Rotating tires myself

There is probably more than one good way to do it. I use two floor jacks on the same side of the car and raise both wheels off the ground at the same time. Then make the front to back/back to front switch. Go to the other side of the car and do the same thing. It's quick and easy.

 

Me, I let the Prius rotate the tires... When I drive forward, they rotate that way, and then when I put it in Reverse, they rotate the other way.

 

Thanks for asking. Our hobby has been cars for many years, so we have three or four commercial size floor jacks. I use two of them at the jack points just behind the front wheel and just in front of the back wheel to raise both wheels off of the ground at the same time.

I loosen the lug nuts (just enough to break them loose) while the wheels are still on the ground, then raise the car just enough to get the tires off the ground. Then spin the lug nuts off. Take the wheels off, inspect the tires, and then move them front to back, etc., then spin the nuts back on till they stop, lower the car and tighten the nuts. Move to the other side of the car and repeat.

If I was actually going to work under the car, I would raise it much higher and use jack stands, for security, but just to rotate the tires, since I can jack up both ends at once, and since I am not under the car, I just use the jacks. If one of them should leak down a little, I just jack it back up when it's time to put the wheel back on.

If you are going to use only one jack, and want both wheels on one side of the car off the ground at the same time, you will need the jack stands.

There is one other way to do it, but it will take longer and require much more jack work. Take off one wheel then temporarily put on the spare. Go to the other wheel, jack it up and put on the wheel you removed. Let the car down and take the wheel you removed to where the spare is, jack it back up and put the wheel on. You get the idea. More work, but you don't really need jack stands. For safety, don't get any part of your body under the car. Should be no more risk than just changing a tire. It is a good idea to block one of the wheels on the side of the car that still has the wheels on the ground.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your car, aren't they great.

 

Don't forget that you need a torque wrench when you tighten up the lug nuts when you are through. For the cost of having your tires rotated by a professional ($20.00 tops) it may not be worth the investment to do it yourself,

 

I have torque wrench but I don't think it is mandatory at all.
The spec is about 75-90ft-lb. Just put your upper body strength on the OE-wrench with a push (says, you weigh 150-200lb). (Don't try to stand on the wrench, which is too much torque on the nuts.) It should be sufficient. After you drive it for a few miles, make sure you tighten all the nuts again. You would be surprised....

My suggestion is that rotating tires can be a workout. If your physical strength is not up to it, let people make the $20 and save you a lot of pains.

 

We replaced the OEM tires at Costco, and now they do all the rotating for me... and they ask that we come back in 50 miles or so to be re-torqued.

It's free, of course.

 

No, Costco wants to retorque the wheels after about 50 miles, just to make sure that they are snug.

It doesn't usually work for us, but I might stop in a couple of hundred miles later and have them do it.

 

i'm just gonna toss this out there because we diy rotated our tires for the first ~55k miles. when our replacement tires wore out early, i had a hard time getting credit under the treadwear warranty because we had no receipts for rotation. we had the new set installed somewhere that does lifetime free rotations.

 

A decent torque wrench is pretty reasonably priced so save the money and you can verify for yourself that the tires have been rotated and that the lug nuts have been properly torqued and the correct tire pressure f/r has been done. Its worth the piece of mind!

 

The proper tq for a toyota car is 76 footlbs.

i would have jacked up the front end. Put 2 jack stands under the pinchwelds. do the same to rears. Then move the Right Rear to Left Front, Left front to right rear. Right Front to Left Rear, Left rear to right front.

when i tq i would have stuck the spare under the front tire to keep it from moving. The rear i usualy put up the E brake.

 

hermitcrab, the car now has worse traction on the rear, which means the car is more likely to fishtail. This is dangerous. It's safer and less work not to rotate the tires, except as needed to keep the best two at the rear.

 

first, i pre loosen the lug nuts. have 12 volt hammer wrench, so it easy enough. i just use jack on back, go high enough to get both wheels off ground and swap em...

dont use jackstands, blocks, nothing. i am never under the car, the jack is on wheels, so i guess it could roll around a bit, but have rotated tires every 5,000 miles on nearly every car i have ever owned and have never had an incident...*knocks on plastic* (Zenn was only vehicle near by)

 

76 ft-lb

 

Should you criss-cross or should you just go back to front? I have WR-G2 which is assymetrical if that matters. I haven't rotated them yet as they were just installed. Which method is better?