How to Rotate Your Car's Tires

Rotating your vehicle's tires is one of the easiest and most important things to do to your vehicle. It increases yours and your family's safety and makes your tires last longer and wear better. Luckily for us, it is one of the few items of car maintenance that even the novice can do.

Items needed to rotate your tires:

• 2 Jacks
• 4 Jackstands
• Tire Iron or Star Wrench
• Air Gun and Compressor(opt)
• Lugnut Lube(opt)
• Flathead Screwdriver
• WD-40
• Wheel Chocks or blocks
• 6 Pieces of thick Plywood(opt)

Rotating tires can be a little messy, so wear older clothes that you don't mind getting dirty. If you want to, you can use a carpet remnant to kneel on while working on the car. This will keep you a little cleaner and protect you from the rough ground.

Set your vehicle up on a level surface and set the parking brake. Make sure the vehicle won't move by placing rocks or wheel chocks under the wheels. A concrete or asphalt driveway is fine as long as it is fairly even. Do not attempt this on a hill, that will make it unsafe.

Scissor jacks are not really that safe to use but if that's all you have go ahead and use it, but be very careful. It is always safer and better to get a mechanical floor jack. These are only about twenty bucks and are available at auto repair stores. Pump the jack up until it just lifts the vehicle but hasn't lifted the tires off the ground.

Place a jack on one side of your car. Looking at the vehicle, estimate the halfway point between the back and front. If on asphalt or another soft surface you may want put a board under each of the jacks and the jackstand so that it is steady and doesn't damage the asphalt. Set the jack right under the middle point of the vehicle under the hard, steel frame. Make sure it is sitting right under the car's frame and start pumping the jack up. Move to the other side of the vehicle and do the same thing with the other jack.

If you have hubcaps pry them off with the flathead screwdriver and then set them aside.

Now using your tire iron, star wrench, or pneumatic air gun, loosen the lugnuts on all four wheels. On some vehicles the lugnuts will loosen when turned to the right, on other vehicles, only when turned to the left.

Obviously, most people don't have air compressors but that really makes taking off the tires a lot easier. A star wrench is second choice because it gives you a lot more power to take off the lugnuts. A tire iron doesn't give you a lot of leverage so to improve it you might want to slip a piece of metal pipe over the end for more pulling power.

If you can't get the lugnuts loosened spray WD-40 on them and let them sit a few minutes, then try again. If you have a star wrench you might need to attach it to the stuck lugnut and then very carefully stand on one arm of the wrench and bounce. This should make the lug finally turn. It is nice to find out your lug nuts are stuck at home when you have more tools and also the ability to drive the vehicle to a tire place with an air compressor if you have to, instead of stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire you can't remove.

After loosening all the lug nuts, pump up the jacks and lift the vehicle in the air. Raise it slightly higher than the height of the jackstands. Set a jackstand under the frame of the car between one of the jacks and a wheel. Try to get it fairly close to the wheel. Make sure when the car is let down the frame will sit evenly on the jackstand top. Put another jackstand near the other wheel on that side and center it under the frame too. Do the same thing on the other side so that each of the four wheels has a jackstand under the frame right next to it.

Now slowly lower the jacks so that the vehicle is resting on the jackstands. Go slowly to make sure you have the jackstands evenly placed and that the car is balanced on top of them. After the car is sitting squarely on top of the jackstands make sure it is steady and move on to the next step.

Completely remove the lug nuts and then the tires from the car. As you take each of the tires off, place the lug nuts and the tire right next to the wheel well you took them off from.

Check out the inside of the wheel well. Make sure the brakes look okay and nothing looks broken or rusty. If it does you should take it in to an auto repair place and find out what's wrong with it and whether it should get fixed.

Take one of the front tires and move it to the back on the same side of the car. Never, never, never ever switch a tire from one side of the car to the other. That used to be how tires were rotated, but all tires on non-commercial vehicles in the US are now radials and if you change the direction the tire rolls in, the belts inside it could separate and rip up the bottom of your car.

Move each of the front tires to the back of the car on the same side and then move the back tires to the front.

Put one of the tires on the car and then if using it, apply some lug nut lube and put one lug nut on. The lug nut lube allows the lug nuts to be easier to remove in the future. Some people choose to use it and others don't. It is a matter of personal preference.

Place another lug nut on directly across the tire from the first and snug that on too. Working back and forth, replace all the lugnuts. Now tighten them all again. This will ensure they are evenly tightened and the tire is securely fastened.

Following the same procedure for all of them, remount all the tires.

Raise the vehicle up again and remove the jack stands.

Slowly lower the vehicle to the ground and remove the jacks.

Now that the entire vehicle’s weight is on the wheels tighten the lugnuts again. If you happen to have a torque wrench, tighten the lugnuts to the specs in your in your car manual or to about 80 psi. If you don’t have a torque wrench, tighten the lugnuts as tight as you can. When it is at the right tightness it should give off a squeaky sound. If you feel any doubts that you have them tight enough, or feel uncomfortable about how good of a job you’ve done on the rotation finish the tires and take it a tire store and ask them if they offer lugnut tightening for free. Many places off minor things like this. Don’t let them intimidate you for rotating your tires yourself. They make a lot of money off things like that and it is something just about anyone can do. If you can change a tire you can rotate them.

Replace the hubcaps. Before you do this you may want to write your name and phone number on the inside in case they ever fall off. Hubcaps can be expensive to replace and they fly off all the time so this at least gives you the chance to get yours back if you lose yours.

You may need to smack the hubcaps on with the palm of your hand or even gently tap them on with a cloth wrapped hammer. Work around the edge of the hubcap and make sure it has clipped on all the way around and then you’re done rotating your car's tires.

Warnings

• Large vehicles such as Suburbans or Tahoes or RVs are probably too difficult for beginners to do. Their weight requires stronger and better jacks and jackstands and if not lifted in the proper places can be unsteady. Play it safe and take these to a mechanic instead of doing it yourself.
• Always be careful when having a vehicle raised up on a jack. Never allow anyone to sit inside while the vehicle is lifted and never allow children on or around the vehicle while it is in the air.