tires rotation surprise

first and last time i took sparky to the dealer (story here) it had almost 7500mi. they told me they also did a complimentary tire rotation. i was skeptic, the fronts were still looking more used than the backs, but yeah, whatever. at least they tried to be nice.

today i had to take sparky to a tire shop - one of my tires keeps slowly deflating. i asked the guy if he thinks the tires were ever rotated, he said it didnt seem like. so i asked him to do it. but then, the car wouldnt start anymore! it was just like the parking break was still engaged. played with it on and off a few times, but given my previous snafu experience (see above mentioned post) i thought i would just need to be patient. the guy that did my tire work comes back and asks me what's going on, then he points to the front wheels and says "i had a feeling something was wrong when i mounted them". turns out that the rims on the front wheels are different from the ones on the back! so much so that, if you change them around, the front rims actually touch the calipers (calipers? i think thats what they call the part that holds the brake pads above the brake disc, right?) however, the tires are the same.

lesson learned: tires rotation means, literally, tires rotation. shuffling the wheels around doesnt seem to cut it. ha!

You should rotate them left to right, not front to back! In the owner's manual section 10-40, it states:

http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/Chevrolet/northamerica/usa/nscwebsite/en/Home/Ownership/Manuals%20and%20Videos/02_pdf/2k14spark_ev.pdf

Tire Rotation

If the vehicle has non-directional tires, they should be rotated every 12 000 km/7,500 mi. See Maintenance Schedule on page 11-2.

Tires are rotated to achieve uniform wear for all tires. The first rotation is the most important.

...

Different tire sizes should not be rotated front to rear.

[Image showing tires changed from left to right only]

Use this rotation pattern if the vehicle has different size tires on the front and rear and they are non-directional.

Click to expand...

Not only are the tires different sizes front and rear, but the wheels have significantly different size and offset, as you found out. Do not rotate these tires OR wheels front to back!

Bryce

My first trip to the dealership they tried to do the rotating that way and then they found out the car wouldn't move. The problem is in the manual the Service and Maintenance section it doesn't say anything about special rotation. Something everybody needs to know for sure since even the dealer service dept. might not know.

Time2go said:

My first trip to the dealership they tried to do the rotating that way and then they found out the car wouldn't move. The problem is in the manual the Service and Maintenance section it doesn't say anything about special rotation. Something everybody needs to know for sure since even the dealer service dept. might not know.

Click to expand...

It does say this in the "Service and Maintenance" section on page 11-3:

Tire Rotation and Required Services Every 12 000 km/7,500 mi

Rotate the tires, if recommended for the vehicle, and perform the following services. See Tire Rotation on page 10-40.

Click to expand...

Section 10-40 specifically states to rotate tires side to side but not front to rear (shown above).

Bryce

That was their excuse why it took so long to finish. Im just saying don't trust that they know what their doing. Im pretty sure I was their first Spark EV 7500 mile service.

well the manual is probably a copy-paste-modify from the gas spark version, and some of the differences may have gone overlooked. i guess you can emphasize that you have to rotate *tires* not *wheels*. even though it's (somewhat) mentioned in the manual, i dont think there's many of us that read the specifics about tire rotation before they go to the dealer.

To be 100% clear, the front tires are different sizes than the rear tires. The front wheels are also different sizes than the rear wheels. You can ONLY rotate wheels and/or tires between left and right side, NOT front to rear. You unbolt the left front wheel and tire assembly and put it on the right front, right front wheel and tire assembly to left front, left rear wheel and tire assembly to right rear, and right rear wheel and tire assembly to left rear. No tires need removed from wheels, only unbolt them and move them around.

This is considered a tire rotation, you just rotate them side to side instead of front to back. I have owned multiple cars with different sized front and rear wheels, so I am used to this requirement. I also do my own maintenance and read the owner's manual when I buy new cars, I'm silly like that.

We're all in agreement, this is really important!!!

Bryce