Tire Rotation Question . . .

[rcl4668]

After a series of driving schools I am seeing increased wear on the outside edge (where the sidewall meets the tread) of the driver side front tire (from driving primarily clockwise road courses). Question: Because the PS2s on my 2008 are nondirectional, I assume that I can rotate the tires side to side to extend tire life. Is this as simple as taking my floor jack, removing the wheels, switching sides and retorquing with a torque wrench or do (1) the rims amd tires need to be rebalanced, (2) will this confuse the TPMS system etc?

Thanks.

/Rich

[j-rho]

Pretty anal about this stuff - are you a surgeon or something Rich?

Balance and TPMS will be fine if you switch side-to-side. If you were doing this with slicks they might be a little weird for the first few corners as the rubber grain gets "used to" going that direction, but with streets it won't be an issue.

Since that beaten-up outside edge will still be on the outside, the better approach is to have the tires dismounted and "flipped" on the rims. This puts the heavily-worn outside shoulder on the inside, and the barely-used inside edge, on the outside. You'll get longer life out of the tires that way.

Should also max out negative camber in front if you haven't already.

If you have the tires dismounted and re-mounted, you should have them re-balanced if you're concerned about the balance.

[rcl4668]

Anal? No. Extremely anal? Yes, guilty as charged. I believe the PS2s have an "inside" and "outside" so I am not sure that I can safely flip them on the rim. Sounds like I can take my floor jack and flip them myself. I am also considering having a mild street/track alignment done to address the wear issue long term. Thanks J-rho.

/Rich

PS: how's the autocross season treating you do far? I did another SCCA novice school this year but have not had the time to do other events. Next year my goal is to make it up to Packwood.

[j-rho]

Autocross is going well. Car has some great new shocks, and the freshly rebuilt diff works well. Had a win in Wendover and still have a couple tricks up my sleeve for Nationals.

Here's a recent run, the rear tires were pretty much dead, time for some new ones I think...

jrho dccsd funrun

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[C-Note]

I would not swap them side to side, if you change the direction the tire has been spinning you are looking for trouble.

Back in the days of bias ply tires they used to rotate like that, but with radial tires they have always just rotated them front to rear to avoid spinning them in the other direction. Many radial tires will separate cords if you do this to them. As for the PS2 I don't know if they can take it or not, but I would not risk it on mine.

[CitySnake]

Someone should ask Luke at Tire Rack.

[rcl4668]

Originally Posted by CitySnake

Someone should ask Luke at Tire Rack.

God idea; I'll give him a call.

[rcl4668]

I contacted Luke at Tire Rack and he said the PS2s can in fact be rotated side to side (unbolt left front rim and tire and swap with right front rim and tire, same for rears). Because the tires have an "inside" and "outside" labeled on the sidewall, however, you cannot safely remove the tire, flip it around and then remount on the same rim.