Tire Rotation
 

Had the tires balanced and rotated yesterday and noticed this morning [gasp!] that my rear wheels are backwards.

I thought crossover rotation went the way of bias-ply tires (and full-sized spares) and that radials should simply be moved front-to-back on the same side of the car. What say ye good people?

dcb

I thought all tires on AWD vehicles are "only" front to back.

Yes you are correct, radials are supposed to keep rotating the same way when moved. I have heard this cna be very bad for the tires. Do your tires have direction arrows for rotation? Did the tires get taken off the rims and remounted?

Take care too,
John

Cross them over unless they're directional tires. If they're directional tires, just go front to back. If they're directional tires on directional rims... well. :)

well the SVX has directional rims, so the wheels are not supposed to be crossed over

Obviously; I was wondering in general terms. Someone in a hurry could be forgiven for not noticing the directional rims, but my understanding has always been that radials should stay on the same side of the car, so I'm wondering why they went to the trouble.

I didn't notice 'til this morning when I went to confirm that they'd set the PSI as I'd requested.

dcb

Keeping radials on the same side is not correct. I mean, it helps with our directional rims, but ideally you SHOULD cross over. Use google.

http://www.vanagon.com/syncros/techn...ion/index.html

The whole 'not crossing over' thing is an outdated urban legend from when radials were new.

Do Not Cross Rotate Tires
 

while that may be great for a vanagon... SVX's have directional wheels (stock). (some of us have directional tires too) Even with modern belted radials there is a chance of breaking a belt in the tire by running it backwards after extended travel.
I this happend within the last 2 years to me.

another opinion

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

all I'm saying is whoever designed the car realized that they only need to rotate front to back or whatever due to the directional rims...Now if you have directional tires then that's a different story...did they have directional tires back then??

:confused: 2 years ago? yep...

no back when this car was designed.....

You sure that's what happened? Because any site I find with google about this subject says that's outdated information.

http://expert.fleetowner.com/tires/2006/03/

http://www.ptdoityourself.net/tl/tl_8.html

I just find it hard to believe that running it backwards caused problems with a non directional tire. What brand was it so I can be sure to avoid it?

Well, as if the directional wheels alone weren't enough evidence of Subaru's preference, the SVX owner's manual has a diagram indicating same-side rotation. (Checking the owner's manual last must be akin to not reading instructions until getting stuck.) Good enough for me. I did noodle around on Google for a few minutes and find it interesting that there's seemingly no consensus.

dcb

Hell yeah!! I knew it! same side ...whooo:p Take that you cross-rotaters

my last $.02
 

While it may not (now-a-days) make a difference on the tire as to which way it is rotated, a directional tire is meant to rotate only the indicated way. IF not for the belt then for the tread design. So to cross rotate the tires you will have to dismount the tire and re-mount it on the (stock)directional wheels...