Rotating tires myself

After having a Subaru wheel come loose, twice, I must say that is not a typo. That wheel now needs multiple re-torques before it settles down.

I did my own Prius rotation for the first time last week. Today, 200 miles later, everything was tight.

The wheel covers lack clearance to get my sockets on these lug nuts, and it is a pain to have to pull the covers to check torque. I'm afraid the covers may break if I keep doing this for 200,000 miles. Are there thin-wall sockets that can do this with the covers still on?

(If this problem is unique to GenIII, I'll move over there.)

 

Yes, you just need to buy a quality deep socket that fits your ratchet. 13/16" is the SAE size, or the equivalent metric size (not sure whether you need 20 or 21 mm.)

Don't buy the cheapest socket you can find or else you may find that it splits apart when you need it to perform.

Since the Toyota manual suggests front to back and vice-versa, I'd stick to that if tire wear is relatively even.

If the tires are not unidirectional (where they can be rotated in only one direction) then you can criss-cross if you see that tire wear is greater on one side vs. the other.

 

Today's tires are much different than those that we remember from the "good old days" of "bias-belted tires" and the early radial belted tires.

In those days, it was common to "cross-rotate" the tires. And since most spare tires back then were "full sized", even the spare tire would be worked into the rotation scheme.

But not nowadays. Many tires today are designed to only run in one direction (unidirectional), due to their thread designs. Therefore, cross-rotation definitely should not be done for those tires. The stock Integrity tires are unidirectional, to my understanding, and therefore should only be rotated front to back.

Best wishes,

 

Hello all:

Since we're talking about jacking the Prius in this thread: is it possible (or adviseable) to jack the entire side of the car from a center point?

I have a jack that can certainly handle this task. I just don't know if there is a good center jack point, or whether it would stress the frame too severely.

Thanks

 

I rotate my tires and rebalance them at every oil chage is it easier to jack the whole car up. First the Prius is to low I can not get any of my 3 floor jacks under the front the the central jacking point.
So I jack up one side at a time and put a jack stand at the front jacking point (I used slotted 2x4's over the but weld seam, requires three 2x4s).
Then with jack stands on both side of the front I use the rear central jacking point to raise the rear wheels. Since I don't craw under the back like I do the front to change Oil I don't jack stand the back just leave it on the floor jack. At my first rotation I was surprize to find all 4 tires in balance, that is a first for me, Usually they one or more tires are off at least and oz. I think just rotating the tires is only doing the job 1/2 way you need to check balance. tires change, it is rare that I find all tire still in balance when I rotate tires. For time and conveinance torque sticks are the only way to go to putting the wheels back on. They are easy and very accurate. Have any of you notice how light the Prius wheel and tire combos are, it they are like racing tire/wheels of a few years ago.