Cleaning out Tire Treads? Necessary?

Uh-oh. Now you've got him excited.

 

Four jackstands, raise the whole car, and you can rotate in one shot. Actually, my brain hurts when I try to figure out how to do it any other way.

Only raise it enough to get about an inch clear under each tire, and always loosen lug nuts slightly, before raising.

Also, any time you get under a car supported by jackstands, it's a very good idea to put something thicker than you and very solid under there too.

 

If you are rotating from front to rear and vice-versa, you only need to raise up one side of the car at a time. After loosening the wheel nuts, raise up one corner of the car and place a jackstand to hold that corner up. Remove the jack, raise up the other corner, and place the second jackstand. Now you can rotate the two tires on that side.

Using my fairly large hydraulic jack and a length of 2x4 to distribute the load, I place the jack somewhat forward of center (since the front has more weight vs. the rear) and raise up the side of the car with the one jack so that both tires are off the ground. Then they can be rotated.

 

Well, there's probably nothing more, but if you want to run optimal tire pressure, it's about 2 PSI more in the front than the rear, so if you're doing that then you'd want to swap the PSI as well.

I wish I could get my wife to mow the lawn, change the oil, or rotate the tires. Even though she has very dark almost black natural hair, she's very blond. She's the kind of person who would literally never get the oil changed and run an engine for 30K on a single oil change until it died.

As long as everyone's giving you advice.

1) Don't use a single jack and 2x4 from the center of one side. The 2x4 has nowhere near enough rigidity for that. Even LVL doesn't.

2) Get some jack stands like these. Two for $20 bucks:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B0028JQYPG?tag=priuschatcom-20 1/2" torque wrench for $50. 3/8" may have a 100 ft lb max, but takes a lot more effort and you're out of the accuracy range at 78 ft lbs which is what the lugs take so your better off getting a 1/2" with a 250 ft lb max.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000HCJEDK?tag=priuschatcom-20 A 1/2" deep metric socket set for $20. You can also use these with an air gun should you choose to buy a compressor, hose, and air tools.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000NIKA4U?tag=priuschatcom-20 tell me you used a known good torque wrench when tightening the lugs and that you used a star pattern when doing so. I don't remember if the owners manual says this or not.

 

The wine part of the procedure is good. However stomping implies that the nuts are tightened too much.

I assume that the wrench handle is around 1 foot long. If you apply 125 lb of force to the end of the handle, that would be 125 ft.-lb of torque. The correct wheel nut tightening torque is 76 ft.-lb.

Excessive tightening torque may warp the wheel hubs and of course, makes it unnecessarily difficult next time you need to remove the wheel nuts.

If you invest in a decent 1/2" click-type torque wrench and a small pair of long-nose pliers, that would really make this job easier in the future.

 

Good idea to have a torque wrench and properly tighten the nuts.

Might also want to consider a better lug wrench.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CMJ2KU

No more jumping on the handle trying to loosen stuck nuts...The extra power of the extension handle is amazing.

 

See, this is where things get very subjective and a torque wrench would be useful.

If you "do things like a girl" then you might apply 20 lb of force when stomping on a mouse.

However my judgement, based upon your prior posts regarding your mouse escapades, is that when you decide to do something, you will do it with an assertive spirit. It is more likely that your force will exceed the 76 ft.-lb spec.