Floor Jack/Tire Rotation

I remember back in the day that over-torqued lug nuts supposedly could cause warped rotors, thats why I always rotated my tires myself. I guess now I have to worry about the factory doing it incorrectly - I should just rip off all the hubcaps and check this.

 

The Gen III has a front lift point and a rear lift point for use with floor jacks - see page 423 of the manual. (and don't forget to set the parking brake and chock the tires)

 

And don't ask me why they put that in-between other sections which have nothing to do with changing the tires - or why the tire-changing section is completely separate...

 

That's great except that you normally rotate tires front-to-rear, not side-to-side.

 

And that is great too, but it can be useful for removing the rear tires to put on the mud flaps, or if one of your tires goes flat, so it certainly has validity.

 

Absolutely.

 

i must be tired, because i don't get it. can someone please explain how to jack the whole side with a floor jack?

i tried them and it's a big hassle to use those points while trying to do wheel rotation (i had to raise/lower the car 5 times). to be honest, it's simpler to do just the scissor jack as one needs to lift just a corner and not half of car like with the floor jack.

as a matter of fact i had to use the scissor jack for left rear wheel, as the rear floor jack location is on the right side and does nothing for the left wheel.

so far I'm not convinced the money for the floor jack was not wasted.

thanks!

 

This is pretty much the same way I rotate mine. Easy peasy and fast and easy.

 

My method, third gen, using the procribed front and rear central jacking point:

1. Chock rear tires.
2. Raise front and settle onto safety stands*
3. Raise rear and settle onto safety stands*

* Safety stands not placed at the scissor jack bearing points, find them too flimsy/unstable. Instead use these points:

 

which one?

 

Sorry, I meant the OP. Floor jack, 2x4, jack up one side at a time.

 

thanks, could you please shot a picture next time you do it?

 

certainly

 

I use two (2) floor jacks with notched plastic pucks to jack one side to rotate tires. The round pucks can be found on eBay. I'm not sure how a single floor jack would work or how stable it would be trying to lift one side.

 

Meh, play by the rules: raise front, safety stands, raise the rear, 'nother couple of safety stands. Now you've got all four tires an inch or two clear: go nuts.

 

can you raise both rear wheels with the factory jacking point in the rear in your car? i only succeeded with the right rear.

 

yep/

 

@friendly_jacek yes, no problem. Maybe your jack doesn't have enough travel? The jacking point is kinda high, and a little over to right side. I use a 3 ton jack with theoretical 21" saddle height when raised. I put a square of 2x4 plus hockey puck in cradle for a bit more reach. Even not at its limit, the tires are an easy 4"~5" off the slab.



For the front point I use this:

 

1. Get a length of 2 x 4 lumber, around 2 feet in length. The point of using this wood is to distribute the lifting force along a longer area since you are going to lift up the entire side of the car, 1,600 lb of weight or so, with just the one floor jack.
2. Place that lumber in the lift saddle of the floor jack.
3. Place the jack so that the lumber is contacting the rail of the car that the notches are cut in for the scissors jack, but place the jack below the front door, near the center of the vehicle, but towards the front of the car since the weight distribution is biased towards the front, approx. 60% front/40% rear.
4. Raise up the jack and both the front and rear tires will lift off the ground assuming you placed the jack correctly.