[venams]

I used to run a winter and summer set of tires/wheels and it was easy to perform tire rotations (front to back and rears crossed to front) when doing my bi-annual switch of wheels for the season.

I've since moved down to Florida and sold my winter set of snows.

So I'm wondering how I'm going to rotate my existing wheels, front to back while crossing the backs to the front? I have 2 floor jacks but I'll either be able to jack up one side or the other, or front only, lastly rear only.

Has anyone dealt with this issue as I don't see that the Optima has a central jacking point; just the side jacking points?

 

[Turbonut]

I put a floor jack under the right front, either under the lca with a rubber over the Jack cradle or under the pinch joint under the p/s door using a slotted rubber, remove the front tire and leave the jack as is, jack up r/r remove install tire, lower Jack and go to l/f etc.

 

[tonester]

Place floor jack at mounting point right behind LF or RF tire, then jack car up--you should be able to jack the car up high enough so that both left (or right if jacking up the right side) tires are just off the ground, swap front tire to rear, place jack stand to support left front, lower and remove floor jack, then repeat floor jack and front/back tire swap process for the other side; after all that your entire front should be off the ground supported by one jack stand on one side and the floor jack on the other side, thus making it possible to cross the rear tires to the front.

 

[Turbonut]

They say that jacking up the entire side with one jack causes no problem with the stress on the frame body, but I must add it all depends on the frame/structure.

Example:On the old RX7's with the steel metal frames, one could put a jack under the frame behind the right front and lift the entire side, but when I tried it on the new '88TII we purchased, lifted the RF wheel and continued lifting and low and behold the frame buckled upward as did the floor pan. Mazda bought the car back for other reasons and purchased the '89TII and have never used one jack to lift one entire side ever again.

 

[tonester]

Yeah not the most ideal way to jack up the entire side via a single jack mount point but for me I have it up just long enough to swap and put a tire in the rear, meaning the entire side is off the ground maybe around a minute tops if I'm not taking my sweet time.

Call me lazy and I suppose the only way to tell for sure if it was a bad idea to do it on the Optima is to take it to a shop and have the frame checked but for now my car seems to track/behave no differently.

 

[Turbonut]

It's just me, so I don't believe that any problem would occur with the Optima.

 

[venams]

Thanks for the replies guys. Will give the Floor Jack and Jack Stand approach a try soon..

 

[Unit ZER0]

Yeah, like the others have mentioned, just invest in a set of four jack stands, and make sure you are on level ground, like an asphalt or concrete surface, and then get it on to each jack stand one corner at a time.

 

[Turbonut]

Probaly a small viewing audience, but just wanted to add, if people aren't familiar with using a floor jack, the surface must be able to let the jack or car walk/move as the car is lifted.
Have see many use a center point in the front of a car and as the car is lifted the car nor the jack doesn't move and the jack arm ends up in the radiator.
Another example, if the car is lifted from the side, the car won't move, so the jack needs to be able to move inward or once again the arm will move off the lifting area.
Just be cautious.

 

[tonester]

LOL I imagine that's a reason why your typical floor jack has wheels...and it's not only just to make it easier to wheel your floor jack to whereever it is in your garage you store it...or maybe not?

 

[Turbonut]

Believe it or not, some don't have the luxury of using the jack on concrete and have seen damage after the car was being raised with the jack on soft asphalt or dirt, the wheels don't move and the cradle slides off the jacking point.

 

[philbytx]

Or...you could buy your tires from Discount Tire and get free rotation/balances

 

[Turbonut]

There are many tire service centers that will offer the above, but for some owners, they'd rather do the job themselves, quicker and knowing it's done correctly. I have found over the years shops do a poor job, having experienced over tightened lug nuts, balancing done incorrectly, so I stay away as much as I can. I even take just the wheels to the shop to have new tires mounted/balanced, then back to the garage to check the balance and install. A great many times I found that even the balance is off, albeit minimal, but not done correctly, and I use only a torque wrench (mostly) or torque stick to tighten the lug nuts.

Just last December a week after the engine was replaced in the 2.0T, had a right front flat when going to my daughter's house. No problem, got the lug wrench out to break the nuts loose, no go. Now I'm an old guy, but still have some strength, so son in law arrives, big guy, no go, so I looked around and found a pipe behind a closed shop, great, placed it on the lug wrench and actually twisted the factory wrench. Had to call AAA and the guy used the largest cross wrench I've ever seen, and with his maybe 250lbs got them loose.

This is the best part, called the dealership and complained about the over-tightened nuts and low and behold on the next visit a couple weeks later, they said that they didn't have the front wheels off. Ever remove a sub-frame and not take the front wheels off.......never.
Big explosion at the dealership and although the family has 25 dealerships, called the daughter directly and complained to stir up some action.

Sorry for the long post but with the virus among us, no church today, so just killing time before I go out to the garage after it warms up.

 

[philbytx]

We live in a small town in TX and I know the guys at our local DT. I always slip them "beer money" when I have them rotated and they allow me in to watch them work (and I check the brake pads/lines/suspension while exposed) and I ensure that they use the correct lug nut torque on both our Optima (I use 75lb ft) and my Grand Cherokee. I have torque wrenches at home in case I feel like double checking them .

And the wheels on the GC are bloody heavy so, being an old guy myself, I would rather the youngsters strain themselves LOL !

 

[tonester]

LOL I'm still on the original tires on my 2018 so no free tire rotations/balancing yet; in any case sure if you can get it done for free it's a nice option to have but at the same time Turbonut does bring up some valid points as to why some folks would prefer to do it themselves so as to avoid some grease monkey overtightening the lug nuts, scratching your expensive wheels, etc.

Turbonut--I'd love to hear what the dealership had to say when you called them out about doing sub-frame work without removing the front wheels...

 

[Turbonut]

They continued to deny that they removed the front tires, even the SM, but when I spoke to the daughter then the corporate SM, they both stated they remove the wheels when doing the job, so what they did about it, don't know as I'd never set foot in that dealership again. They also left off the right rear stud for the engine cover and stated the car came in that way and that was also brought up to the hierarchy.

This is the same dealership that after the new engine was installed they did an inspection and said I needed outer tie rod ends, both sides. That was in Dec. and ironically I replaced both outer tie rod ends in Nov. before we went to Florida, so guess they wore out in 6 weeks. A bunch of crooks.

They also left the cotter pin out of the lower ball joint cinch pin and also the exhaust hanger wasn't reattached.

Talk about a dealership to avoid FRED BEANS. I feel sorry for the people that go there and know nothing about a car. Just remembered, a couple that are also seaon ticket holders (Yankees AA) had a compressor replaced on their 2013 SX at that dealership, $1470. They only needed the electronic control valve, could do the job for $50-60.

 

[dalilpony]

They continued to deny that they removed the front tires, even the SM, but when I spoke to the daughter then the corporate SM, they both stated they remove the wheels when doing the job, so what they did about it, don't know as I'd never set foot in that dealership again. They also left off the right rear stud for the engine cover and stated the car came in that way and that was also brought up to the hierarchy.

This is the same dealership that after the new engine was installed they did an inspection and said I needed outer tie rod ends, both sides. That was in Dec. and ironically I replaced both outer tie rod ends in Nov. before we went to Florida, so guess they wore out in 6 weeks. A bunch of crooks.

They also left the cotter pin out of the lower ball joint cinch pin and also the exhaust hanger wasn't reattached.

Talk about a dealership to avoid FRED BEANS. I feel sorry for the people that go there and know nothing about a car. Just remembered, a couple that are also seaon ticket holders (Yankees AA) had a compressor replaced on their 2013 SX at that dealership, $1470. They only needed the electronic control valve, could do the job for $50-60.

Boy I hate going to the dealer! Simple oil change, oil spilled everywhere! Tire rotation? They said they did it but I had a picture of my car that had 1 scratched rim in the front, it was still in the same spot... I vowed never to go to the dealer again... but then came all the recalls... I let them build up so I can just take my car once to do them all. I finally took my car in... they hit a curb scratching up my front wheel and damaging the bumper. Said they will fix it... picked up car, bumper not fixed properly and now has 2 light scratches across the hood and a scratch on the fender. Said they will fix it... Came to pick up car... Bumper still not fixed properly, black license plate mount is now half white from polish used on bumper car now has a dent on the rear quarter panel. Said they will fix it... Came to pick up car... Bumper fixed, license mount still half white, I can still see the dent on the quarter panel. Said they will fix it... Came to pick up car... License plate mount looks better but still not black. Still can see where the dent was on the Qtr panel, tail light near the dent is now cracked and a new dent has appeared on the trunk lip. Said they will fix it... Came to pick up car... Finally nearly 3 months later it was done. Popped the trunk to look inside, they didn't reinstall the lining correctly from replacing the tail light I said I'll fix it myself, gimme my keys!

 

[venams]

Thanks for the help all. Rotated front to rear and crossed rears to front. Worked like a charm!