DIY Tire Rotation?

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dogememe

dogememe

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Whether you go to your local Iffy Lube or do your own oil changs, you're tires don't rotate themselves, so clearly it's not THAT important...

But how much does it really matter? And if you do rotate your tires every oil change and you do it yourself, what's the fastest way?

Personally, I have an electric impact wrench, I have those torque-stick things not to over-torque the lugs, and I have "normal, boring" vehicles that have the same tire and wheel sizes all the way around, but I would literally have to jack up the whole vehicle, put it on jack stands, IDK how to do that safely, easily, and quickly...
 
I've got a two post lift. Drive in, lift it up, remove drain plug, rotate tires, replace drain plug, replace filter, check tire pressure, drop it down, torque the lug nuts.

Before I had the lift, I'd put everything up on 4 jackstands, and basically follow the same procedure.
 
Discount Tire. Quick, easy and free. Added bonus - the lifts they use don't bend the pinch welds.
 
Originally Posted By: dogememe
Whether you go to your local Iffy Lube or do your own oil changs, you're tires don't rotate themselves, so clearly it's not THAT important...

But how much does it really matter? And if you do rotate your tires every oil change and you do it yourself, what's the fastest way?

Personally, I have an electric impact wrench, I have those torque-stick things not to over-torque the lugs, and I have "normal, boring" vehicles that have the same tire and wheel sizes all the way around, but I would literally have to jack up the whole vehicle, put it on jack stands, IDK how to do that safely, easily, and quickly...


every 5000 miles at Costco. Rotate and balance for free with purchase.
 
I rotate my own tires, it gives me the opportunity to check suspension, brakes, etc. With air tools, jacks and stands it is easy and fast. No worries of over torquing, waiting, and then having to mark tires to make sure it was done if I don't have the time to sit and baby sit the vehicle. I had one incident with paying a dealer to do a tire rotation and them swearing up and down they did it when in fact they didn't. Catching them in a lie was real easy when I showed the service writer how I marked the tires. Then just last month I had to lend my buddy a 2' breaker bar and 5' cheater pipe to get his wheel off because the shop that did his brakes and tire rotation torqued them to an amount that was impossible to remove any other way. I will continue to do as much of my own work as long as I physically can.
 
Originally Posted By: NYEngineer
I rotate my own tires with two floor jacks. Takes about 15 minutes.


I do this as well, just swapping front and back. I rotate every 7K miles with every other rotation being done at Discount Tire for rebalancing of the tires. There are arguments that can be made for and against tire rotation.
 
I have done my own rotations using a single small jack, a jack stand, and a "sacrificial tire/wheel" from my winter set. I follow the suggested rotation pattern from my owner's manual. It's a crummy job and takes a while, for sure.
The winter tires are on for a relatively short time so I just mark them to be rotated the next time they go on.
I'm not a fanatic about rotating, but I don't like it when I notice my front summer tires have a lower tread depth than the backs (even happens with the Subaru AWD).
 
Originally Posted By: funkymonkey1111
Originally Posted By: dogememe
Whether you go to your local Iffy Lube or do your own oil changs, you're tires don't rotate themselves, so clearly it's not THAT important...

But how much does it really matter? And if you do rotate your tires every oil change and you do it yourself, what's the fastest way?

Personally, I have an electric impact wrench, I have those torque-stick things not to over-torque the lugs, and I have "normal, boring" vehicles that have the same tire and wheel sizes all the way around, but I would literally have to jack up the whole vehicle, put it on jack stands, IDK how to do that safely, easily, and quickly...


every 5000 miles at Costco. Rotate and balance for free with purchase.


the same goes here; plus they use hydrogen on tires, and if there is leak they'll fix it
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Discount Tire. Quick, easy and free. Added bonus - the lifts they use don't bend the pinch welds.


Same here. It is included in the purchase. Every 7000 miles or so I stop by and they do it.
I am actually due on both my vehicles.
 
There are some things on my cars I don't do myself; so if it's been 5-to-10K since the last rotation, I'll have my guy do it while it's there. Otherwise, I do it for many of the same reasons noted above; inspect brakes, look for other abnormalities, etc. I just use the spare as a temporary placeholder while I work my way through it - no big deal.

Even after someone services the car or soon after getting new tires, I like to check that the wheels are torqued to spec.

And I think it matters. When I've had tires wear out prematurely, it sure seems like I didn't rotate enough.
 
I usually rotate once year and I check the brakes at the same time on the Gen Coupe. I can only go side to side as the front and rear are different sizes.

The Accent gets winter and summer tires so I just mark where they were last and place them in a different spot when changing for the season. I usually use a tire depth gauge to determine if they should go front or back. The deepest tread goes in the front as that's where the wear is fastest.
 
Originally Posted By: miden851
Originally Posted By: funkymonkey1111
Originally Posted By: dogememe
Whether you go to your local Iffy Lube or do your own oil changs, you're tires don't rotate themselves, so clearly it's not THAT important...

But how much does it really matter? And if you do rotate your tires every oil change and you do it yourself, what's the fastest way?

Personally, I have an electric impact wrench, I have those torque-stick things not to over-torque the lugs, and I have "normal, boring" vehicles that have the same tire and wheel sizes all the way around, but I would literally have to jack up the whole vehicle, put it on jack stands, IDK how to do that safely, easily, and quickly...


every 5000 miles at Costco. Rotate and balance for free with purchase.


the same goes here; plus they use hydrogen on tires, and if there is leak they'll fix it


Ummmm They use Hydrogen???? LOL I think you mean Nitrogen. Which is a sales gimmick. Air is 78% Nitrogen, using "dry nitrogen" will do nothing at all unless you are racing a Formula 1 car where having 1 psi difference between tires is critical.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
I rotate my own tires, it gives me the opportunity to check suspension, brakes, etc. ..


Exactly. 4 (or 5) quick tire changes and less than an hour. Get a little bit of a workout in, have a couple beers and ready for another 10k miles.
 
I rotate my tires at every oil change. All vehicles are done the simple front to back. The two VAG products and the honda all have wide open aluminum wheels and my OCD requires that take them off one at a time and clean the inside of the break dust and road tar. The Audi especially as the clearance btwn the wheel and the caliper is very tight and cant be cleaned on the car unless you clean as much as possible, reenter the vehicle and back it up a foot or so to get the rest of it.
I now have two nice floor jacks and 4 jack stands so i can knock it out quickly now but when i was younger, without those things i would simply get the car jack out and the spare take the back wheel off put the spare on, move back to front and front to back. This also made sure the spare was looked at and checked for pressure.
 
Gather from the tool chest:
Floor jack, electric impact gun, wheel chock (driveway is slightly inclined)

Chock a front wheel.
Jack the back-swap rears.
Do one side swapping front to rear.
Relocate the chock.
Do the other side swapping front to rear.

My tires show no characteristic front tire "shoulder wear". Nice and even.
I get to inspect things and my tires last longer.
If I had a mounted spare I'd get 20% more wear.
 
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