What You Can Learn from a Tire Rotation

Every vehicle, including Toyota car, trucks, minivans, and SUVs, has tires. These four round rubber rings are made to absorb vibrations from the road, provide grip for acceleration and steering, and give a vehicle traction to stop. And each vehicle that has tires (that’s right, all of them), require one of the most basic maintenance items. That would be a tire rotation.

A tire rotation involves moving the wheels mounted to the front of the vehicle to the rear, and cross-rotating the tires that move from the rear to the front. The purpose is simple. It’s to get the most life from your set of tires. By performing a tire rotation at the required interval, your tires will wear evenly.

But when a tire rotation is performed, you can learn something about your vehicle. It can be an early warning of problems. Here are four things you can learn when you get your tires rotated.

What a Tire Rotation Can Reveal

Improper tire pressure

If the center of the tread is worn more than the outer shoulders, your tire pressure is too high. The center bulges out while the edges don’t touch the road. Or, if both your tire’s shoulders are worn more than the center, the tire is underinflated.

Alignment issues

If one of the tire shoulders is wearing down more than the rest of the tire tread, there’s a very good chance your vehicle needs a wheel alignment. Improper wheel alignment can cause excessive tire wear but it can also put stress on your suspension and steering components, as well as reduce your fuel efficiency.

Worn out suspension

Are the tread sections choppy and rough on your tires? That’s an indication that you need suspension work on your vehicle. It causes your wheel to bounce, not running smoothly against the road surface. The result is inconsistent treadwear.

Brake problems

Is one tire almost worn out while the rest are nearly new? Get your brakes looked at. If one brake is dragging more than the rest, it can cause your tire to wear out quickly as it tries to grab the road surface.

You can learn these things all from a routine tire rotation. To detect these and other early indicators, have your Toyota serviced regularly at your local dealer, Jay Wolfe Toyota in Kansas City.