How To: Rotate Your Tires

Submitted By: Henry Earl

Overview

Rotating your tires is an easy and inexpensive way to make your vehicle ride better and even out the wear on your tires.





Required Material

• 4 Jack Stands (can be done with two, but using four makes it much easier and safer)
• Lug wrench
• Torque wrench (reccommeded, but not necessary)
• Maintenance Manual for your Vehicle's Year/Make/Model (optional)

Procedure

1. Park vehicle on a solid, level surface.
   
   
2. Remove the hubcap by inserting end of lug wrench into the slot and wedging it out.
   
   
   
   
3. Loosen all the lug nuts with a lug wrench. DO NOT remove them. Loosening the lug nuts will make things much easier in proceeding steps as lug nuts are extremely hard to remove once the vehicle has been jacked up.
   
   
4. CHOCK EVERY WHEEL UNTIL THE VEHICLE IS OFF THE GROUND. Use a brick or a store bought chock. Pretty much anything that will keep your vehicle from rolling will work (this is a picture of the front tires, but its the same for your rears).
   
   
   
   
5. Jack up front end of the vehicle using the front cross-member.
   
   
   
   
6. Put jackstands under the jack tabs (both driver and passenger side, only driver side shown) on A-arms as shown.
   
   
   
   
7. SLOWLY lower the jack, bringing the tabs to rest on top of jackstands.
   
   
8. Use rear differential to lift up rear of vehicle. It is recommended that you place a piece of wood between the jack and the rear differential housing so as to avoid the possibility of bending the cover and creating a leak.
   
   
   
   
9. Place jackstands under rear axle tubes.
   
   
   
   
10. SLOWLY lower rear axle onto jackstands
    
    
11. Tighten the lug nuts using lug wrench (do not make them too tight, just tight enough so that the wheel is held in place against hub without movement)
    
    
12. Lower the rear end by reversing the procedure used to jack it up.
    
    
13. Put lug caps back into place (just hit them hard and they will go back on).
    
    
14. Lower front end by reversing the procedure used to jack it up.
    
    
15. Use a torque wrench (set to 95 ft-lbs) to tighten lug nuts. If you do not have a torque wrench, use the lug wrench to tighten the lug nuts. In either case, be sure to tighten the nuts using a star pattern (go in order shown below).
    
    
    
    
16. Put lug caps back into place (just hit them hard and they will go back on)
    
    

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