Shop refused to rotate tires at 8K miles!

I took the Leaf to Discount Tire to have a puncture fixed and wheels rotated.

They measured the tread remaining and said that there was too much wear differential between the front and back tires, and that they were not allowed to rotate them.
They had some signs up all over the shop to that effect -- recommend more tread in the BACK than in the FRONT.

My numbers were 5 and 5 in the front and 8 and 9 in the back. I assume this is 1/32's of an inch of tread remaining, but I could be wrong.
They did agree that the tires were "fine" and did not recommend buying new ones. This is good, because the curiosity-quote for all four was $600.

Considering the service schedule calls for 7,500 miles between tire rotations, and the car is at 8,000, this seems surprising to have them "ineligible".

So -- is this a ruse by Discount Tire to eventually sell more rubber, or unexpected wear?
Is this a consequence of my "grow no dash trees" policy?

If the fronts are wearing 2x as fast as the backs, I might be best off NOT rotating them, and just replacing the front two tires when they get low. This is similar to how my motorcycles wear -- two fronts for every rear replacement.

In any case, it looks like a three year lease is going to go through at least two tire swaps, maybe three.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly why you rotate tires, to even out the wear? If the rears are that much better, and they WANT better tread in the front, those tires should be on the front where they will do you the most good, and their wear will catch up with the other set. :? This is why I always rotate my tires myself, to avoid the clutches of self-serving shops with oddball rules.
I must say though, I'm a little surprised that you are down to only 5/32" with only 8,000 miles. I'll have to check mine.

It may be a good idea to go to a 3000 mile tire rotation schedule.. and keep an eye on the CV boots if you "grow no trees", its a heavy FWD car. At least you had even wear across the thread.

Like you mentioned, a no rotation policy would also work.. you have plenty of time to shop around for the tires, perhaps mail order.

if you have more tread in front than back, then you should not rotate them and get a tire alignment check.
so guessing your statement of "5 in front, 8 in back" means that you waited way too long or that you should go elsewhere

it is normal front front wheels to wear faster than rear wheels.

now, when considering rear tread, we dont want it too light as it could cause poor emergency braking results. most of the braking is done by the front brakes primarily due to shift of balance towards the front but poor tread on rear tires could cause the rear to swing forward which maybe the concern of the tire store.

their recommendation of "doing nothing" is a bit of a question mark for me

**edit** as for measurements its usually in millimeters.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's mm too. I just measured mine, after 12k and mine are 4mm in the front and 6mm/7mm in the back. Sounds like I'm overdue for rotation too!

GroundLoop said:

I took the Leaf to Discount Tire to have a puncture fixed and wheels rotated.

They measured the tread remaining and said that there was too much wear differential between the front and back tires, and that they were not allowed to rotate them.
They had some signs up all over the shop to that effect -- need more tread in front than back.

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Is it possible you have that reversed? See this page on their web site:

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTiresRear.dos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, if taken as an absolute, this would imply that rotations could never take place on a FWD car....

My guess is the employees are misunderstanding the policy. You clearly have more than adequate tread on both sets.

I went in to my usual Discount Tire dealer at 8500 miles and had mine rotated for free. No one even measured the tread or said anything about differential wear. I was in and out in 20 minutes. Sounds like which franchise location you use can make a big difference.

TT

ttweed said:

I went in to my usual Discount Tire dealer at 8500 miles and had mine rotated for free. No one even measured the tread or said anything about differential wear. I was in and out in 20 minutes. Sounds like which franchise location you use can make a big difference.
TT

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Maybe you had no noticeable tire wear..

I would wait until 10k to rotate. Ooops, I am at 10,700
Maybe I should do that tomorrow :lol:

Herm said:

ttweed said:

I went in to my usual Discount Tire dealer at 8500 miles and had mine rotated for free. No one even measured the tread or said anything about differential wear. I was in and out in 20 minutes. Sounds like which franchise location you use can make a big difference.
TT

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Maybe you had no noticeable tire wear..

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No noticeable wear at 8500 miles and after autocrossing the car? I don't think so. The fronts were noticeably more worn than the rears from a simple visual inspection.

TT

Nubo said:

GroundLoop said:

They measured the tread remaining and said that there was too much wear differential between the front and back tires, and that they were not allowed to rotate them.
They had some signs up all over the shop to that effect -- need more tread in front than back.

Click to expand...

Is it possible you have that reversed?

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Correct! I had it backwards. They claim that cars are more likely to spin under duress if the reduced tread is in the back.

However, if taken as an absolute, this would imply that rotations could never take place on a FWD car....

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I took more as "you should rotate your tires very often", in an effort to keep the wear almost identical. ie, you should come into Discount Tire monthly and let us tell you when you need new tires.

Herm said:

It may be a good idea to go to a 3000 mile tire rotation schedule.. and keep an eye on the CV boots if you "grow no trees", its a heavy FWD car. At least you had even wear across the thread.

Like you mentioned, a no rotation policy would also work.. you have plenty of time to shop around for the tires, perhaps mail order.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking. Either rotate very often, or not at all. The wear seems to be "normal" for a hard-driven city car, so I can either let the fronts wear to nothing by themselves, or rotate often enough to spread the wear.

Since it's a lease car, the situation is even more interesting. I want to return it to lease with the "minimum" tread allowable by Lease. I'll have to model this and see if I might get away with two fewer tires by not-rotating.

I rotate my ties every 5,000 miles per recommendation from brother who was tire store manager.

What disturbs me is the amount of wear we are seeing reported on this thread. These see supposed to be 80,000 tires ave er are seeing measurements of 4 and 5?. E should not be seeing that for another 2 years at least.
Niue I checked mine and they have no signs of wear on them at all.

I think some posters here need to do some alignment checks

DaveinOlyWA said:

I think some posters here need to do some alignment checks

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Alignment would not cause a difference in wear between front and back, rather it causes uneven wear across the tire.

Certainly the tires have some type of warranty? Has anyone cheked what it is because this type of wear with proper rotation could certainly be a warranty issue.

GroundLoop said:

I took more as "you should rotate your tires very often", in an effort to keep the wear almost identical. ie, you should come into Discount Tire monthly and let us tell you when you need new tires.

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They told me I could/should have them rotated for free every 3,000 miles. I thought that was excessive, and probably won't follow their recommendation.

DaveinOlyWA said:

What disturbs me is the amount of wear we are seeing reported on this thread. These see supposed to be 80,000 tires ave er are seeing measurements of 4 and 5?. E should not be seeing that for another 2 years at least.

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Have you been keeping up with the multiple tire wear threads here? There are reports of defective tires flaking and chunking tread after only 1500 miles. There seems to be quite a spotty/variable wear quality with these Bridgestone Ecopias, some of which have already been replaced on warranty. Maybe a bad batch? They are supposed to be 5-year/65,000-mile tires, according to the manufacturer's data. Mine seem to be doing OK, so far (knock on wood), but I doubt they will go 65,000 miles.

YMMV,
TT

On my Hyundai, I would just buy tires two at a time and never rotate them. I put the cheapest or nearly so pair I could find on the back, and then just wear them out on the front once they were moved there.

Never did a rotation IIRC.

It also worked out once that the guy at Sam's Club had some Goodyear Eagle (ST's?) that they gave me a $40 discount on when I applied for credit. They were also the last two he had, so they were on closeout or something. I paid something like a ridiculous $140 or $110 (TOTAL) or so out the door with a road haz warranty for some good quality tires.

And of course they put them on the back and had to rotate to the front, so that was free. One man's replacement = another man's rotation.

On my Hyundai, I would just buy tires two at a time and never rotate them. I put the cheapest or nearly so pair I could find on the back, and then just wear them out on the front once they were moved there.

Never did a rotation IIRC.

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So someone else rotated them for you...?

check my prior thread on how I gor my warranty tire exchange (max 50% off list for all 4 tires). Must be done within 1 yr and less than 12k miless via tire manufacturer. got myself some turanzas and love them.

Marlboro Nissan keeps sending me email coupons for free oil changes, which they allow me to use for tire rotations, with only minor embarrassment on their part.

GroundLoop said:

Considering the service schedule calls for 7,500 miles between tire rotations, and the car is at 8,000, this seems surprising to have them "ineligible".

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Discount Tire recommends doing rotations every 5000-6000 miles. Also, if you have them at 36 psi (car's recommendation), they will last much longer and wear better (including the sidewalls) if inflated to 41- 44 psi.