Lotus99

And to further confuse me, notwithstanding years of being told tire rotation is a good thing, in the manual on page 210, oddly enough, BMW does NOT recommend tire rotation...


"Rotating wheels between axles

BMW does not recommend moving the front wheels to the rear or vice versa, as otherwise the handling characteristics may be impaired."

What do you guys here do?

norsecarnut

That sounds ridiculous to me. Is there any more specific information? For sake of argument, when the tires are new and on identical rims, obviously rotation front to rear is irrelevant, as they wear from use, then the tire may prove slightly different in traction but if you do your rotations often enough, then the tires will all stay closer to similar wear. This is what I do because when you buy tires at Discount Tire, and I'm sure similarly at other tires shops, the rotation is free or it's easy to do yourself.

When we rotate we always carefully compare the tread depths though. It makes sure we are rotating often enough but also lets me see what corner on the car is wearing tires faster. Being that I carry a full size spare on the left rear corner and often other gear on that side of the car, the left rear tire seems to wear faster.

Michiganmike

As someone stated in another forum:
"The reason BMW typically advises against tire rotation is that often times rear alignment has some negative camber which causes uneven wear on back tires. If you put those tires on the front, you may experience less than perfect handling (may not be of any concern to some), plus they may become noisy. But if your rears are worn evenly, then I think I'd attempt rotating them and see what happens. If you don't like it, you can always rotate them right back."

I rotate the tires on my BMW and have not experienced a problem. The key is to rotate tires often enough to minimize any potential problems from uneven tire wear. I also suspect that uneven tire wear on the rear tires may be less of an issue with a BMW that has xDrive.

Lotus99

What you're suggesting as to the reason could be true... I know on the 335's (I don't recall reading about them being XI's), lots of people especially with run flat tires, have had the inside of their rear tires wear out much quicker than the rest of the tire.

norsecarnut

Mine do that some (inside edge wear in rear) so a while back I had them pulled off and switched to the other side. It may seem like a waste of $ but not if I get another whole year/summer out of them due to more even wear.

About the Continental DWS, I liked the tread and concept behind the compound but I found the sidewall too flexible for my purposes. The Bridgestone 970 all season looks awesome though, and is now my spare after we found a weird wearing on the now discontinued 960.

Pallokerho-35

Ah, interesting comment on the soft sidewalls for the DWS (Dry/Wet/Snow) all-seasons, I think I saw some similar comments on the DW version (Dry/Wet) which is strictly a summer tire. Probably makes sense if the design is similar.
I would be interested in a new and separate summer-tire recommendations thread, although I'm not in the market until next year...