barry_s

Lexus recommends very frequent tire rotations for this vehicle. Since the RX330/350 comes with a full size spare I am considering doing the following instead:

1) Buy one tire identical to those on the car (Michelin MXV 4)
2) When the front tires wear out (certainly much sooner than the rears) I would use the unused spare along with purchased tire to replace them.

Any comments on this idea would be appreciated

lexuslover

i rotate every 5k miles and the tires wear pretty evenly. so you may not need to do the 2-at-a-time replacement.

Lil4X

Your MXV's will probably wear at about the same rate if they are rotated as per the manual (5K). Be sure to have alignment checked on a good 4-wheel alighment machine by someone qualiried to operate it.

If past experience is any indicator, the life of those MXV's will probably be limited to 35K - 40K. They are performance tires manufactured with a soft compound and limited tread depth. (See comparison on TireRack.com)

barry_s

I don't understand the logic of rotating 3 tires on the RH side of the vehicle and 2 tires on the left side. Seems like a waste of a tire (the spare) and a lot of work to do 6 or 7 rotations during the lfe of the tires. My proposal (above) is to skip the rotations and when the front tires need replacement (which should be well before the rears are worn out), put the new unused spare and a purchased identical tire on the front.

tfischer

I agree with the above post.

Rotating 5 tires is a lot of trouble and in the long run does not accomplish much.

I'd say just rotate the 4 till they are worn out, then you can buy 4 new tires. At that time, you might not want the same kind, in which case buying 4 is less expensive than buying 5, and if you do want the same kind again, use the spare on the car and just buy 3 more to match; use the best of the original 4 as the spare.

This leaves you more options at replacement time.

BobsGX

Using the spare tire in a 5 tire rotation gives you 20% more tire life. Doing it this way will not leave you with a brand new spare tire that will develop tire cracking and rot from not being utilized. True its more work to do the 5 tire rotation, but I think its worth it in the long run. I use Figure C under the 5 tire rotation at the following link: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=43

NeverSatisfied

i love my michelins. rotated religiously every 5k, i'm almost at 42k miles, and i think i have another 20k left on them (fwd).

M_Murrell

I remember when the 5-tire-scheme was a way of life. Labor costs went sky high and the front-to-rear/rear-to-front scheme came into being.

Oh well.

barry_s

The RX350 tire rotation is specified to be three tires ( 2 + the spare) rotating on the RH side while only two rotate on the LH side. Unless one drives counterclockwise on an oval (like Indy!) this seems like a total waste of the spare tire.

jfelbab

I recall reading that radial tires take a set and shouldn't be rotated from side to side where their rotation would be opposite from where they were broken in and set. Rotation from front to rear keeps the tire rotation in the same direction. So even of you use the spare, Lexus recommends you keep these tires on the same side.

So the long and short of it, one side of your vehicle will wear out sooner than the other side if your utilize the spare. You will need to replace tires when one side wears out and at that time you will need to replace at least 4 tires. Adding the spare to the mix makes no difference since one side will wear out at the same rate as if you didn't rotate the spare.

I'd just rotate the tires on the car and keep the spare for use as a spare. When the tires wear out you can get a set of better rubber and keep the unused spare for a reliable dedicated spare.

BobsGX

[QUOTE=jfelbab]I recall reading that radial tires take a set and shouldn't be rotated from side to side where their rotation would be opposite from where they were broken in and set. Rotation from front to rear keeps the tire rotation in the same direction. So even of you use the spare, Lexus recommends you keep these tires on the same side.


That radial tire taking a set was from the late 70's when radial tires were becoming available on american cars. With all the advances in technology over the years, it doesn't apply anymore.

Grumpa72

Au Contraire, mon ami! The front to rear tire rotation came into being once they developed tires that were unidirectional. The tires were/are marked with an arror or other indicator telling you which way they should face when mounted. To the best of my knowledge, it had nothing to do with labor costs.

Fwiw, I like the five tire rotation. When these tires need to be replaced, I will, however, choose the best one, and put it as a spare. Then I will buy four new ones.

Gary

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

MXV4 Energy tires are utter trash, I dont see how anyone can willingly buy it again, reviews on tirerack are pretty bad. Got rid of those on my moms avalon (got really noisy, bouncy, bad traction) got different non-OEM tires and they were far superior. Replacements were goodyear triple tred assurances, reviews were way better, will probably last twice as long, dont know if they make them for a SUV class vehicle

tfischer

Well, I'm not sure that they are "utter trash," but I got stuck with a set of new ones because the dealer put them on my CPO when I bought a three year old RX330. I'm sure he put them on because they had plenty in stock. I knew nothing about them at the time, and my recollection is that when I looked into them, I think I found out that this is a tire made for SUVs and that is primarily sold as OEM equipment on new cars.

I don't put a lot of miles on my RX, so I am stuck with them for quite a while, but they don't seem so bad to me in my ordinary driving. They seem to have pretty good dry traction in cornering, and they went through the snow pretty well on the one day of snow I have experienced so far, but then maybe an AWD would show those attributes with almost any rubber.

Surely I will look at alternatives at replacement time, as i cannot imagine that an OEM tire is the absolute best available. Still, it has the compound for winter traction and they do not seem to make much road noise, so I can get by with them till they wear down. (If the original owner of my car had these on his when he took the car new, then he got about 45,000 miles on them.)

Lexmex

Bingo on this one.

I used to follow the crossing pattern, but after listening to my uncle and the place I got the tire from, my CrossTerrains are lasting a lot longer than my last set.