How To : Inspect and rotate your tires

Tires are a very important part of vehicle maintenance as this is the only thing holding you to the road, so this section will tell you a little about that.

A lot of times people underestimate the importance of tire maintenance but I'm here to tell you...stop that. It's important. For this section you're going to need to add a few important tools to your collection. As always I recommend shopping around on Amazon, as I love saving money anywhere I can! Here's a few links to examples of what you want. You can substitute for anything equivalent. :

• Accutire MS-4021B Digital Tire Pressure Gauge - Durable, and easy to read
• Milton S448 Tire Tread Depth Gauge - Simple and Useful
• TEKTON 1/2-Inch Drive Torque Wrench, 10-150-Foot/Pound Inexpensive torque wrench
• TEKTON 1702 1/2-Inch Drive x 16-Inch Flex Breaker Bar
• Stanley 11 Piece 1/2-Inch Drive Metric Deep Impact Socket Set - Contains most popular lug nut sizes

The most basic part of tire maintenance is checking your air pressure. Now this isn't something you have to do every day but maybe once a week or every 2 weeks depending on how much you drive is a very good thing. Now if you look inside your drivers door there's a couple different door placards with various tid-bits about your car, one showing you air pressure.

This will tell you what they should be at cold. Meaning, check it in the morning or before you drive far. After you check this make sure if it's low you either fill it up yourself if you have a pump, or bring it somewhere you can. Be sure not to over-inflate it as this is just as bad as under-inflating them.

When you're checking the pressure in your tires is a good time to take note of how much tread you have left on them. If you have a tread depth gauge you can use this to check across the tire to see how much you have left. Most tires start at 10/32" and are considered past their usable life at 2/32". Be sure to look all the way across the tire as this is a great way to make sure you don't have any abnormal wear across the tire. If you notice a difference in tread across the tire, or any wavy or strange wear patterns bring it in to have your alignment checked as this can save the life of your tires.

Now we have decided we have good tires, and they have enough air...what else?

A very important part of tire maintenance is rotations. Why is this? Your front tires or the "steer tires" wear a lot faster than the rears. These are scrubbed across the road more when you are turning either way while the ones on the rear just follow along. By rotating the tires you ensure all 4 wear evenly and at a normal pace instead of 2 of them going bald while the other 2 have perfect tread! Having a matching set of 4 is always best. Rotation intervals vary by vehicle manufacturer so check with your manual to see when but every 6-10K miles is average.

If you have hub caps or center caps carefully pull or pry these off making sure not to stress them to the point of breaking. After that it's time to start removing the wheels. This is where you need your breaker bar. We will do this one side of the car at a time, so first step is to chock the wheels on the side you aren't working on. After you do this take your breaker bar with the appropriate socket and break all the lug nuts loose on that side before you lift the car up for safety. After they're all broken loose jack the car up in the front first by the pinch weld, and support it with a jack stand. Move the jack to the rear and do the same in front of the rear tire. Remove all lug nuts from each wheel and swap them front to rear using this as a good time to check for nails or any other issues with your tires. Be sure to spin on the lug nuts by hand a few turns first to make sure you don't cross-thread them, and then tighten them down snug with the breaker bar.

After this is done with both the front and rear tires go ahead and remove both jack stands and set the car down. After this you need to look in your owners manual, or call your dealer or any local tire shop for a torque specification. You'll want to set your breaker bar to this and tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern twice around on each wheel to ensure they seat properly.
After this is done move on to the next side and follow the same procedure and you're done!

Tire maintenance is a very basic but important part of taking care of your vehicle to make sure both yourself and your family are safe while you drive.

Thanks again for reading and as always any comments or suggestions are much appreciated!