A brand new set of tires can live from 80 thousand kilometers or more, however, this applies to ideal workers and road conditions. But some of these conditions we can create ourselves. Just a couple simple rules, and the service life of tires can be easily extended by 30-40 thousand kilometers.

Tire wear

Of course, for the duration of operation car tires influenced by many factors. This is the driving style, and the class of the car, its technical condition, the type of tires themselves. And, of course, the tire life of a neat summer resident who drives a car a couple of times a year, and that of an aggressive street racer who constantly blows smoke at the start, will be completely different. An important factor affecting the lifespan of rubber is the degree of wear of its elements, whether it be ball bearings, bushings, etc. It is also necessary to set the correct camber, maintain optimal pressure in tires.

Why you need to change tires

Another way to extend the life of tires is to rearrange the wheels in some places. Previously, experienced drivers often used this technique, for many it was the rule, but today it is almost forgotten about it. How does changing tires help? Quite simply, different wheels in a car are subjected to different loads, which, in turn, leads to clear differences in the structure and degree of tire wear. For example, the front tires carry most of the mass of the car, since in the vast majority of cars the heavy engine is located in front. The load increases even more at, up to 80 percent of the weight falls on them during heavy braking. Then, the front wheels are constantly turning, which cannot but affect their accelerated wear.

Rotation period

The wear structure of the front and rear tires is different, the edges of the tread are worn down on the front tires, while the rear tires lose the middle part. Timely rotation of the wheels will make it possible to make this wear more uniform: the rear tires will begin to wear out on the sidewalls, while the front tires will wear out flat. Of course, you can just change to new front tires if you have enough money to spare, but it's easier to just swap tires, extending their life by a factor of one and a half. Moreover, tire manufacturers themselves advise rearranging tires every six months or every ten thousand kilometers. And in order to do this, you don’t have to take separate additional actions, because every six months we change our cars from summer to winter tires and back. You just need to swap them.

Permutation order

The rearrangement scheme may be different, but it is correct to do this as follows: we put the rear tires forward in the same order as they were, that is, left to left, and right to right. The front tires should be on rear axle in a cross, that is, we put the left front on the right back side, we do the same with the right front.

But there is one significant nuance here - an asymmetric tread pattern. If you have such tires, then the rearrangement is done without changing the sides. On powerful cars or on sporty ones, wheels of different sizes are often installed, in this case the tires are transferred only along the sides, from right to left. And before each shift, carefully study the markings of your tires.

Tire swap pattern

Wheel rotation is critical when it comes to extending the life of the tires you have purchased. During operation under various driving conditions, your tires are subject to uneven wear. Depending on your driving style, it's wise to swap tires every 6,000 miles (9,700 km), around every second oil change. Read on to find out how to add this inexpensive and easy money-saving method to your Mechanic arsenal.

Steps

Part 1

Take the jack. Your vehicle is equipped with a jack so you can change one wheel at a time. But in order to swap all the wheels, you need to lift the entire car off the ground. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to get a set of props, which cost about $30. DO NOT try to do this with multiple jacks.

• If you do not want to buy supports, then you can use cinder blocks. On the other hand, you can install a multi-thousand dollar hydraulic lift in your garage.

1. Find a surface with a suitable working level. To prevent the risk that the lifted vehicle will be unstable, you can work on a level surface. Apply the parking brake before starting work, and block wheels that you have not jacked up so that the machine does not roll forward or backward while you work.

   • If the road is sloping or if there is no access road, it can take very little time to find an empty parking space in front of the supermarket.

2. Remove caps and loosen fixing bolts. While your car is still on the ground, use the cross wheel wrench and remove the caps to get to the mounting bolts. Then, using a wrench, loosen the bolts with which the wheel is bolted to the axle. DO NOT REMOVE the bolts, just loosen them a little so that they can be easily removed when you raise the machine.

   • Remove one cap and use it as a container for storing bolts.

3. Raise the car. Use a jack to raise each corner of the machine and then install the stands. Read the instructions to install them correctly.

   • The use of four supports is the easiest and fast way finish the job, but some people are justifiably nervous when the car is in the air. If you only have two outriggers, you will have to jack up and down the car several times because the procedure requires swapping the front and rear tires.
   • In any case, it is a good idea to draw up a swap chart before removing any wheels.

   Part 2

   Wheel swap

   1. Check the tread pattern on the tires. Wheels are either directional or non-directional. Directional tires have a strictly directional tread pattern, usually with grooves designed to channel water and sand outwards to improve handling. For this reason, directional tires on the driver's side and tires on the passenger's side must not be interchanged and vice versa. Non-directional tires look the same, and it's perfectly safe to swap the driver's side wheels for the passenger side wheels.

      • For directional tires, rotation means you need to swap front wheel from the driver's side to the rear driver's wheel and vice versa.
      • For non-directional tires, under normal conditions, rotation means replacing the front driver's wheel with the rear passenger's. The rear wheel on the driver's side takes the place of the front wheel on the passenger side, and both rear wheels and move to the front of the car. With this option, you can be sure that you will do a full tire rotation in two sets and ensure the longest possible tire life.

   2. Remove the mounting bolts from the first wheel you lifted and remove it. Roll the wheel to a new location. Keep an eye on the bolts and keep them close to the axle they were removed from. The threads should be the same, but in general their location should be tied to the car and not to the wheel.

      Rearrange the tires correctly according to the scheme. If you have raised the car completely, simply rearrange the wheels, place them on the hubs and hand-tighten the mounting bolts.

      • If you only have two supports and they are both occupied, for example at the rear of the car, then you would start by removing the two rear wheels. Then, you will need to rearrange the rear driver's wheel in place of the front driver's wheel. Jack up the car a little on this side, remove the wheel, install a new one, tighten the bolts and lower the jack. Then move that front wheel to the back of the car on the passenger side, and so on. Continue to move around the car, swapping the wheels in the appropriate order (according to the diagram).

   3. Lower the car. Jack up each side of the vehicle until the supports can be safely removed and then lower the vehicle. Before doing this, make sure that the wheels are sufficiently fastened. You should be able to rock the wheel back and forth.

   4. • Tire rotation is a great opportunity to clean rims, wheel arches, and inspect tires for hidden defects or punctures. Also, take the time to inspect the wheel arches and clean out debris from any brake cooling device.

      Warnings

      • Many body shops use a pneumatic tool to loosen or tighten the bolts in your car. However, a very small percentage of these workshops do not adhere to the recommendations when tightening the tips, and use torques over 200 Nm. Excessively tight tightening of the tips leads to the fact that it is extremely difficult for a person of average build and height to unscrew them.
      • When changing a tire or rearranging wheels, be sure to “lock” them to prevent any movement of the vehicle during operation. To do this, you can use a medium-sized stone or a short one. wooden block(shoe) with a flat surface, placing it behind or in front of the opposite tire. (If you change the left rear wheel, you need to block the right front, etc.)

What car are you the owner of? - Front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. Do you understand the mechanisms of a car, do you understand what justifies its power and maneuverability on the road, especially during descents and ascents? Often, the operation of machines takes place on a whim, only a part of the owners with their vehicle no misters". An experienced and attentive driver clearly understands which part needs to be replaced as planned, whether the rearrangement of wheels is relevant, which scheme is suitable for this. Not everyone, for example, can afford to allocate twice a year from the family budget for the purchase of a set of winter and summer tires up to 20-30 000 rubles. In order to save money, car owners are looking for acceptable ways out of the situation. And there may be several.

There may be several ways out of the situation, but let's pay attention to the simplest and most popular one - rearranging the wheels, the process scheme has never been complicated, and even more so, several variations are attributed to it. Choose virtually unlimited!

Station staff Maintenance recommend paying attention to the condition of the wheels, and if dashboard already there are impressive numbers indicating the mileage, and it is somewhere around 5000-10,000 kilometers, then the rearrangement of the wheels is shown, the scheme is selected at will. You should be extremely careful if you bought a used car from your hands, because then dashing craftsmen could twist the mileage indicators, hiding the true wear and tear of the mechanical “stuffing” of the car that was previously put up for sale. It is then worth being guided by the state of the tread pattern. We noticed wear on the front or rear wheels, rated them at percentage and decided to undertake a rearrangement of tires according to the scheme. The following reasons for rearranging wheels are determined:

1. Uneven tire wear.
2. The need to strengthen one or another pair of wheels, respectively, for front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive vehicles.
3. The desire to extend the life of tires, improve their condition by changing the load level for a while.
4. Unforeseen traffic situation, emergency repair work in the field.

What you need to change tires

There are tools in the trunk of any car, many of them will be useful for repair work. A rearrangement of wheels on a car is conceived, the scheme, as expected, is available, then the following tools will be needed:

Undertaking such a painstaking procedure on your own, try to enlist the support of friends or relatives. Undoubtedly, you need support, help. When repairing a car, there is always something to support, serve, smoke, get, move, substitute, and so on. The list of actions can be endless!

Wheel shift patterns

The wheels are being rearranged, the scheme is chosen for this in advance. All positive sides rotations are evaluated, possible miscalculations are predicted. The main thing to consider is how to rotate in front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive complexation, is it worth introducing into permutation spare wheel, after all, a smaller load was always assigned to him.

Scheme for front-wheel drive cars with a non-directional pattern

Scheme for rear-wheel drive cars

1. Cruciform shift towards the rear axle.

1. Cross shifting, starting from the drive axle, when the left front axle changes with the right rear axle, and also from the right front axle with the left rear axle.

Scheme for all-wheel drive vehicles

Changing wheels with a spare tire

If you introduce a spare wheel into rotation, you can achieve an increase in the wear threshold of the entire tire set by an average of 20%. But be vigilant and do not use a spare tire if it is in perfect condition, and four wheels are already bald. The reason - there is a difference in radii, it can cause damage to the transmission.

Thus, it is not difficult to rearrange the wheels, the main thing is to understand why this is necessary and how to perform this rotational procedure. Motorists claim that such routine actions will lead to a result - an increase in the life of tires.

To ensure even wear tires it is recommended to perform every 5-10 thousand km of run rearrangement of wheels in a specific pattern:

wheel shift diagram

To perform this operation, prepare a jack, a tire spatula, a combination wrench for fastening the wheels and special stops for the wheels.

Please note: when performing the operation, remember that when removing the front wheel, the stop must be placed under the opposite rear wheel; when you remove the rear - under the opposite front.

This is necessary so that the car does not budge. In addition, for greater reliability, before starting the operation, put the car on the handbrake and engage first gear.

Once you have taken all the precautions listed above, you can proceed to rearrangement of wheels.

The process for performing this operation is as follows:

• remove the spare wheel from the trunk and place it near the right rear wheel;
• set the stop under the front left wheel;
• with a spatula for mounting tires, remove the decorative cap;
• use the combination wrench to loosen the wheel bolts;
• install a jack in the socket at the right rear wheel and use it to raise the car until the wheel is 20-30 mm off the ground;
• unscrew the four wheel bolts and put them in the cap, which will eliminate the contamination of the bolts and accidental deformation of the thread;
• remove the right rear wheel, and instead install a spare one and tighten the wheel bolts. It should be remembered that it is desirable to wrap the bolts in a certain way.
• Tighten one bolt by hand while rocking the wheel radially. Then tighten the opposite bolt in the same way, etc.
• In the same way, tighten all the bolts with a combination wrench;
• lower the car with a jack.

Now you can tighten the bolts to failure with a combination wrench.

Remember! When tightening the wheel bolts, never use leverage, leg force, or excessive hand force.

The fact is that the tightening torque of the bolts should not exceed 7 kgf m. The easiest way is to control the tightening force with a torque wrench, but if you don’t have such a wrench at hand, then when unscrewing the bolts, try to feel and remember the effort with which they were wrapped.

We must not forget that tightening the bolts with a force exceeding 7 kgf m can lead to disk deformation, which in turn will lead to wheel beating, and, consequently, discomfort (vibration) and intense rubber wear.

It must be recalled that wheel swapping is relevant only for those cars that have one drive (rear, in the case of old vases).

All-wheel drive cars, for example, almost all SUVs, do not need to rearrange the wheels, since the tread wear on all four wheels is almost the same (if the all-wheel drive mode is constantly on).

Scheme of permutation (rotation) of wheels

Tire rotation is essential for long tire life as well as confidence in safe driving car.

Causes uneven wear there can be both an imbalance of the wheels, and the absence of a correctly set toe and camber. These are factors that can be corrected by driving to the technical center. But, there are other reasons for uneven wheel wear. So, for example, during braking, abrasion occurs as on the wheels of both axles, but during acceleration, the drive axle wears out more. When driving the steering wheel, the front axle is subject to wear, and factors such as vehicle weight, tire inflation, temperature, and others also play the role of uneven wear.

Each manufacturer recommends permutation differently. Bridgestone recommends every 5,000 to 8,000 miles, Continental every 10,000 to 12,000 miles, Dunlop recommends changing every 6,000 miles, and on 4WD vehicles every 4,000 miles, GoodYear every 8,000 to 10,000 miles, Michelin strongly recommends first change at 5,000 and second after after 50% tire wear.

We recommend timing the rotation of the wheels for a periodic, mandatory technical inspection, or, for a seasonal change. summer tires for winter and vice versa, in this case, in order not to forget the location of the removed wheels from the car, we recommend marking each wheel with chalk.

The procedure for changing tires on a car can be seen in the diagrams below.

Swapping 4 tires

Alternate wheel change scheme suitable for all types of vehicles (recommended for all-wheel drive)

Direct permutation a simplified and now obsolete method of rearrangement, used at the initial stage of the development of the tire industry.

Swapping for vehicles with different size tires on the front and rear axles

Swapping 5 tires If you have a fifth spare tire of the same make and model as the other 4, then that should also be included in the rotation. The inclusion of the fifth wheel in the rearrangement process will allow more even distribution of tread wear, and in the event of a puncture of one of the wheels, the spare tire will have a more worn out, and, therefore, a tread pattern that is more suitable in depth to the rest of the tires.

Sincerely, store management Shina-onLine.