Don't Go To Tire Dealers For Everything

Cars are wonderful things, but strangely, despite the immense number of people that own cars, very few people know much about them. People will sometimes tend to get into the rhythm of always taking their car to a dealer or mechanic anytime anything out of the ordinary occurs. The same thing happens with tires and tire dealers. While it is not likely that you can make your own tires and avoid the tire dealer altogether, you can learn some basics such as changing and rotating the tires on your car.

Rotating the tires on your car is really quite simple. You will need a jack and a four way wrench or other wrench capable of fitting the lug nuts on the wheel, and perhaps something to pry off the hub caps if needed. To get the hub caps off if you indeed have them installed in the first place, you simply need to give a good strong tug outwards. If this doesn't do the trick, then take a crowbar or something similar to it to pry it off. That's the first step; pretty easy, and no need for any tire dealers there.

Next, you will be able to see approximately 5 nuts that keep the wheel in place. With your four-way wrench, choose any of the nuts and turn them off. Remember to turn to the left (left and loose, right and tight). Be sure to place the nuts in a safe place so you do not lose them. After all of the nuts are removed, you will be able to pull the tire and wheel straight off the car. Beware however, it will be heavy and greasy. If you are not a real grease-monkey, you may want to wear gloves. Again, this was not that hard, was it? Still no need for a tire dealer that I can see.

You can now remove the other tire on the side of the car you are working on. Unless you have access to a lift, you can only do one side at a time. With the tires off the vehicle, you can now mount them back on. To do that, simply grab the less worn one (likely the one that was on the rear previously, hence the term rotating) and place it back on the front. This may require some wriggling as you try to line up the holes with the threads, but once you get it, it will slide on nicely. Now you can screw the nuts back on, with the tapered end facing out. Make sure they are nice and tight, since you clearly do not want a tire coming off while you are driving. That was not too difficult, eh? You should not need any tire dealers for that?

The most important thing is to ensure that your lug nuts stay tight. If possible, remove the hubcaps a day or two later and check the nuts to ensure they are still tight.

If you can rotate your tires on your own, it will save that extra, and potentially expensive, trip to the tire dealer.