I have 96 maxima and would like to start rotating tires myself instead of paying someone all the time. Has anyone been able to jack up one side of the car to rotate one side at a time, I mean is it safe for the car (metal)? i was thinking of jacking up the front, place stand, jack up back and place stand. stupid ? maybe, but i don't want to crush or dent any sheet metal

 

I just jack up the whole front and rear when at the track to raise both wheels off the ground but that won't work with the side.

Jack it up and place jack stand on either front or rear side then jack up on the other jack point to get the whole side to raise. If we had somewhat of a rigid car it would raise both wheels from one jack point, (VW does this).

 

Put a jack at the front jack pt on one side and raise it until you see the rear tire elevate sufficiently. Most popular way here.

 

Technically the ideal rotation pattern for non directional radials is to criss cross fronts to the rears and rears foward....

LF to RR
RF to LR

LR to LF
RR to RF

So you would have to raise the front, lower on jack stands, raise the rear as well.....

 

thanks for the input and I do have directional tires with aftermarket rims, thats why.

 

Get a big hi-lift SUV-type floor jack (unless you're really dropped with sprints or something) for around $50.00. Get two cheap steel jack-stands for about $20.00. Block the wheels with rocks on the other side. Set the P-brake, leave in reverse(or park if auto). Raise the car at the front jacking point behind the front wheel along the sill(pics in the manual). I've got a little piece of 3/4" plywood with a slot dremeled into it that I use to prevent the lift from marking up the contact point. Jack the car way up until the rear leaves the ground too. Put a jackstand at the back point. Put the other jackstand right up near the front point as close to the sill as you can get it in case the jack fails.

Don't get underneath it and just pull and swap the tires. Takes me about 20 minutes to rotate front to rear both sides.

-RMB

 

if all u have is one jack u can take out the donut and swap your tires that way. but it will take longer.

 

For those who dont have two sets of jackstands, you might want to rotate swapping out the spare with each tire. A bit laborious but it gets the job done.

The alternative is to get a friend with a lift

 

I get free rotations, balances, and alignments.
All I had to do was buy my tires at Discount =/