What Happens When You Don’t Rotate Your Tires?

A tire rotation is the routine repositioning of a vehicle’s front and rear tires to preserve the tread, maintain their warranty and keep you safe on the road. It’s important to maintain a consistent tire rotation schedule to avoid costly, or even life-threatening mistakes.

What a tire rotation is not, is randomly shuffling the tires of your car. There are specific patterns and recommended configurations that service professionals follow depending on the type of car to get the benefits of a tire rotation.

Let’s go into detail about what happens when you don’t rotate your tires.

what happens when you don't rotate your tires - uneven tread wearUneven Tire Tread Wear Patterns

It’s inevitable that your tires will wear, but if you don’t rotate tires regularly, they’re more likely to wear unevenly. 

Shorter Lifespan of your Tires Wear

The lifespan of your tires plays directly into uneven treadwear patterns. If you’re not properly maintaining routine tire rotations, you aren’t getting the full value of your tires.

Vibration and Noise

Tires that haven’t been properly rotated can cause a significant amount of vibration or noise due to uneven wear. These symptoms can cause a domino effect and lead to other performance issues, requiring additional maintenance.

Hydroplaningwhat happens when you don't rotate your tires - hydroplaning

Failure to rotate your tires can lead to hydroplaning. This occurs when tires lose their grip on the pavement and skid on top of the water, putting the driver in danger of uncontrollably sliding off the road. Losing control of your vehicle puts you and any passengers at considerable risk.

what happens when you don't rotate your tires - blowoutsBlowouts

When you have uneven tires, due to irregular tire rotation, they can lose tire pressure, which often leads to blowouts. Tire blowouts, which cause about 11,000 accidents a year, can cause drivers to lose control of their vehicle, putting you and passengers at risk of injury.

How Often Should You Get a Tire Rotation?

Ideally, you should schedule a tire rotation every other oil change, or every 3-7,000 miles. This will ensure that your front and rear tires wear evenly. However, your vehicle’s manual will have the ideal schedule for your particular make and model.

Visit Telle Tire for Tire Rotations and Vehicle Maintenance

Maintaining a regular tire rotation schedule will help you avoid inconvenient, or even life-threatening issues like the ones listed previously. At Telle Tire, our goal is to keep you on the road, so we make establishing regular appointments for tire rotations and vehicle maintenance easy. Start a conversation with our service professionals to schedule a tire rotation today!