Tire Rotation

Had my 2003 LS 200 in for service this past week and was informed by the
head Svce Manager that Saturn wants the tire rotation every 3000 miles.
That is insane. That is $20 a pop. Why should i be penalized for their
lousy noisey tires. ( Firestone Affinity ) Has anybody out there been
told the same outrageous story?

 

Had my 2003 LS 200 in for service this past week and was informed by the
head Svce Manager that Saturn wants the tire rotation every 3000 miles.
That is insane. That is $20 a pop. Why should i be penalized for their
lousy noisey tires. ( Firestone Affinity ) Has anybody out there been
told the same outrageous story?
snip

I have noticed that tire manufacturers are demanding short rotation
intervals on tires for which they claim an unrealistically long service
life. When the tire fails to perform as advertised they can point to your
failure to rotate the tires as per their schedule and use this to deny
warranty for less than advertised tire life.

I purchased two GM jacks from a wrecker ($5.ea) so I did not need to remove
the jack from the spare mount and could jack up two wheels at a time. I
also purchased an extra set of wheel rims ($25. ea) So I can keep two sets
of tires, one newer set for winter and one more worn set that I use for
summer. Use anti-seize lubricant on the wheel studs and the $20 is added to
the money I save by changing oil myself. Recheck torque after 50 miles.
There is no real saving but I get to inspect the car regularly and the
saving is in other repair and inspections saved. I do not rotate tires at
3000 miles as it is more of a seasonal change job with rotation at mid
season. The rotation interval ends up more like 5,000 miles. I did get
85,000 miles out of the stock Firestones that everyone here seems to hate, I
thought this was pretty good service.

Just my .02

 

While 3000 miles is a short interval it is by no means outrageous. If you'd
like all four tires to wear evenly and not develope odd wear patterns then
you should probably rotate the tires every 5000 miles or less. It's
preferable to have tires that have the same amount of wear at each corner
of the car and then replace them 4 at a time. Also, an alignment check
every 15000 or when the car starts wandering wouldn't hurt.

 

Tire Rotations = Brake Inspections and Even Tire Wear. 3000 miles is a
little much even for me. Every 6000 miles (every other oil change) is a
good time for a rotation.

 

15,000 ????? with all the pot holes in Virginia if I only "checked"
alignment every 15,000 miles I'd need new tires every 15,000 miles. I'm
figuring I've spent more money on alignments than all other services
combined - about $80 a throw at least once a year for 11 years almost
exceeds the cost of both alternators, all 3 batteries, 6 tires, 2 T-fluid
flushes, 2 radiator flushes, every oil change, a handful of gas and air
filters, 2 sets of pads, and a break shoe in a pear tree. I've wondered if
it would be cheaper to just align it only when I got new tires and replace
them when they wore out from mis-alignment.

The only advantage I see from rotating is all 4 will need replacing at the
same time so there's no confusion later about how old the replacements are
or where you got them. Would you get even wear by just rotating front to
back (but not side to side)?
Ron- 94 SL1 (considering a Cypress Green 06 VUE)

 

I only rotate/switch front to back and my tires wear evenly. I thought the
roads here were bad but I've never had an alignment done on the Saturn I've
had three years and about 50,000km (approx. 30,000 miles) and my car runs
straight and doesn't wear the tires out prematurely.

 

I let myself & Saturn slip on regular changes,it's been done once,the
frist 3k,& this past monthI(34k),the tires on front now don't seem to
wear in,theres a slight hum/tread noise,but,the car rolls smooth
enough & thers no pull on the steering.On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:27:27