How to Do a Tire Rotation Yourself

Whether you choose to rotate your Chevy’s tires yourself, or take your Buick or Cadillac to a local service center, you don’t want to skip having your car’s tires rotated regularly. Rotating a car’s tires on a regular basis provides better traction on Prescott roads, extends the life of the tires, and more. Contact us to set up a tire rotation appointment today, or keep reading to find out how to do a tire rotation yourself, to keep your tires rolling as long as possible.

Why is Tire Rotation Important for My Vehicle?

As you drive around Zumbrota, your tires experience wear and tear. However, they don’t all wear evenly or even at the same rate. The outside edges of the front tires wear faster than the inside, while rear wheels wear more evenly across their treads. If you don’t rotate your tires, they’ll wear down at different rates, meaning you’ll have to replace them sooner.

How Often Should I Rotate My Tires?

How often you should rotate your tires depends on your vehicle’s drivetrain. Front- and rear-wheel drive vehicles generally need their tires rotated every 5,000–7,500 miles. In contrast, all-wheel drive vehicles require tire rotations every 3,000–5,000 miles, because all their tires are actively engaged and wear faster. As with any vehicle service, we always recommend checking your owner’s manual for a specific tire rotation schedule recommendation.

How to Rotate Your Tires at Home

While you can always come to Red Wing Chevrolet’s service center for a tire rotation, it’s fairly straightforward to do it at your Cannon Falls home as well. To rotate your own tires, you’ll need the following equipment:

• Car jack
• Lug nut wrench
• A set of jack stands

Once you have all the necessary equipment, follow these steps to rotate your tires:

1. Engage your parking brake for safety.
2. Loosen the lug nuts on all four wheels, but don’t take them all the way off. This makes unscrewing them when the tires are elevated easier.
3. Jack up your car and position each jack stand to support the vehicle. Consult your owner’s manual for proper jack stand positioning.
4. Remove the tires one by one. Take this opportunity to ensure they’re each filled with the optimal tire pressure.
5. Rotate your tires according to the appropriate pattern below. Place each tire back onto the wheel mount and hand-tighten the lug nuts.
6. Lower the car from the jack stands and use the lug wrench to tighten the nuts. Tighten the nuts diagonally in a star pattern to ensure even tightening.

How to Rotate Tires: Tire Rotation Patterns

Depending on the type of tires you have and the drive type of your car, you’ll want to move each tire to a different position in a given pattern:

• Directional tires, which only roll in one direction, must stay on the same side of the vehicle. Swap your front and back left tires, as well as your front and back right tires.
• Front-wheel drive non-directional tires: Non-directional tires roll in either direction, and the pattern you use depends on your car’s drive. In a front-wheel drive vehicle, the rear tires move diagonally to the front (back left to front right, back right to front left), and the front tires move straight back (front left to back left, front right to back right).
• Rear-wheel drive non-directional tires move in a similar pattern to front-wheel drive, but reversed. The rear tires move straight to the front (back left to front left, back right to front right), and the front tires move diagonally backward (front left to back right, front right to back left).

Learn More About How to do a Tire Rotation at Red Wing Chevrolet

Not quite ready to rotate your tires yourself? The trained service technicians at Red Wing Chevrolet can handle it for you! We offer a variety of service specials for our Red Wing customers to save even more money on service! Schedule your service with us today!