how can you determine if your wheels need rotated and balanced?

Recommendations for tire rotations vary from 3000 to 10,000 miles. It's a pain to create a specific cycle just for tire rotation, so I rotate my tires when I change the oil. It seems to local Goodyear and Firestone stores always have coupons for oil changes, kind of makes up for the charge for rotating tires.

Need for balancing is usually indicated by vibration, although vibration could be a more serious problem. Once again re-balancing recommendations vary, if there doesn't seem to be any indications of a problem I tend to only do it once, around 30,000 miles. They might be out of balance again by 45 or 50,000, but I figure I won't extend the life enough to justify cost, especially since it seems like when the tread gets that low I always pick up a nail close to sidewall and I decide the whole set is ready to go.

Because of synthetic oils lasting 10K, I have it done every oil change. But what do I know? I'm getting ready to replace ALL 4 of my tires and I only have 83,000 miles on them. Taking care of you car is always cheaper than repairing it.

You look at your odometer and if it has been 5 or 6 thousand miles since you did it last, you need to do it again.

Balance is by notable shaking at a particular speed, rotated is by time from front to back, peculiar wear on the front tires is an alignment problem.

If the steering wheel is slightly tilted, the wheels need to aligned at a specialized shop. And if the steering wheel is shaking while driving at speeds above 80mph then the wheels need weights ( worst case scenario is a bent or cracked rim, it needs to be replaced ).

One way is to look at their wear.