Usually when you think of the most common and necessary car maintenance you need to get for your automobile, you’ll start to think of an oil change. Most people completely forget about tire rotations when it comes to their scheduled car maintenance.
A tire rotation is exactly what it sounds like, rotating the tires. You do this in order to ensure that your tires are given even tire wear. Even tire wear will help your car run as smoothly as possible and greatly increase the length of your tires life.
Your tires wear down at different rates for the following reasons:
- Distribution of weight: Front wheel drive cars usually have somewhere along the lines of a 60:40 weight difference between the front and the back. Because of this, your front tires usually wear down at twice the rate of your rear tires.
- Turning: Right turns are much more tighter than left turns, so this causes your right tire to wear faster on the outside. Hitting curbs also happens fairly often on the right tires when parking close to curbs and paralleled parking.
- Mechanical problem: Problems such as improper wheel alignment can cause your tires to wear differently. The tire that is aligned improperly is usually worn down at a much faster rate.
A tire rotation is recommended every 12,000. That is every 4 oil changes.
You can often find oil change and tire rotation coupons together. Most of the big oil change companies give these coupons regularly. You will also have much better luck finding a oil change and tire rotation coupon when you go to a shop that specializes in tires like Tires Plus, Sears Auto, Firestone, etc.
