Since the inside is still the inside and the outside is still the outside, you have accomplished absolutely nothing. If you have camber wear, it will always be worn more on the inner part of the tire. Swapping it from side to side will still wear the inner side of the tire, it'll just be on the opposite side of the car.

EDIT: I just saw your edit. Do you truly get any benefit from changing the directional wear pattern that makes the tires ride better or last any longer?

 

When you swap to the other side and keeping the inside on the insdide you are turning the tires around. So they are rolling in the opposide direction as before. This can tear up your tires, cause a rougher ride and can in some cases be a cause for premature tire failure.

 

Even though they are not directional?

 

Yeah- that's because you have worn them in going a certain direction. When you turn them around it can be hard on the tire. Some tires do better than others but a buddy of mine learned a long time ago the hard way not to turn tires in the other direction once you wear them in in one direction.

 

So is it safe to say I can just leave my tires where they are from the factory and wait till they wear out lol

 

Exactly.

 

I've always understood that the only time you couldn't rotate where it flipped the rotation was on uni-directional tires.....Never ever heard of the concept of wearing them in in a certain direction as that would pretty much go against the thinking for every tire on the planet that wasn't uni-directional...I mena rubber is rubber whether it's rubber rotating left or rubber rotating right IMO...

Every other tire I've ever dealt with that wasn't uni-directional was never a issue. Anything from the most basic of bargain tires, most aggressive mud tires or softest compound z-rated tires...Never a issue (I put about 70k-100k a year on my vehicles so I've gone through a many a tire over the years).....I regularly rotate my 2500HD, my wifes Fusion, my old F-150, my mom's Explorer, my dad's F-150 & Accord with no issue.....On my old Lightning with the stock Goodyears (weren't unidirectional) I swapped them in this same manner too with no issue. The first set I followed the vehicle guidelines (which were front to rear rotation only) and they lasted roughly 20k miles. The second set I also rotated left to right and added roughly 15k miles to their life. I then switched to Toyo Proxes (which had to only be rotated front to rear as they were uni-directional) and they were still on the truck when I sold it with 160k on the odo...

I guess I said all that to say I can't really say I've seen anything in my past vehicles that would 100% support or disprove my thoughts on the process...It's worked to this point though so I've see no need to change it on the Infiniti...

At this point my G37S I've got a little over 21k on the original tires without the first issue rotating side to side every other oil change. The tires are beginning to show minimal wear (probably easy get another 10-15k out of them)....Don't really know what the norm is for these tires but those numbers should at least give you a basis of reference...I have no noticeable extra road noise, wear, odd issues, etc. showing on the tires....This is my first true "toy" car that only really gets used on weekends/trips so it's about 50k short of my usual yearly average...For perspective of the amount of time I spend on the road, my gas bill usually runs in the 1500/month range...

 

Hey whatever works for you bro. I know that from past experiences from someone I know (and it could have just been the type of tire) tires rode rough, became very noisy (a low moan as soon as he rotated them) and the tread got shredded on what became the front edges of the tread pattern a bit. Those were not directional tires.
It was recommended by a "tire professional" that the tires shouldn't have been flipped around and that because of how these particular tires wore the tires were on the verge of premature failure. This was like 18 years ago though so maybe tires are less susceptible to that sort of thing now (?) Perhaps your rotating regularly counters the effect (?)

 

Oh no sweat...I was just throwing out my personal experience.....

If I've learned one thing over the years it's never say never but it is certainly unusual. Of course a lot's changed in 18 years so who knows...

 

Hy betty you are right there is an in and out on the tire. ON a Michelin the barcode side is always suposed to be in. How ever (on a michelin) it is purly for looks. The barcode (refferance) side of the tire has a different set of tolerances for astetic defects. puting them on the other way will have no preformance affect on a non direstional tire. At least for Michelins.

 

dealer suggests swapping sides on sport models.

 

Okay sorry for raising this thread from the dead, but I wanted to comment on what I've read so far. Unless I interpreted something incorrectly on this thread, it seems like the consensus is that there's no benefit from swapping the tires from side to side in any way. I'm not sure I agree with that. I have negative camber so my insides tend to wear quicker. If I dismount the tire from the rim and change them from side to side with the tread facing the same direction as it did before, then I would be changing the wear points so that the inside from the previous position would now be the outside of the current position (and visa versa). I was planning on doing that to my Ventus V12's some time this week since I'm pretty sure they don't have inside/outside markers (not sure if the RE050's are asymmetrical...then I can see where this thread was going).

I guess my real question is whether or not the benefit of doing this every X miles is worth it. I called several local shops and the cheapest I could find for them to dismount and side swap is $15 per wheel (not sure if that even included balancing). I got it done for $30 total at this one place in LA a few years ago but I don't recall him balancing anything. If this squeezes at least another 10K out of my tires then I guess it'd be worth it...?