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DIY tire rotation

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Just done it last weekend.
I used two jacks: a scissor jack and a floor Jack together.
 
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On the model Y, the rear tires will wear down faster than the front. Found this out when the remote service came to put on the winter tire set, he told me that this is normal and rotation will make the set last longer. I swapped front to back when I changed out the winter tires this spring.
 
why you do tire rotation? why people change oil filter on their ICE cars?
The point is not just an isolated "why" for tire rotation and balance. The point people are making is that tire balance does not need to be done at the same frequency as rotation (in most situations you don't need to balance it after the initial balance), and they don't get why rotation and balance were mentioned in the same argument.
 
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At 10,000 and 20,000 miles, I had taken my 2021 MYLR car to Americas Tire for rotations. I just passed 30,000 and mentioned to my teenage son that I'd go get the tires rotated. But he surprised me and said, "Hey dad, why don't we rotate the tires ourselves?".

I already had everything on-hand:
  • Arcan 3-ton 20018 (ALJ3T) floor jack
  • US JACK D-41610 6 Ton Garage Stands
  • TEKTON 1/2 Inch Drive Click Torque Wrench (10-150 ft.-lb.) | 24335
  • NEIKO 00206A ½-Inch Drive Premium Breaker Bar | 24-Inch Length
and also used it as an opportunity to top-off the tire pressure and clean the wheels. I have the Rimetrix wheel covers.

There are a couple of reasons to DIY:
  • torqued correctly to 129 ft-lb (aka 175 Nm)
  • wheels rotated correctly and consistently rotation-to-rotation
  • teenage son actually gets out of the house and does something outside ;)

By the time we gathered everything up, put on the four pucks, performed the lift, rotations, remembered to remove the four pucks, and then put everything away it had taken about 90 minutes. Some of that was him learning to do it for the first time. I did mention to him the trick of loosening the lug nuts a little before lifting the car.

We used this rotation pattern:
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Here are the photos of us rotating the tires. The Gemini wheels had gotten filthy; not only with dust but also black stuff (rubber?). Can't be brake dust since I don't use the brakes (compare the first photo to the last photo). And no, the rear wheels aren't slanted, they just tilted after we took the lug nuts off.

These are the factory 255/45R19 tires on Gemini wheels.

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Scott

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MYLR | Red ext | White int | 19" | 5 seats | tow | no FSD | made/delivered Oct 2021
 
I think it creates a lot of unnecessary work and risk trying to get all 4 lift points supported by pucks on 4 jack stands or transferring to the lower control arms as done here. Why do this? Are you concerned that the car frame will bend of break? I prefer to use a single puck for the whole job. Once on the left side, and then once on the right side. This is the way Tesla mobile service does it. This only permits front to back rotation, but that is fine. A second jack or stand can be used under the unused same-side lift point for added safety.
 
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I think it creates a lot of unnecessary work and risk trying to get all 4 lift points supported by pucks on 4 jack stands or transferring to the lower control arms as done here. Why do this? Are you concerned that the car frame will bend of break? I prefer to use a single puck for the whole job. Once on the left side, and then once on the right side. This is the way Tesla mobile service does it. This only permits front to back rotation, but that is fine. A second jack or stand can be used under the unused same-side lift point for added safety.
Wouldn’t it be safety? To use just a floor jack and no stands isn’t recommende. I get we are all YouTube mechanics and teslas are the bestest of all bestest Goodest vehicles, people should use floor jacks
 
^^^
I used to do the tire rotation on previous ICE vehicles myself. I've gotten too old so I already had Tesla do my first tire rotation at 6k miles. They also confirmed the tread depth of all four tires as well as the thickness of all four brake pads. They also checked a few other things that I forgot. The Tesla SC is not that far away so I'll just continue to let Tesla do my tire rotations.
 
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I think it creates a lot of unnecessary work and risk trying to get all 4 lift points supported by pucks on 4 jack stands or transferring to the lower control arms as done here. Why do this? Are you concerned that the car frame will bend of break? I prefer to use a single puck for the whole job. Once on the left side, and then once on the right side. This is the way Tesla mobile service does it. This only permits front to back rotation, but that is fine. A second jack or stand can be used under the unused same-side lift point for added safety.

The jack-stands aren't on the pucks. The floor-jack lifts the car on the pucks, and the jack-stands go under by the wheels.

When I had 3 wheels on the jack-stands, the diagonal raised off of the jack-stand by about an inch (so, it was only on 2 jack stands before I started to raise the 4th wheel). As I test I opened and closed the rear hatch -- latched fine (didn't do it intentionally, I had needed to get something out of the trunk). So the frame didn't seem to twist when 1st and 2nd on the diagonal, the 3rd wheel an inch above its jack-stand, and the 4th wheel on the ground.


The dual floor-jack bar that Mulkogi mentioned is very cool! However, the specs say:
  • Adjusts from 28 in. to 37 in. wide
and the jack pad points are a little under 5 feet apart from the side.

Scott

--

MYLR | Red ext | White int | 19" | 5 seats | tow | no FSD | made/delivered Oct 2021
 
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I DIY a lot of things on my cars, but tire rotation/balance is not one of them. Walmart is $56 lifetime nationwide (used to be much cheaper), I don't see a reason do it myself and can't balance the tires.

what are the reasons you guys rotate yourselves?

I have been disappointed by tire shop work over the years. i.e. breaking TPMS's and gluing them back in and not telling me, inflating tires to significantly wrong tire pressures, leaving lug nuts loose, and so on. Things I can still do, I do, because of a lack of trust with the industry. Cheapest isn't always the best way.

Most here seems to think it is a front to back rotation is what is recommended by Tesla. I saw the video of Tesla service people doing front to rear rotations. But most generic recommendations would suggest a cross is better for AWD uni-directional tires like mine. Are they doing front to back because it is easier to do?
A cross rotation (forward, rearward, etc ...) would be like the one e645824 showed above.

Any thoughts?

I have a dual motor long range model Y with 19" Gemini wheels.
 
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I DIY a lot of things on my cars, but tire rotation/balance is not one of them. Walmart is $56 lifetime nationwide (used to be much cheaper), I don't see a reason do it myself and can't balance the tires.

what are the reasons you guys rotate yourselves?
For me it is faster to rotate myself at home. Walmart is 15 mins away, and there might be a wait too. Takes me 15 mins for simple front to back rotation.