Car Maintenance

It is very important that you rotate your vehicle tires on a regular basis. However this is one area of routine vehicle maintenance that often gets neglected. The result is tires that don’t last as long as they should though, and that means an added expense for you. Rotating your tires also means your vehicle is safer on the road and that can help avoid accidents especially with inclement weather.

The reasoning behind tire rotation is that the front and the back tires wear out in different ways. Your front tires will wear out faster than the rear ones due to the amount of power they supply for the entire vehicle.

It is important that you rotate your tires front to back on the same side. Some people criss cross them but this isn’t a good way to extend the life of your tires. Since the wear patterns of tires are determined by the suspension and the alignment of your vehicle they need to be on the same side so that pattern can continue.

You can find out how often you need to rotate your tires by looking in your vehicle owner’s manual. In general you will be looking at needing to do so every 5,000 to 10,000 miles. You can take care of this on your own or take your vehicle into a repair shop and have it done for a very low cost.

If you decide you want to rotate your tires on your own you need to do it properly for safety reasons. Make sure your engine is turned off and on a flat surface. The vehicle parking bake should be applied as a precaution. Use blocks on one side of the car to prevent it from moving. You will be working first on the side without the blocks.

Using a jack elevate the vehicle off the ground enough for both of the tires to be off the ground. Use a lug nut wrench to remove each one of them and then remove the tires. Make sure to take the time to examine each one before you place in on the other end of the vehicle. Your lug nuts need to be replaced tightly. Do the same procedure on the other side of the vehicle.