5 Tire Rotation

[schan1w]

I have a GX470, but I thought I would see if anyone here can help me.

I'm about to have my first oil change at 5K miles and was wondering if I should request a 5 tire rotation pattern. What's are the advantages and disadantages of doing this? I understand that on a 4WD, if one tire has to be replaced with a new one for some reason, then it may cause transmission damage if the others are not replaced at the same time.

The manual recommends the rotation pattern below. However, this doesn't make sense to me because the left and ride side tires never exchange positions.

[NYLexSC]

Problems with the transmission will only occurr if the wheel you replace has a different overall diameter than the other wheels. I believe Lexus gives you a full size spare tire to prevent any of that from happening.

The rotation can only be one sided for the car because the tires you have are radial, meaning the tread pattern is such that the tire is only gripping properly when it is spinning in the correct direction. If you take a left side tire and put it on the right, the direction will be incorrect.

[toyskier]

I have a 2003 ES300. I do a 4 tire rotation, switching tires from on side of the car to the other. I've never had a problem with "changing the direction" of the tire roll. I've done this with a number of cars, all with radials. As a matter of fact, I just purchased new tires. The old (original) Michelins lasted 60k. It doesn'tt get much better than that.

I believe that earlier generations of radials had problems with changing the direction of the roll. However, I think current design is beyond that......or it depends on what "expert" you want to believe. Again, I've never had a problem switching radials from one side of the car, or truck, to the other.

[wonger]

jsut do 4 tire rotation.. front to back back to front.. no need to cross..

[NYLexSC]

Originally Posted by toyskier

I have a 2003 ES300. I do a 4 tire rotation, switching tires from on side of the car to the other. I've never had a problem with "changing the direction" of the tire roll. I've done this with a number of cars, all with radials. As a matter of fact, I just purchased new tires. The old (original) Michelins lasted 60k. It doesn'tt get much better than that.

I believe that earlier generations of radials had problems with changing the direction of the roll. However, I think current design is beyond that......or it depends on what "expert" you want to believe. Again, I've never had a problem switching radials from one side of the car, or truck, to the other.

Well radial tires are radial tires. They are meant to spin in a certain direction as that direction of travel offers the greatest performance of the tire in terms of road grip, especially during slipper conditions. This is NOT to say that an incorrectly rotated radial won't still grip the road, because it will. It just won't do it as efficiently as it was designed to. This is ESPECIALLY true of performance tires, and the discrepency is noticeable if you drive the car hard. Traction will break much easier when the tire is spinning in the opposite direction that the tread pattern was designed for.