Tire rotation and the spare

Not to turn this into an oil change thread, but changing oil more frequently than 10k miles interval is for vehicles operated under "extreme conditions". However "normal conditions" does not include driving city miles or short trips, so in the real world most everyone drives "extreme conditions" but the 10K interval allows car manufacturers to advertise and sell vehicles as if they are low maintenance.

My Toyota dealer in Canada wants me to change my oil every 8k kms (about 5k miles) or every 6 months, but since I drive less than 8k kms/year (I'm retired so no commute and I own 2 other vehicles) I get my oil changed once per year.

 

It costs me roughly $45 USD to do an oil change on the Tacoma and I’ve always enjoyed doing maintenance on all my cars so it’s not a hassle for me.

I also do pull a smaller boat that’s around 1800 pounds which I know isn’t anywhere near the max tow rating but it makes me feel better knowing the motors got fresh oil in it.

I’ll probably do the diffs and tranny fluid around 30k

 

Not mine. Mine was not a steelie. Mine was labeled with a warning not to exceed 50 mph with the spare.

Also from the manual:

●Do not use two temporary spare tires simultaneously.

●Replace the temporary spare tire with a standard tire as soon as possible.

●Avoid sudden acceleration, deceleration and braking, as well as sharp cornering.

 

Roger that, and why I am getting 5 matching and rotating them in. To me the biggest risk is having a sidewall puncture that cannot be repaired halfway through the tires service life. I wouldn't want to buy a new tire to have it mismatched with the others. Tires are also discontinued/upgraded/tread patterns changed and I wouldn't want to not be able to source one. Or..in the current day have to wait a couple weeks for one to be back in stock.

I think the answer depends on how much mileage one puts on each year.

I may split the difference and do 4 rotations with the spare, and one without: rotation 1 at 5K, rotation 2 at 10K, rotation 3 at 15K, rotation 4 at 20K. From then on I would probably do rotation 5 at 30K, replace at 40k, With my low annual driving this will be 6-8 years so the tires will be close to aged out but still decent to fetch $100 for all 5 on craigslist. If I ruin a tire at 4 years and 25K I will put the wear matched spare in service and buy a super-cheapy used tire for the spare to run out the next couple of years until they all age out.

 

What!? Get that sh*t out from under there and put a real spare on it! I get that you have a sport model and may never go on dirt roads wirh it, but what happens if you are on a road or freeway at night with cars zipping by at 70mph and you are limping along at 50mph?

 

Dude, I did. Post #7.

 

Ah, but Why did you even have to post about it in the first place? Just kidding! Good decision, you improved your truck’s safety by a lot by doing that!

Too bad you couldn’t tell the dealer to add that in so you didn’t have to buy a new wheel and spare, or did you post about doing it on #8? I can’t believe they were including those little donut spares on trucks…Or was it a dealer thing and they were having a “special sale” on steel wheels with full-size spares? Hmmm…

 

Lol. Honestly, it was probably a year before I pulled the spare and looked at it. A forum member hooked me up with a free Method Race Wheel that was a little banged up. I think he bought the set cheap with the same idea of upgrading his spare and gave away the other 3.

 

Man, you lucked out doing that before having your first flat! Else you would’ve been one of those sad cars you see driving in the emergency lane with their flashers on moving along 45 miles an hour. I can’t believe Toyota put those on their trucks. Another gas mileage reporting cheat maneuver that saves them money.

 

Since the owner's manual never worked in a dedicated 4x4/Jeep garage, and I have...I'm going to defer to my own knowledge and experience. Considering that you likely won't take my word for it (and I wouldn't either) I'd encourage you to ask Google.

 

The owner's manual is at odds with industry accepted and recommended practice. The pattern in the owner's manual is for directional tires.
Rear cross evens out heel-toe wear...

 

The oil change raises it ugly head. Again

Spare, I have the tires rotated from to rear per the dealer recommendation. What I have found on this forum is to spray and lower the spare ever 6 months. flip the spare so you can check the pressure without dropping the spare to check

 

When I bought aftermarket wheels, I bought 5 with brand new tires and TPMS in all of them.
I bought an Autel TS508 off of eBay for a pretty decent price and use it to read the sensors.
I do a 5 tire rotation using the "rearward cross" method and so far it has worked out great.
This is probably above and beyond what 99% of people do. Right? Wrong? Do what makes you feel good.

 

I run the same tire size as the stock spare on all 4 corners, but I have -10mm offset on those 4 wheels.

So what if I use the spare, which I think has positive offset? Is it going to cause excessive wear due to offset difference?

 

Hey smuffins. Just a thought but I to have a full size spare but I don’t bother with any of the rotation stuff I just use it like a spare. You have a tire issue you put it on to get you home to deal with the problem same as any other spare then you put it back. A lot of spare tires a huge percentage actually are original because they don’t get used much and don’t need replacement. A lot of people wait to long for sure but I see them all the time 10 years plus in good condition. You don’t need a new one with every set of tires use it like you would any other. No need to bother with the sensor because it won’t be on there long. Sometimes this forum makes things so much more complicated then they to be. On a side note I agree with your oci. 10k is stupid and I’m never doing that no matter what any dealer or manual or random person on the internet tells me. I like 4-5k so that’s what I do. Nobody ever damaged an engine from keeping the oil to clean. Anyway the point of a full size spare isn’t to make your tires last longer because it won’t it’s so that if you ever need it you don’t have one smaller one on there because that is actually dangerous. Using one with new tread for 20 or 50 or 100 miles or whatever to get you to the tire shop isn’t going to hurt anything.

 

According to my research the spare rim is indeed an inexpensive reduced quality wheel that Toyota uses to reduce the weight of the vehicle. Our vehicles are a compromise in every respect. Nothing on them is the best it can be. Toyota engineers deal with cost versus weight.

 

I believe the Owners Manual suggests no cross rotation, just front to back.

 

I saw that too, but most tires that fit Tacomas are non-directional and most people run squared set up, I really don't see why you can't cross rotate them.

My speculation is that they want to simplify work for the service center

 

Then that must mean that the rims used for the road are inferior as well, the steel wheel spare equipped on these vehicles meets regulation standards to be used safely as regular service wheels. The same steel wheel is sold by Toyota as a serviceable wheel for snow tires at thier dealer networks. Without any indication of limits of use. The tire on my truck was the Firestone that came factory on other Tacoma's as a regular service use tire. (Mine was equipped with Toyo's) I would like to see your research on this, because I have not seen any of this spare tire limitation to be true based on the equipment supplied on my vehicle from factory.

Just to make a point, even the space savers rims have to meet regulations in order to be used. It is the space saver spare tire that is not a regular service use item. The Tacoma didn't not come with a space-saving assembly though, they came with full size spare assembly.

 

As I've already stated.....

Type in "4x4 tire rotation pattern"