Has anyone done their own tire rotation at home? And if so, is there any special procedure to follow if you have the tech package? I'm just wondering if you rotate them, if you have to tell the car that they've been rotated, otherwise afterwards, it may not show the correct position on the MID. I tried to do a search on this, but I wasn't very successful...

 

you do not have to do anything like that. I called my dealer when I put my snow tires on last fall and was told that nothing special need be done at all....... and all was fine when I put the wheel back on in no particular location............

 

I do it every 5,000 miles myself, just to make sure that I can get all the brake pad dust off the back of the rims, and to make it easier to get a good coat of wax on the rims. Makes it easier to get the brake dust off when washing the car.

No need to do anything other than to follow the rotation pattern in the owners manual, and torque the lug nuts down to 80 lbs ft.

 

Thanks to both of you! But now I'm so curious how the car is able to know that each tire has been moved. Maybe the sensor strength is only strong enough to send to a small area or something...

 

What's the proper method to rotate the tires. Front to back and not crossing sides?

 

Hey John50,
You put wax on your rims? I havent heard of that, but your explaination makes alot of sense. Do you use just reg car wax or something spcl? Do you put it only on the out side areas, or on the inside facing the brakes?

Pardon my simple questions.

 

good question. I've never thought about the particular corner locations of each of the TPMS...

 

I wonder, too. There is a sensor at each wheel, so it may just use relative power or whichever is changing the most as the wheels rotate since the closest one will by far have the most variation in power.

 

there is a sensor in each wheel and a reader antenna in each corner of the car in the wheel well.... so it doesn't care which sensor is which, it knows which antenna is where......

 

What if one changes hsi wheels?... do you know where these sensors are located and how do you move them to the new wheels?

 

the sensor is on the inside of the metal valve stem. you have to break the tire down from the bead seat of the wheel to remove the sensor to install in a different wheel. generally needs to be done with a tire changing machine.

 

I've used Meguiars's synthetic and Meguiar's paste carnuba wax on the wheels. On the inside and outside of the rims. Some people think that the carunuba wax holds up better higher temps the wheels see versus the body panels, but I haven't seen any published reports one way or the other.

The first time I rotated the tires myself, it was really difficult to get the stains off the backs of the rims, even though the wheels only had 5,000 miles on them.

Never had a problem since I started using the wax.

Might be worth asking Meguiar's website.

 

OK, perhaps dumb questions: but how do you perform the actual procedure? does one jack up two wheels at once? or include the spare tire in the switching of tires? anyone recommend a specific floor jack or jack stands to use? or just use the car jack (which seems a bit flimsy to me)? thanks.

 

good info. I took mine to discount tire, they did it for free since I replaced my tire there.

 

john50, may I ask how you got the stains off the back of the rims? I had trouble washing them off when I rotated my tires today. I like your idea of waxing the rims...if I could only get the stains off first

Some thoughts for others who are considering their own tire rotation or seasonal tire swap (winters -> all-seasons and vice versa):

- The stock Michelin Pilot MXM4's are non-directional, so technically they could go anywhere...for best / even wear, rotate as per blacurasuvnd9l's advice above.

- I recommend getting an easy-to-pump hydraulic jack, as using the jack stored with your spare in the trunk works well but it takes forever to raise and lower by hand

- You could do one wheel at a time; however, I like the idea of hoisting them all at once (better for balance / stability too).

 

most rims are painted and are suposed to be waxed nowdays. the last 3-4 cars ive-GF have owned recomended it.

 

Rotate the wheels front to back. Never cross sides. You can do it at home. It's easy, but a bit time consuming. You do not have to tell the car that you've rotated the tires. The TPMS in each wheel is the same, and the car will sense it no problem.

 

Waxing the rims is a great way to minimize brake dust, and maximize the ease of cleaning them. But, again, it's time consuming.

 

I have not checked my tires yet, but are they directionals? If so the cross rotation would be out of the question unless you dismount the tire.

 

Wow thanks for the tip on waxing the rims - good idea.

 

For OEM tires (HX MXM4 Michelins) the owner's manual recommends a cross-to-front rotate, i.e., fronts straight to the back, the backs cross to the front. This is opposite of the normal cross-to-rear of rear-drive cars. At least, this is what my 2009 manual says.

 

I rotate my own tires every 5,000 miles. I use a Heavy Duty floor jack and 4 jack stands and then follow the owners manual as to the rotation to follow for your particular vehicle.

 

just wanted to do my tire rotation correctly this wkend: princely bug states front to back, dcmodels states "x" like pattern = which one should i follow?

fyi, im still using the original stock tires i got for my rdx (10k travelled so far). i guess those are the michelin pilot hx mxm 4's (left car in home today so just quoting memory)

thank you

 

actually i just researched a bit more: our OEM stock tires are symmetrical in thread pattern, hence, does it actually matter how one rotates it?

 

Directional tires are rotated on the same side, front to back. Otherwise, follow the instructions in your owners manual.

 

The TPMS sensors have a very small/short range. That's why you can swap tires and the car doesn't complain or get confused. Each monitor only cares about the one sensor it has in it's range. My friend has a G35 with a full size spare (because it was an optional rim I think) and it has a TPMS sensor on it as well. When he puts the spare on the car the TPMS picks it up and ignores the one that he throws in the trunk. Now, the only reason I assume it's the same for our cars is because I used to have TL-S wheels on my Accord, and the TPMS sensors in those wheels were the same part as some of the Infiniti cars used. I thought it was pretty cool because I never thought about it until he got a flat, and I thought maybe his TPMS would continue to tell him that one wheel was flat.