Prius Tire Rotation

I did mine 3 weeks ago with 2 scissor jacks on the same side. I'm not thrilled how it went and may do it differently next time...vehicle was just the slightest bit wobbly and wanted to lean back (should have used wheel chocks on the other side). I may use 2 trolley jacks next time. An alternative is to use the spare temporarily so you only need to raise one end at a time.

 

Did not bend.

 

I normally rotate my tires when I change the oil. I loosen the lugs on both left side wheels and then use a floor jack to jack the left front first (to force more oil out of the pan) and place a jack stand near the jacking point. While the oil is draining I jack the left rear and rotate the left side. After adding the new oil, I do the same on the other side. I have never bent any of the metal at or near the jacking point.

 

Well, I know from experience that if you just put the jack in between the two jack points on either side, in the middle, that it'll be just fine to lift the whole side up. Just make sure you are on level ground, else the jack might slip and cause some massive damage.

 

I'm a new member, but a car enthusiast. Make sure you are torqueing your lug nuts when you are done. I am not sure of the spec on the Prius (if it is different) but standard cars are typically between 80-90 lb/ft.

Joe

 

The torque spec is 103Nm per the manual. I agree that using a torque wrench is a very good idea, and especially pays off next time you need to rotate the tires or change a flat. Under-torque is dangerous, over-torquing can make it a royal PITA to break the lugs loose.

(I just rotated my tires a couple hours ago with the spare and OEM scissor jack. Laborious but effective if that's all you have to work with.)

 

76 foot pounds. Are you sure you can jack up the whole side with a single jack midway between the jack points? Has anyone else done this?

 

Recently went to the dealer for a oil and filter change and a tire rotation. Before leaving my home, I marked the left and right front tires with a marker.
I was curious as to whether they rotated the tires front to rear or in the X pattern. I got the bill indicating the oil, filter and rotation were completed. But when I check my car, the LF and RF markings were still on the respective front tires. Tire rotation was not done. There would have been no other way to check this since the difference in the front and rear tire wear patterns were hard to see. The service manager grudgling sent it back into the shop and the tires were rotated properly. But the tire pressures were not reset for the rear tires now being in front and the front tires now being in the rear. After a while you just give up, take care of it your self, and go somewhere next time.

Ross

 

Cpt Ross that is an excellent idea about marking the tires to check later. I will start doing that myself!

 

I cannot take credit for the idea of marking the tires. I had read it somewhere in this forum a while back.
Ross

 

Check your manual - it shows the other two jack points. My manual shows one in front that will lift the whole front of the car (I've never looked for it), and one in back center near the spare tire well that lifts the whole back of the car.

I have used the central jack point in back to remove both rear tires when installing rear mud flaps. DO NOT use a scissor jack for this. My scissor jack's screw seized, and the torque needed to get it unseized nearly turned over the jack. I ended up having to jack up even higher by the two side rear jack points to release the weight on the center jack point.

 

I thought that radial tires should be done front-to-rear only, because the tires "break in" to their spin direction and reversing the spin can wear them faster. Is this a "wives tale"? Or has the design and construction of radial tires changed to allow X-pattern rotation?

 

OK, so I did some checking and the mid-rear jack point is a metal post immediately in front of the wheel well. That's the one I referenced in my message above. The base of the post is flat, so that it will accommodate a jack with a traditional "pan" lifter.

As for bending the sheet metal on the side jack points, please note that the scissor jack that Toyota supplies with the Prius has a deep U-shaped notch in it that eliminates contact with the vertical sheet metal rail. All contact occurs with horizontal sheet metal immediately adjacent to the vertical rail. However, when I jacked up my Prius previously, I used a Toyota Camry jack that had a similar U-shaped bracket, but it was not deep enough to prevent contact with the rail, so all the stress went to the rail. However, it did not seem to cause any damage for me. But in the future I would recommend ONLY using the Prius jack (or Toyota-approved adapter) with the side jack points. If you have a router, you may be able to make your own adapter from a wood block.

If I decide to do my own tire rotations, I have planned on jacking up the two rear tires via the mid-rear jack point, placing jack stands near the rear side jack points, then jacking up each of the front tires individually. Can anyone suggest the best place to place the jack stands? They do not have a U-notch, so putting all the stress on the vertical rail would seem to be a poor idea.

 

I can recommend using the jack and jack stand pads from protech. I have used these when lifting our cars for a while, including our Prius with no damage what so ever. They are a very firm, but soft plastic material that conforms to the under side of the car, distributing the weight very evenly over a much larger area than the jack or jack stand would normally provide. They are also very grippy, which combined with the grove in the jack pad head, makes things very stable when lifting.

Protech

 

You don't have to rotate the tires periodically. You can extract maximum life from them with minimum bother by letting the front two wear out, moving the rear two to the front, and putting a new pair on the rear. This also means that the two better tires will always be at the rear, which is safer.

 

Those are in fact the attaching points of the car to the boat when they are transported from Japan to location...

If the car is rigid enough, using the front jack point should be all that you need to lift the entire side... most of the weight is in the front part so the center of gravity is more to the front than in the middle...
I know The battery is quite heavy but still, the engine + motor + transmission should weight more...