How to Rotate Tires on a Front-Wheel-Drive Car
It's important to rotate tires on any vehicle according to the recommended maintenance schedules. However, front-wheel-drive vehicles are harder on the front tires compared with rear-wheel-drive vehicles. The torquing power of a front-wheel-drive transmission is on the front tires, and the front brakes account for up to 75 percent of the braking power. Also, the front tires are the steering tires, so they get more wear and tear. Rotating your tires every 5,000 to 10,000 miles will help make them last longer and enhance their performance.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Tire pressure gauge
- Air compressor (portable or otherwise)
- Air chuck
- Vehicle hoist or floor jack and four jack stands
- Lug wrench or 1/2-inch-drive impact gun with socket set
- Torque wrench or torque sticks (for impact gun)
Instructions
-
-
1
Locate the tire placard on the vehicle. It will reveal the recommended tire pressure for all the tires. In some instances, the rear and front tires use different air pressure because of weight distribution. The placard usually is on the driver's door jamb, but the information also can be found in the owner's manual for the vehicle.
-
2
Use the tire gauge to check and adjust the air pressure in all four tires. Since the tires are being rotated, adjust the rear tires to the recommended air pressure of the front tires and the front tires to the recommended air pressure of the rear tires (if they are different).
-
-
3
Inspect the sidewalls of the tires to determine if they are unidirectional tires, which would limit the way you'll need to rotate them. A directional arrow or the word "outside" stamped on the sidewall of the tires (in the natural forward rotation of the tires toward the front of the vehicle) will alert you that the tires are unidirectional.
-
4
Lift the vehicle with a hoist, or crack the lug nuts loose on all four tires with the lug wrench if using a floor jack and jack stands. Loosen the lug nuts before lifting. If using a hoist, use the impact gun to remove the lug nuts once the vehicle is off the ground. If lifting the vehicle onto jack stands, finish removing the lug nuts once the vehicle is off the ground.
-
5
Remove the two front tires, and rotate them straight back. This will place the driver's side front tire at the driver's side rear and the passenger-side front to the passenger side rear.
-
6
Remove the passenger-side rear, and rotate it to the driver's side front. Remove the driver's side rear and rotate it to the passenger-side front.
-
7
Replace the lug nuts, and use the impact gun with a torque stick to tighten the lug nuts to the recommended torque specifications for the front-wheel-drive vehicle (this information will be in the owner's manual). Use a diagonal pattern when torquing lug nuts to seat the lug nuts in their cradles more effectively. If using a hand torque wrench, snug the lug nuts as tight as you can, flush to the hub, and then re-tighten the lug nuts to torque specifications once the vehicle is back on the ground (again, applying the diagonal pattern).
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Unidirectional tires are designed to be placed on the vehicle in the natural forward motion of the vehicle. The tread pattern on these tires will form a "V" from the outer edge to the center of the tire. These tires should be rotated only in a front-to-rear formation, not crisscrossed as illustrated in the steps above. A front-to-rear rotation also is acceptable for non-directional, standard-tread tires.
You also should inspect the size of each tire before rotating (also stamped on the sidewalls of the individual tires). At no time should mix-matched tires be on the same axle. This can damage the transaxle when placed on a front-wheel-drive (or any other) vehicle when two different-size tires are on the drive axle because of height ratio. The tires should always be the same size--or, at the least, the same size per axle.
References
- Photo Credit tires on water image by JoLin from Fotolia.com
