Tire rotation is pretty simple stuff, unless you've got a car with super high performance directonal tires, or directional wheels, or larger wheels at the rear, etc.. We have none of the above, generally.

There are two different schools of thought when it comes to tire rotation.

1) Put the fronts on the rear on the same side, but put the rears on the front of the opposite side.

2) Just swap fronts with rears, on the same side.

I guess that both work, but I prefer #1, because up here in Michigan, left turns are more common than rights, thus the one side wears faster than the other. And #1 will even out the wear front to back AND side to side, over time.

As for the nuts and bolts of exactly how to go about accomplishing that... that's simple too. You can start anywhere, but here's one example:

1) Jack up the right front, remove that wheel, put the spare in it's place.
2) Jack up the right rear, remove that wheel, put the on the wheel that you just took off of the right front.
3) Jack up the left front, remove that wheel, put on the wheel that you just took off of the right rear.
4) Jack up the left rear, remove that wheel, put on the wheel that you just took off of the left front.
5) Jack up the right front again, take off the spare, put on the wheel that you just took off of the left rear.
6) Make sure that everything is torqued and at the correct pressure.
7) Test drive the car.
8 ) Notice if the front end still vibrates or not.
9) Post the results on this forum.

See? Nuthin' to it. :D

I think that the owner's manual also has instructions for tire rotation in it somewhere, if you've still got that in the glovebox.

I can't do it. Two of the bolts on my front right tire are worn to the point that I can't get them off and I don't have the tools to do it. That's it. I'm going to drive this car into the ground until I get a new one.

Just so I understand this correctly:

You're going to give up on your Bonneville because of two rounded-off lugnuts?!? :shock:

Seriously, just take it into a place and have them rotate the tires for you. If you watch for coupons, you can very likely get it done for free (at least around here you can). At worst, they'll charge you for a couple new lugnuts. Quite worth it, in my opinion.

I'm not quitting on the car just because of the lug nuts or anything. Ever since I got my new job which for me pays really well I said the first thing I'm going to do is get a new car. I'm a field engineer now so I'm going to be driving a good distance almost every day, looking for a newer car with not as many miles, but with as much power and gas mileage. :)

I've had balance and drivability issues when #1 has been done to a car. I'm old school and only let them do #2 to my vehicles.

Agree as well on the balance sound. If it's a balance issue supposedly you'll feel it about every 15mph and it'll be worse in one spot..either 60ish or 75ish.

Guys, also be aware that if the lug nuts are stripped [which happen to be the fronts], there is no way the stop he wanted them to balance the fronts was able to. You cannot torque down a stripped bolt. So, IMO, he probably never got the front tires balanced.

I told him what he needs to do.. just gotta give him a push to do it ;).


-justin

Ok...can we do it in English then?