MrOtocinclus

After gaining enough knowledge through the Internet and especially AcuraZine, I decided to try and take a stab at rotating my tires. Although I had gathered as much information as I could, there were still some questions on my mind which I could not answer. Fortunately, they were answered as I performed the job. The job itself was a success and to give back to the community I am making this post to provide information to other first timers who may also be considering working on their own cars.

Please feel free to reply with comments, suggestions, and criticism.

Tools Used

I used the following tools to perform the tire rotation:

3-ton floor jack
2 3-ton jack stands
Telescoping lug nut wrench (1/2" drive)
Torque wrench (1/2" drive)
Locking nut key
3/4" hex to 1/2" drive socket
1/2" square to 1/2" drive extension

I bought the jack and stands from Sears, and everything else from Amazon.



General Procedure

The general procedure for the passenger side is as follows:

1. Loosen the lug nuts on each of the passenger side wheels.
2. Jack up the front of the car.
3. Place a jack stand underneath the front-passenger jacking point.
4. Lower the front of the car onto the jack stand.
5. Repeat for the rear.
6. Remove each wheel.
7. Re-install the rear wheel on the front and the front wheel on the rear.
8. Jack up the rear of the car.
9. Remove rear jack stand.
10. Lower the rear onto the ground.
11. Repeat for the front.

Repeat this entire process for the driver side.

Detailed Procedure

The procedures above seem simple enough, but for me, a person with no experience working on cars, I learned a few things which I will share here.

The first thing before even starting this project is having the right tools. It seems that wrenches are the tool du jour for cars, and even then there are so many different types that it's difficult to know what to get. It turns out that there are "one size fits all" wrenches which use adapters depending on the type of bolt you're trying to turn. So, the wrenches I got are both 1/2" drive wrenches, which means the square peg (the drive, presumably) that sticks out of them measures 1/2" on each side, or 1/4 square inches (you will find that sq. inches is usually not used to describe these tools, but rather the "diameter"). The lug nuts are hexagonal and 3/4" in diameter, which means we use an adapter that goes from that 1/2" square to the 3/4" hexagon. One of these adapters is pictured below:


In addition, this was my first time using a torque wrench. Basically, it's the same as any other wrench except when the specified torque has been reached, it clicks to let you know you're there. The end of the torque wrench handle can be turned to whatever torque setting a particular application requires. There is a dial which then locks this setting in place so that you won't accidentally change the setting. Here, I've set the torque wrench to 80 foot-pounds, which is Acura's specification for the lug nuts:


So, using my telescoping lug wrench with the 1/2" drive to 1/2" square extension attached, and the 1/2" drive to 3/4" hexagon adapter attached to that, I loosened each lug nut, i.e. pulled on the wrench until it actually moved (half a turn according to page 460 of the Owner's Manual), and then stopped.

The telescoping feature of the wrench comes in handy because it's much easier to loosen the nuts using a wrench with a longer handle to provide the extra leverage. I tried to turn one of the lugs with the lug wrench that's included with the spare tire, and it was much more difficult. Plus, there wasn't much clearance between the stock lug wrench and my wheels. In this picture you can see the wrench in use before I figured out I could use an extension:


With the lug nuts loosened, it was time to jack up the car. But where do you place the jack beneath the car, and how the heck do you use the jack?! I have seen mechanics pump the handle to lift the car up, but I could never figure out how the car lowered back to the ground. Was there some sort of switch? It turns out that the handle itself is what makes this happen. There is a gear at the end of the handle which turns another gear which relieves the hydraulic pressure which lowers the car. Brilliant!

That means the first thing to do before jacking up the car is to turn the jack handle clockwise until it can no longer be turned. Make sure that the gear is actually turning and not just the plastic cover on the handle (oops). Next, place the jack so that the circular part that contacts the car is underneath the jacking point in the front of the car. Where is the jacking point? Thanks to TheDarkKnight for asking this question a long time ago in these forums and posting a picture of it. I have included a picture of my own:


Now you can pump the handle and lift the car up. It's rather exciting and scary if it's your first time. Lift the car until you can place the jack stand underneath the front side jacking point, pictured below and detailed on page 461 of the Owner's Manual:


Then, carefully and slowly turn the handle on the jack counterclockwise to slowly lower the car onto the jack stand. I don't know if it's my jack but it seems like if I turn the handle quickly the car will drop really fast which makes me nervous, so I elected to do the slow turn.


Repeat this for the rear, using the tow hook as the jacking point.


That's it! We've successfully lifted and lowered one side of the car on to jack stands. We can now proceed with removing the lug nuts and wheels. Also, note that if I had 2 additional jack stands I could have jack stands on all 4 corners of the car and save myself the extra lifting/lowering for each side of the car.

Removing the wheels is straightforward. Just unscrew each lug nut with your wrench and then pull the wheel off, being careful not to damage the wheel stud threads. Be aware that the wheel could be rather heavy; I had a hard time even with 2 hands.

Now, roll the rear wheel to the front, and the front wheel to the rear, and put the wheels back on, one at a time. Be careful not to confuse which wheel is which. On mine you could tell which ones were the rear because of the lack of contact on the outside of the wheel due to negative camber:


Screw the lug nuts back on in a star pattern (page 462 of the Owner's Manual) until they are finger tight (i.e. don't use the wrench yet). If there isn't a lot of clearance for your fingers do what I did and use the adapter from the wrench.

With both wheels back on it's time to get the car back on the ground. Jack the car up until you can remove the jack stands, and then lower the car back to the ground. Something I learned here was that you don't have to completely jack the car up past the "U" shape of the jack stand. As long as the car is higher than the bottom of the "U", you can pull the lever on the jack stand to drop the "T" down and then remove the stand. Saves a little time and energy.


With the car back on the ground it's time to tighten (or in pro-speak, "torque") the lug nuts. Make sure the torque wrench is set to 80 foot-pounds (as specified on page 462 of the Owner's Manual), then tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern. It also helps to think of it as tightening the lug nut directly opposite the one you just did.

If I had 4 jack stands, I would have been done, but since I only had 2, I just repeated the above for the driver's side.

When finished have someone observe your wheels while you drive down the block to make sure they were re-installed properly and aren't wobbly or weird looking. If you haven't checked your tire pressure in awhile, it would also be a good opportunity to do so. I knew that from summer to fall with the falling temperature my tire pressure was lower than desired, so I went to the gas station and filled my tires back up to 37 PSI, because I have 19-inch wheels (Thanks to HeavyDuty for offering the 2 PSI per inch increase in wheel diameter rule). Stock PSI is 33 per the label in the door jamb.

Conclusion

This was a really fun and educational project for me. I actually spent more time looking inside the wheel well after I took the wheels off than doing the job itself. It was amazing how huge it looked without the wheels; I didn't expect all that stuff behind the wheel fitting back there because usually the wheels look so small relative to the car (I could even fit my head in there!). I got a chance to look inside the calipers and see my brake pads (I'd read about how brakes work previously but never actually saw the real thing). I saw the brake lines and the bleeding screw. I saw my Eibach springs and how big (fat diameter) they actually were. I saw where the oil pan was.


I had been previously unsure of whether I could do my own oil change, but after completing this project I'm a lot more confident that I'll be able to do it. I believe it will be a lot easier than rotating the tires as I won't have to do any heavy lifting.

So, in conclusion, if you have never done anything on your car before but would like something easy to start off with, please give tire rotation a try! You could save yourself a little money, and learn a bunch of stuff about your car at the same time.

I would like to thank the AcuraZine community, especially the 2nd-gen TSX guys for helping to make this post possible. Also, a big thank you to my wife for helping me with the job, for keeping me from getting squashed by my car, and for reminding me to tighten the bolts in a star pattern!

ttk5

Very nice detailed write up and the pictures really helped too. Thanks for taking the time out to do this, im sure it will come in very handy for anyone looking to do rotate their tires.

btw nice rims.

EUROBRO

good write up dude! very details and helpful now everyone can do their own tyre rotation and save some moneyyyy for mods LOL

09TSXTech

Great writeup with helpful pictures.

Working on one's car does give you a better understanding on how things operate. Keep up the good work.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

09TSXTech

Just one quick word of caution when lifting the rear using the tow hook as the rear jackng point. The tow hook has a narrow surface area, ensure the hydraulic jack is line up properly or else a slip would bend the tow hook or worst case puncture the gas tank.

Again, great job. Can't wait to see your writeup on oil/filter change.

HeavyDuty

Good job! It's funny how when you start, stuff like this and other tasks become less daunting and your increased confidence will lead you to explore other things on the car.

scooterb84

iTrader: (1)

Very nice write up. Printed that sucker out

MrOtocinclus

Thanks for the comments, everyone. 09TSXTech, any suggestions for an alternate jacking location?

Also, I have a few more points that I forgot to include in the original post:

1) Wear a facemask if possible. Afterwards when I blew my nose there was all this black stuff that came out. I'm thinking I probably inhaled some brake dust which is most likely hazardous to my health.

2) Wear gloves unless you want to wash your hands 3 or 4 times to get all the grease/dirt off.

3) Try to exercise a bit every day a few days before you do the job, or else you'll be sore afterwards!

patcracks

you can jack in the front and rear why jack from the tow hook? Awesome write up and dope rims!

MrOtocinclus

Thank you. Could you be more specific as to where to jack in the rear?

HeavyDuty

I've always used the rear hoop too. If the fronts are chocked they're enough of a...balance to prevent a tilting or twisting or whatever.

Edit: That is to say as a jacking point to insert your jack stannds, don't try to work on it like that.

09TSXTech

I used the tow hook also when I need to raise both rear wheels at the same time. I just put a note of caution when jacking the tow hook.

I think your tyres are directional so rotation calls for front to back and not side to side. In that situation, as patcrack may elude to, you only need to jack the car up on the side and both front and rear wheels can then be swapped.

MrOtocinclus

Ah, OK, thanks for the advice.

Yes, this is the part that confused me. How do I jack the car up on the side? I am assuming that only the front or rear jacking points can hold the weight of the car. If I use the front-passenger jacking point to jack the car up, can I place the jack stand under the rear-passenger jacking point when the car is high enough? How would I then place a jack stand under the front-passenger jacking point?

I guess the real question is, what is the way to just jack the car up once and be able to place jack stands on both the front and rear jacking points at the same time?

09TSXTech

Since you are not going underneath the car, with one end on jack stand and the other on the hydraulic and/or scissor jack, you can then do the front to back tire rotation. Remember, that's how you would change a flat tire (although that's for one tire change only so there's no need to use jack stand for the other jacking point).

Never rely on hydraulic and/or scissor jack as support if you are working underneath a vehicle.

tsx-pwp-nj

Very nice writeup.
I noticed you have unidirectional tires, so your front to back, back to front is correct.
My car hit 5000 miles recently, and I rotated the tires too using a different pattern and procedure than you did that might help others.
The pattern from the manual for non-unidirectional tires is fronts to back, and backs to front switching sides. Back passenger to front drivers side, and back drivers side to passenger front side.
I started by jacking up the front drivers side, and removing the wheel. I then put the spare on. I then moved around to each wheel finishing up with moving the passenger back to the drivers side front.
You can see that by using the spare, you don't need jack stands and can rotate the tires by yourself and save a few bucks.

Tishkevich

iTrader: (3)

hmm yeah, i was gonna say wheres teh crossing in the rotation, I never knew about uni-directional tires till just now when I googled it.. now I gotta double check and make sure i haven't been rotatin gmy tires the wrong way Maybe I was suppose to be doin git like this! o noes

Tishkevich

iTrader: (3)

yerp i'm a dummy.. we got the same tires i've been rotating them cross patterned all along

MrOtocinclus

Yeah, I wrote the guide without thinking in more general terms. I just knew that I had directional tires and completely forgot that if I were stock I would have done the criss-cross rotation. Still, the information is in the owner's manual.

Also, I forgot to put a disclaimer... so here it is now: I am not responsible for any damage and/or injury caused while attempting to follow this guide! This guide is not definitive, follow it at your own risk. Always read the manual before proceeding with working on your car.

Tishkevich, sorry to learn of your rotation error, but I doubt it caused much damage. I've always thought that the tires are directional for channeling water away when it rains. Everything on your car seems fine now and you've realized the mistake, so as they say, it's all good!

patcracks

so what direction are the stock wheels? I took my old rims off and put my stock wheels back on in no particular order...am i gonna be in trouble in a few weeks?

MrOtocinclus

Please see page 451 of the Owner's Manual for the direction to rotate non-directional tires. Basically, the fronts go to the back, and the back tires go to opposite sides of the front.

You'll be perfectly fine. Tire rotation is not a strict necessity. It just maximizes your tire life and usage and as a result ends up saving you some money in the long run. There are people who run staggered directional setups and they cannot rotate their tires at all, with no detriment other than a dent in their wallet because their tires won't last as long as someone else who could rotate their tires.

09TSXTech

^^Absolutely correct. You are going to be the man to turn to when it comes to tire rotation.

patcracks

cool your the man....hopefully you tackle many more projects for the tsx!!!

lyonheart

Those were great instructions.....well done!

Question: I've been rotating tires for years but I've never rotated tires on my 2007 Acura TL. Today, I attempted it but I couldn't get the rear wheel off! I removed the center cap thinking there was a lock there but I didn't see anything. Does anyone know how to remove the rear wheel?

Thanks!

HeavyDuty

Stupid question, but you got the lug nuts off, right?

If it wouldn't come off after removing the nuts, it's just kinda corroded on there. Beat the sidewall with your fist or a rubber mallet and it'll come off. I'd put one lug nut on loosely so the wheel doesn't fall off on it's face on the ground.

DiaBando

iTrader: (3)

Good write-up, MrOtoc.

^ HD; I'd look forward to your write-up on how to get the S&W and leatherman in the glovebox.

lyonheart

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I removed all of the lug nuts. I jerked on the tire/wheel good enough to shake the car pretty good. I was a little concerned that I might knock it off the jack stand so I quit. I've never seen anything like this. The car is only 2.5 years old and the dealer rotated the tires before so I don't think there's any rust/corrosion. The hub and everything was very clean.

dave_ramkumar

iTrader: (5)

HeavyDuty

The factory wheels are hubcentric, meaning the exact outside diameter of the hub where the wheel mounts is the exact inside diameter of the wheel. So, it's going to be a snug fit, but not worth losing a leg or damaging the car if it's that hard to remove.

lyonheart

Thanks HD.....I did notice that too. I called the dealer today and they confirmed that there's nothing else in the center hub holding it on and also said that they can be hard to remove sometimes. I'm not giving up though.......giving it another shot!

ed_423

bump

just did my very first tire rotation today, very helpful thread!

1 question:

is it hard for you guys to loosen the lugs? i torqued them to 80lb every time, and when i loosen my lugs today, it feels like i don't need to use TOO much effort in loosening them.

few weeks ago, i went to rescue my friend with a blown tire and helped him change it, but his lugs were ridiculously hard to loosen, i even step on the wrench and the lugs just wouldn't budge!

so im just wondering...is 80lb supposed to be easy to remove? or im doing something wrong? i torque them once after putting wheels on, drive around the block, then torque them again.

thank's guys!

PyroDave

more often then not, mechanics and dealers just use an airgun to put the lugs on, its alot faster, but its wrong. if you have an airgun and you just do "voom voom kakakaka" kinda thing, where you just tighten until you cant anymore, you have just overtightened your lugs. they dont torque it to 80lb, which is likely what happened to your friend. this happened to my friend a few months ago, and his beemer has the "x" wrench, and i ended up standing on one side of the x's, and even bouncing a bit, lug did not budge. when 225 pounds jumps on a wrench, and the lug doesn't move, theres a problem

Robert4

I work at a tire and service shop and do tire rotations all the time. I offer a few items of experience:

If you have aftermarket wheels, pay attention to the hub centering rings. They may stay in the wheel or on the car's hub when you remove a wheel.Use a little anti-seize lube on the hub. Clean it with a bar-b-que brush if it's corroded. The wheels won't get stuck to the hubs in the future.

The easiest way to get a stuck on wheel off is a few sharp raps with a ball peen hammer on the back of the wheel while slowly turning it. Rubber hammers often won't work. Be careful not to hit any brake parts.

I does no harm to cross rotate directional tires. The possible reduction in hydroplaning resistance is debatable. Being in the business, I would urge people to avoid directional tires whenever possible. Regular cross rotation can make a big improvement in tire life and smoothness.

PyroDave

i actually changed a girls tire yesterday(fucking toyota). anyway, car jacked up, lugs off, i tug at the wheel and nearly pull the fucking car off the jack, so i google what to do, ofcourse first answer is on a prius website. put the lugs back on, lower the car, loosen the lugs about 5 turns, drive a few feet back and forth braking hard, you'll hear when it breaks loose. jack the car back up, wheel will pop off. my TSX has never had that problem though

MrOtocinclus

Wow, holy necro thread revival. I would say that with regular rotations, the wheel getting stuck to the hub is a very remote possibility. I've never had this issue, but then again I rotate every 3k.

Ed, it should not be difficult to remove lugs if they were torqued properly. I think it's generally good practice though to re-torque the lugs a week after putting them on. It looks like you know what you're doing!

Edit: Can't believe how far I've come since I first posted this thread.

ed_423

thanks guys

and mroto you definitely did! and im trying to follow your path and achieve more DIY maintenance

HondoGermany

Haha, almost 3 years since first post.
Mr.Oto, I think no one ever read this great DIY till now.LOL

@ ed
Why you rotate your tyres, I think you are searching for new wheels, or have I missed something?

mrstak

iTrader: (1)

LOL...ed's been searching for wheels since before he got his car. his quest is never ending because he'll find one he likes...but right as he's about to order it, he'll see an ad off the side with a different wheel that will make him second guess his purchase. and he'll start reconsidering and not pull the trigger. it happens about once a month and is a vicious cycle.

and if that doesn't happen, we can just tell him that it looks ugly and he won't buy it. he's easily persuadable.

HondoGermany

Poor ed, next time he will post a new wheel he found, we all have to told him they look awesome, no matter if they do or not.LOL
But serious ed, I think you will make a perfect decision on your wheels, better take your time. I know a few friends buying rims which they dont like after a month.
I was looking a month every day at least 1-2 hours, dont ask me how my wife was pissed when I asked her what she thinks on this or that wheel everytime. But the good result was that she screams at me - Buy those fucking rims and leave me alone - and so I did.LOL

ed_423

LOL i already ordered it actually its one of the 2 i talked to you about hondo

and i rotate my tires because i was due for a rotation, and that after i install my coilover i have some camber and do not want stock tires to wear out

can't wait till my wheels arrive though!!