Ever been stranded on the road with a flat tyre just because you couldn’t unscrew your wheel nuts? An assured way to prevent your wheel nuts from stiffening is to rotate your tyres periodically. It sounds strange but it happens all the time and at such moments even muscles and abs can’t save you. But truly there are other reasons you need to rotate your tyres in the first place, as one thing is for sure; you can’t totally control the wearing pattern of the grooves on your tyres.

Wheel rotation simply involves alternating the position of your tyres on a periodic basis to avoid abnormal wearing pattern of tyres. Wheel rotation is a perfect do-it-yourself activity that affords you the opportunity to even visually examine components like brakes, suspension and hubs which lie beneath the car. Below is just a sample of a wheel rotation pattern.

But don’t rotate your wheels with the expectation that it’s all that is required for you to avoid abnormal tyre wear. Other supplementary means of achieving this are:

1)Maintaining proper wheel geometry by aligning your wheels when due-which largely depends on the state of steering and suspension components.

2)In addition to maintaining proper wheel geometry, you also need to balance each tyre when due to minimize avoidable vibrations and high rolling resistance of tyres.

3) Maintaining proper tyre inflation pressure

4)The other way around this is your driving habit which includes the frequency of harsh braking, manner of negotiating corners and how and where you park your car.

In précis correct wheel geometry cuts down the chances of your tyres wearing too differently and abnormally; tyre rotation can be said to be the icing on the cake as it equalizes wear across the entire set of wheels. So do this according to your car manufacturer’s specifications –likely within 7,000km to 24,000km range-and have a sweet ride.

Just like you have to reset your trip meter after oil change, some cars might require you to reset a special tire-rotation timer to a prior state to help your car’s system notify you when next your tyres are due for rotation.
http://autobaseafrica.com/hidden-benefits-of-wheel-rotation/

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