What Happens If You Don’t Rotate Your Tires?

Preventative maintenance for your vehicle is essential to getting the most out of your investment. Your tires are part of this maintenance. Many people forget to rotate their tires, but having tires you can trust is imperative. So what happens if you don’t rotate your tires?

Dangerous Hydroplaning

Hydroplaning is something everyone learns about during their driver’s education courses as a warning to take it easy during wet weather. You have to drive more carefully because your tires may have limited traction on the road. If you don’t rotate your tires, the lack of tread depth can affect your capabilities behind the wheel. You might experience unexpected skidding and lack of control, which compromise your safety.

Lack of Traction for Snow & Ice

All drivers will experience rain at some point, and many must suffer from snow and ice. Driving in snowy conditions is a big headache, and adding faulty tires to the equation further complicates things. Purchasing snow tires that allow you to confidently handle the winter months may be advantageous. At the very least, you need to rotate your tires to have adequate tread depth and be able to handle the rough road conditions.

Increased Chance of Blowouts

The more strain you put on a weakened area of a tire may further damage it. For instance, if there’s a small hole in one of your tires, the hole can rapidly grow larger if you don’t rotate your tires. The last thing you want is a tire exploding when you’re traveling at high speeds.

Excessive Friction

The friction between the rubber and the roadway produces heat when you drive. A tire is meant to tolerate heat, but without room for cool air to circulate through the treads, temperatures may start to climb to dangerously high levels. Excessive heat can lead to issues such as blowouts and loss of tread. 

Loss of Warranty

A financial ramification of not rotating your tires is the loss of your warranty. Depending on where you purchase your tires, you may be able to get free repairs or replacements if your tires experience severe damage before reaching their mileage. However, a caveat of that warranty may require you to regularly rotate your tires. You don’t want to keep spending hundreds of dollars on new tires because you continue to forgo this simple maintenance job.

Now that you know what happens if you don’t rotate your tires, don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment today—especially if you don’t remember the last time you had your tires rotated. Usually, you can get a free tire rotation when you get your vehicle serviced for something else, such as an oil change, which keeps your vehicle running efficiently in one fell swoop.