staggered tires. But if my i3 had non-staggered tires on Mega (427) wheels, I'd rotated them just as I would any car, not only front <-> rear but also left <-> right (you know, using the standard tire rotation pattern). This would almost certainly increase tire life.

I was happy when I noticed that the tires were non-staggered on my Mega BEV extended test drive vehicle, so I assumed that they would be non-staggered on all BEV's (why wouldn't all BEV's be the same in this respect?). But I was disappointed when I discovered that the tires are staggered on our Giga BEV making reasonable tire rotation impossible.

 

[FrancisJeffries]

This would almost certainly increase tire life.

I can't for the life of me think why.
If you look closely at a part-worn tread you'll see that it has a tapered directional wear pattern. The wear differs between front and back as well. Switching them round simply ensures that the "blunt" edges of the wear pattern become the "sharp" edges on the opposite corner, so they more rapidly wear off (because there is less rubber on the road) as they become reshaped to the pattern on the new corner. Wear rate is thus increased, not reduced.
Wear across the tread is not uniform either front and back, so switching round simply increases that wear too.
So I leave them where they are and let the wear settle in.

 

[alohart]

This would almost certainly increase tire life.

I can't for the life of me think why.

Maybe give this a try. Our other car wears its front tires on the inside edges due to the design of the front-wheel-drive suspension. The alignment is correct, so there's nothing that I can do to prevent this uneven wear. If I leave these tires on the front, the wear limit would be reached along the inside edges while plenty of tread remains across the rest of the tire, whereas if I rotate these tires to the rear, wear occurs across the deepest tread before starting on the worn inside edges. This gives me much longer tire life with all 4 tires wearing out at about the same tire as opposed to the front two wearing out very early with the rears lasting so long that they would need to be replaced due to old age rather than tread wear.

We have already seen the rear tires on i3's tending to wear faster on their inside edges, but I don't know how evenly the front tires wear. Assuming that there's a different wear pattern on the fronts compared with the rears, it is likely that all four tires would likely last longer if they were rotated regularly.

Regular tire rotation has been recommended by auto manufacturers for years as a way to increase tire life. Are you saying that this is hogwash?

 

[FrancisJeffries]

Are you saying that this is hogwash?

No, but I'm suggesting it might be collusion with the tire manufacturers to make us buy more tires! :lol:

...whereas if I rotate these tires to the rear, wear occurs across the deepest tread before starting on the worn inside edges. This gives me much longer tire life with all 4 tires wearing out at about the same time as opposed to the front two wearing out very early with the rears lasting so long that they would need to be replaced due to old age rather than tread wear

Fair enough, but the i3 has different tire sizes front and rear, so you can't do the front/rear switch. Swapping them side-to-side suffers from the taper problem I mentioned in my earlier post, and, worse, I'd have to swap the rears too because my wheels are handed. Tiresome! (And I couldn't have done that joke if I'd used my accustomed UK spelling of tyres.)
I prefer to get my replacement tire hits staggered two at a time so I don't have to do all four at the same time.( But I've never been troubled by tires dying of old age, either!)

 

[alohart]

Fair enough, but the i3 has different tire sizes front and rear, so you can't do the front/rear switch.

That's true for all i3's except BEV's with 427 wheels (e.g., the O.P.'s car). For some odd reason, BMW decided that BEV's with 427 wheels could have identical wheels and tires all around.

Swapping them side-to-side suffers from the taper problem I mentioned in my earlier post, and, worse, I'd have to swap the rears too because my wheels are handed.

I don't think swapping side-to-side helps with wear at all and might hurt as you point out. But I've swapped side-to-side because I prefer the look of the 429 wheels when they appear to be rotating forward when the car is moving forward (i.e., just like the 428 wheels).

Tiresome! (And I couldn't have done that joke if I'd used my accustomed UK spelling of tyres.)

A good reason to stick with the superior British spelling, I'd say

( But I've never been troubled by tires dying of old age, either!)

I drive each of our cars only 6 months each year and then not very much during that 6 months. So if the i3 tires wear as well as the original equipment Bridgestones on our Honda Insight hybrid, our i3 tires could begin to dry rot before they wear out. Hopefully, not, because it just doesn't feel right to replace tires with a decent amount of tread remaining.

 

[jadnashuanh]

As the tires wear and get that feathered edge on one side, they can start to make noises. If you can swap them left to right and front to back, you can even that out. With directional tread (or wheels), it becomes a lot more time consuming to swap them side to side. I will swap end to end with my winter tires, but my 'normal' set is staggered, so there's no easy choice. Rotating does mean you are more likely to need to replace all four at the same time, but this is a good thing for maximum safety...the amount of tread depth has a direct correlation to performance in heavy rain or snow. To maintain the proper balance on the car, it's best to have them both about equal. Now, if you live in the desert, slicks might work just fine, so tread depth isn't as big of an issue until you get the annual thunderstorm, and the water is 3" deep on the roadway!

 

[peteinlongbeach]

Tire plies tend take a set after rotating a certain direction over time. Years ago I rotated a set of radial from side-to-side, and they developed worse cupping, noise, and delamination as a result. At the time, it was recommended only to rotate radial tires from front-to-rear because of that very issue. Later, tire engineering improved, and the recommendation was dropped, but I still don't like to change the tire rotational direction when rotating. So, I only rotate front-to-back. Just my preference.

In the case of the BMW i3 and Smart For-Two (and other exotics & classics) with differing sizes front and rear, I just leave the tires where they are and replace when needed. There's no need to obsess over this.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Millions of people never rotate their tires. I tend to have two sets, the ones the car came with and I almost always end up buying a set of winter tires. I swap them myself, and always put them on the opposite ends (don't cross them to the other side) on any car that has a square setup. I do this myself for several reasons...I don't like to spend money for something I can do myself easily (may change my mind in a few years as I get older!), it lets me take a critical look at both the tires and the brakes plus the wheel well, that is not easy to get a good look at otherwise, and in general, I enjoy the task. Plus, I ensure I use a good torque wrench to get things installed properly without the risk of warping the rotors or being unable to remove the silly thing should it become necessary! I find that it does help to even out any wear, and I do think it is much safer to replace all tires at the same time...rotating them makes that more likely to be viable.