i read in another thread that the S doesnt need a tire rotation..why is that..what about tire balance?

 

read manual
don't rotate tire
of course balance any time you get new tires

 

i didnt get a manual with my used 01..(i know i should) but how come the tires dont rotated?

 

because the the front and rear sizes are different, and they are uni directional

 

The only way to "rotate" the tires is to take them off the wheels and swap them left/right. However, you will have to pay for mounting/balancing/etc.

 

If you want to get maximum life out of your tires have a tire shop swap direction on your rims and rebalance. I did this on the fronts only because the rears wear fairly evenly but considerabley faster than the fronts. So the next time you replace your rears pay the extra 20 bucks or so and have the fronts done. FYI, I went over 28k yesterday on stock SO-2's that have done 5 autocrosses and are worn near perfectly even across the tire. I swapped them when I put on the new rears at 17k (completely bald) and always monitored wear and adjusted tire pressures. They are just about at their limit since I do have possibilities of rain because it's winter out here.

 

cool, thanks for the info guys

 

It was my understanding you were not supposed to do that with radials as they are usually unidirectional. Or are you talking about orienting them so the outside of the left tire was the inside of the right tire prior to rotation?

If that's the case, you might want to make that very clear to the shop doing the rotation. I'd be nervous they'd try to keep the same outside edge and end up putting the tire on 'backwards.'

 

craig_wagner: I think you are talking about asymmetric unidirectional tires? Stock tires are not asymmetric so both edges are the same. As long as you get the direction of rotation correct, there should be no problem.

PS: Someone correct me if I'm wrong since I don't use stock tires.

 

mas, you're right. The SO-2's are symmetrical. If the place you have putting on your tires can't read they should at least be able to understand the arrow that points in the direction of rotation on the sidewall. However if that was to be a potential problem it would probably be addressed when they can't comprehend why you need to take the wheels off the rim to rotate tires