How to Do a Tire Rotation Yourself

It is imperative to rotate your tires on schedule, whether you want to rotate your tires yourself or prefer to hand off your Kia vehicle to your local service experts. Rotating your tires on a consistent basis can extend the life of your tires, and allows you to get better traction when you’re driving down the roads of Omaha, NE. Learn how to rotate or change your tires at home in Bellevue, NE with this guide from Edwards Kia and help your tires last.

Why is Tire Rotation Important?

Tires can wear unevenly due to many different factors, including driving conditions and driver habits. Typically, front tires wear more quickly than rear tires, due to the impact the outer edges of the front wheels experience when turning. If you never change your tires from their original positions, your tires would wear down at different rates, leading to a rougher ride and the need to replace your tires sooner.

How Often Should You Rotate Your Tires?

Typical car service guidelines suggest that you rotate your tires every 5,000-7,500 miles for front and rear-wheel drive, and every 3,000-5,000 miles for all-wheel drive. Since all-wheel drive vehicles engage all four tires when driving, this leads to faster wear down than cars that only actively engage two wheels. However, refer to your owner’s manual for a suggested schedule for your specific model.

The Importance of Tire Position

• FWD Tires: When it’s time to rotate your tires, move the front tires to the back of the car, keeping their left/right positions the same. When it’s time to move the rear tires to the front, swap their positions so that the left tire is on the right and the right tire goes to the left.

• RWD Tires: The opposite applies when it comes to RWD vehicles. The rear tires are able to be moved to the front of the car without changing their left/right positions, but when moving the front tires to the rear, switch the positions of the left and right tire.

• 4WD/AWD Tires: For these vehicles, you want to swap the tires with the ones directly across from them. So the front left should be swapped with the rear right, and swap the front right tire with the rear left.

How to Rotate Your Tires at Home

In order to try rotating your tires at home, you will need a car jack, a lug nut wrench, and a set of jack stands. With these tools you can follow these six simple steps:

1. Make sure to engage your parking brake just to be safe.
2. Loosen the lug nuts on all four wheels, but don’t remove them just yet. This way, it will be much easier to fully unscrew them once the tire is elevated.
3. Start by lifting up one wheel with your car jack and placing the jack stand underneath. Repeat this step with the other three tires.
4. Fully remove the lug nuts and remove each tire.
5. As you do this, make sure your tires are at the optimal tire pressure. Fill them if needed, then rotate them according to the appropriate pattern for your type of tires. Replace the tire onto the wheel mount and screw the lug nuts back on as far as you can by hand.
6. Lower the car back to the ground and use the lug wrench to fully tighten the nuts. To ensure even tightening, tighten the nuts across from each other, following a star pattern. The brake rotor can warp if the lug nuts aren’t tightened evenly, so this is a crucial step.

Let Us Rotate Your Tires at Edwards Kia

If rotating your tires yourself still seems intimidating, there’s no need to worry. The Edwards Kia service experts can perform your tire rotation for you. Take advantage of our service specials, and then schedule your service appointment at our Council Bluffs service center today!