Rotating Prime tires at home

The Owner's Manual says to keep them on the same side, just front to back and vice versa. That's a first for me, but I've stuck with it (albeit on a 3rd gen). One advantage: only two of your rims tend to get curb rash.

What I do is raise the front with the front/centre jacking point, set it on safety stands, then repeat at the back. Basically get the whole car up, with an inch clear at most.

I do not use the scissor jack points for my safety stands, found more solid/substantial points, inboard a bit.

 

I follow the manual. BUT for me the tire rotation means change to snow tires and back twice a year. In my area that is pretty close to 6 moths each, ~7500 miles. My snow tires are directional, so it can only go front to back, and I follow the same for my summer tires. I just have to make sure to mark the tires when they come off.

 

Radials should not be cross rotated.

 

Really? Honda recommends cross rotation as long as tires are Non-directional. No mentioning of radial tire. In fact all of modern Honda I had came with OEM radial non-directional tires. Here is the diagram for tire rotation from my 2008 HCH.

 

Haven’t checked the Prius but I put Yokohama's on my Camry and they definitely had arrows pointing in the direction of rotation. I guess it “just depends” I’m a guy who likes to err on the side of caution I guess.

 

I seem to recall, in the early days of radials, there were issues with cross-rotating: the longitudinal belts would start to delaminate with the changes in direction. Now though, the problem doesn't arise. Tire manufacturers recommend cross-rotation.

Still for me, I'll go with the Owner's Manual instruction; it's worked ok so far. And like @Salamander_King , I do have some directional tires (X-Ice snows), so at least I'm doing the same style of rotation every time, less chance of a mix-up.

 

Hmm...so both of our Prius vehicles have a spare. For some reason I never even thought of using the spare as a way to easily rotate the tires! D'oh... I'll have to start doing that now. Thanks for the insight!

 

Read the tire manufacturer's instruction. Most of mine have specifically called out cross rotation as acceptable.

 

Correct though I didn't know the recommendation not to cross rotate radials had changed until recently. The 2010 my in-laws gave to my daughter had markings on the inside of the tires that suggested they had been on both sides of the car (tire store swap over of summer and winter tires on their own rims. I asked my local mechanic and he said it isn't a problem now. We stick with the facts we know until we find out they have changed. I have no idea how long ago the delamination problem ceased to exist.

 

Cross rotation is what's given my tires the longest life. Even with new struts I still get cupping. Cross rotation counters that. Non directional tires of course.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I'll have to say I'm amazed by the tread wear of our Michelin Defenders ( we have on both Prius vehicles ). Of course, you do take a small hit on MPG vs dedicated LRR tries but I think the much longer tread wear of the defenders makes it pretty much a wash.

 

I doubt many prii have directional tires, you must have a jack already, get a pair of jack stands.
The rear can be jacked up both sides at once, under the middle in front of the rear axle is a downward pointing tower, just jack it up and rotate the rears, or, jack up one side of the front put a jack stand under and lower it onto the jack stand then jack up the wheel that your going to rotate to.


You need a low profile jack and a torque wrench for reinstalling, use a breaker bar to loosen the lug nuts, don't use the torque wrench.