Ken Rogers

I've decided to perform all maintenance on my own. It's not that I'm cheap, but I'm a project guy. I will take pride in knowing that I've done it all on my own. I have a question about rotations. The maintenance schedule says to do it every 10,000km (6000 miles). I have taken wheels off before, but would like some guidance on performing a rotation. Here's what I'm planning on doing:

Loosen all lug nuts slightly (before jacking).
Jack up both the front and back of the car (4 jackstands).
Remove all nuts.
Move front left wheel to rear right, and and front right wheel to rear left.
Tighten all nuts as much as possible, using a "star" pattern for tightening.
Lower car to the ground for final tightening of all nuts.

Is this it in a nutshell? Can someone tell me if there's anything I've forgotten, or any troubles I may have with this?

Ken

puppet

Dont forget to crank the"I'm a Barbie girl" song while you're doing this...

Ken Rogers

I'm either too old or too stupid to get that

puppet

Read this

Ken Rogers

That's hilarious! I must have overlooked that thread.

tomsa55

I just had my tires rotated, just went from front to back, kept the tire rotation the same. By switching side, you reverse the tire rotation, when they first started coming out with multiply radials they had some high speed failures due to switching the rotation direction. Today even on jet aircraft, once a tire is mounted, you record the side of the plane its on and direction of rotation. When you rotate the tires, remove for repair, or what ever, you put em back on the same side or remount to maintain the same direction of rotation. I know the tire manufactures say you can rotate from front to back and side to side, but I don't. The wear pattern will not be even, but by then you'll be ready for a new set anyway.

I also get em re-balanced after about 10k miles, and have the car given a 4 wheel allignment once a year. With all the pot holes here in Missouri, it's hard to keep the alignment straight for more than a year or two.

I don't think your doing anything wrong, just be sure and torque down the lug nuts good before you drive off, can be real embarrassing to have a wheel go past you at the stop light and your hearing a loud scrapping sound, louder than even the barbie song full blast

djl0657

The FORD dealer did mine last oil change and they went CROSS (rf to lr, lf to rr). I am waiting impatiently for these BF GOODRICH's to wear to the point that I can justify buying GT take-offs.

I also use a digital gauge, reads out in 1/2 pound increments for a more exacting reading (I always check them cold in the garage, with NO sun on any of the tires).