It’s a good idea to rotate your cars tyres periodically to counter uneven wear, possibly caused by misaligned suspension, and thus increase the life of the tyres. The general advice is to rotate your tyres every 6 months or 6,000 miles, whichever comes first. When rotating tyres, it’s important to know how your wheels are driven as this affects how you should move the tyres.
Front wheel drive vehicles are the most common type found on British roads and here you should move the front tyres to the rear, keeping them on the same side, while moving the rear tyres forward, swapping sides. For rear wheel drives, common on more powerful cars, the front tyres should be moved back and swapped over and the rears should go forward, staying on the same sides. For four wheel drive, all tyres should be moved diagonally (e.g. front left moved to rear right, rear right moved to front left).
Directional tyres should be swapped front to back without changing sides. Special care should be taken to note the type of construction of your tyres as it is illegal to fit radial and cross ply tyres on the same axle or to have cross ply tyres on the rear with radial tyres on the front.
