I messed up and waited too long to rotate probably. I'm at around 7k. I was going to do it myself, but I've been told that I need to take it someplace so they can balance the tires as well. Is there anything I need to be concerned about if I do this? This MINI has a lot of plastic under it, so how will they put it on the lift? Will they use the four jack points? I've had plenty of bad stuff happen when it comes to me handing my MINI over to somebody else, so I'm a little leery of letting someone else put it on a lift. Should I be?

 

I believe that your tires do not need to be rebalanced just because you rotate them. Are you getting any vibrations when driving? If not, then don't worry about it.

If it was my car, I would use the factory jack (or a floor jack if I had one) and rotate them myself. That way you can ensure that the work is done with as much care as possible. It also allows you to take a look at everything behind the wheels to ensure everything is OK, such as brake pad thickness.

Having the tires off for rotation gives you the chance to clean the insides too! (I love a clean wheel.)

 

If for whatever reason you cannot do it yourself, stand over the guy putting the car on the lift to ensure he doesn't crush anything under the car. There's no need to balance the tires unless they are already out of balance.

 

I would highly recommend learning to do it yourself. It's not hard (our cars and wheels are light compared to trucks or SUV's) and you'll have the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

Heck, I've helped other Mini owners with rotating their tires. They are always impressed when they find out you can use the front jacking point to lift both wheels off the ground. It makes swapping front to rear REALLY EASY.

Head to your local Harbor Freight and buy one of their 2 ton jacks ($50), the rubber jack pad to protect the Mini's underside from getting scratched ($10) a lug wrench ($5) and a torque wrench ($15). Then head to Sears to buy the right size socket (I can't remember the correct size, but I'm sure someone will chime in).

Once you learn to rotate your tires, you'll eventually get the nerve to try something harder like replacing the brake pads, shocks, etc.... But at this point PLEASE invest in a set of 4 jack stands before you ever crawl under the car.

Good luck!

 

I would think that 7K is fine without rotation...

I rotate twice a year when I switch from summer to winter tires (about every 9-10K miles) and I have no uneven wear issues. In fact, my original runflats are back on for a 4th summer and have a decent amount of tread despite about 30K miles on them.

 

I was originally planning to do it myself this weekend. People started scaring me and telling me not to, because of this and that. I've done it on my Hyundai for the past 10 years. That's a pain...you have to use the spare as you work your way around the car. Since it's possible to jack one side up at a time, this shouldn't be too hard. I'm going to wax the wheels when I do it. That might be a little harder. I have the right tools, so I think I'll go ahead and get started. Thank you for the replies.

 

Definitely DIY. Don't listen to the scaredy cats.

NOTE: The MINI has hubcentric rings, and in foul weather cars they tend to fuse to the wheels. If you're lucky, they were greased first and will come right off. In my case the fronts were fine, but the rears required some SERIOUS pounding to get them to release. I used a rubber mallet, some put a 2x4 against the wheel and hit it with a hammer, some just climb under and use their foot (but that didn't seem like a good idea to me.) Just keep whacking until they come loose. Then wipe off the interface, and wipe a little grease (doesn't really matter what kind) on it so the next rotation will be easier.

 

While everyone did point out that you shouldn't need to rebalance, no one explained. Balancing is for the purpose of allowing your wheels to rotate smoothly. It is the tire/wheel combination that is being balanced. Thus, moving the tire/wheel combination from on location to another will not affect that balance. Wheel balancing should never be used as a fix for out of spec suspension/steering components. As to being "too late," there is no such thing, unless you have a balance/suspension problem which has unevenly worn the tires. If that is the case, get the problem fixed before you rotate.

 

What nobody has pointed out is that if you have the Dunlop 9000 DSST tires, you need to pay attention to the rotation of the tire. These tires cannot be swapped to the other side of the car as it would reverse the rotation without them being swapped on the rims.

 

I wouldn't suggest putting grease or any other lubricant on either the hub face or the wheel flange. The reason is, if your lug bolts ever loosen, even a little bit, the lubrication between the wheel and hub can allow the wheel to rotate slightly relative to the hub. This puts a large shear stress on the lug bolts, which they were not designed to handle. Lug bolts are great at handling the longitudinal tensile stress from being tightened, but lateral shear stresses can snap them very easily. The only way to prevent the shear stresses is to make sure the wheel is never allowed to rotate relative to the hub. Keeping the hub/wheel clean and grease free, along with keeping the lug bolts tight, is the best way to prevent this.

If your wheels are stuck on and you have to whack them to get them off, just clean off the wheel flange and hub face with a wire brush and some brake cleaner or other non-lubricating solvent, wipe everything clean and put the wheel back on.

 

Well, it's just too cold to be outside trying to work on a car IMO. (it's 40 without the wind chill, and the wind is blowing pretty darn hard) I'm going to Tulsa today, and that should add around 450 miles to the situation. The thing I'm trying to avoid is the vibration problem that comes from waiting too long for a rotation. I've done that with my other car. It only took one time for me to realize putting tire rotations off isn't a good idea. It was loud and bumpy for a few weeks after the rotation. I assume it can't be good for the car/suspension either. Even if it doesn't hurt anything (other that the tires), I know I didn't like it. Hopefully 450 miles won't matter. This has really snuck up on me. I used to use oil changes to keep track of my tire rotations...now it looks like I'm going to have to use tire rotations to keep track of my oil changes.

 

Oh yeah, here's a thread I found where they talk about lubrication and spacers and stuff. It's a little frightening.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ug+nut+tighten

 

when I first removed my wheels to put on snows, they were frozen on tightly and I had to drop the car and roll it a few feet to loosen the wheel off the hub(with the lug bolts finger tightened)...when I put them back on, I always use a little anti-seize grease making sure not to get it near the lugs bolts.....I wonder though if this is a bad thing?

As far as rotating, since I like my tires and do not plan to change tires types, I do not rotate ...once the fronts are worn down, I throw them away and move the rears to the front and buy new tires for the rear....anyone else do this?

 

I'm sorry, but I would never crawl under a car supported by jackstands without at least two of its tires on the ground, and both of them chocked from opposite directions, as well. That means 2 jackstands, both either on the same side, or both in the front, or both in the back.

Zip

 

I'm curious though, riquiscott you mentioned not greasing or lubricating the hub face. I was at the MINI dealer a couple of weeks ago getting some work done on our car. The dealer has a waiting room with windows allowing you to view the garage while work is being done on all the cars. I was able to see the mechanic apply what I thought was some sort of grease applied with a dauber to the hubs right before mounting someones wheels back on. Maybe someone can chime in who knows what exactly they are putting on. Is it grease or anti-seize compound?

 

17mm socket will be needed. Buy one of the long sockets.
I've been swapping/rotating my wheels on my MINI for a while now and I even time myself. About 25 minutes to swap out snows to the summer tires.
I always "clean" the hubs with a rag and, if needed, apply a thin layer of grease. It prevents rust and makes removing the wheels easy; no need to bang on the inside of the tire with a sledge hammer to knock the wheel off the hub - as I saw at Prestige MINI in NJ one day. Seeing that made me happy I applied the grease.
Torque the wheel lug nuts on, take a drive and then recheck the torque.

 

This is true of MANY tires these days. Especially performance tires- they're almost always "directional" in nature. And they'll be marked somewhere on the sidewall to indicate the proper rotational direction for each tire.

Odds are, most of us who have worn out our original tires & moved on to aftermarket are running directional tires now.

 

Can you pls confirm the torque to be applied?

 

I believe that when I did a search, the 'experts' said from 85-91.....I use 90, then 100 miles later, I check them again......

 

Lug bolt torque spec is 88 lbf-ft for the older 12mm lug bolts (cars built before approximately July 15th, 2006). For the later 14mm bolts (cars built since July 15th, 2006 and all GPs), the torque spec is 103 lbf-ft.

 

we had our 2006 mcs tires rotated by a tire place for the first time. remember to find out if they know how to properly take off the rim part to get to the lug nuts. they damaged not one but all four tires rims!!! the piece needed to take if off with looks like a 50cent piece of wire. my husband went balisic. i thought he was going to go burn the place down. and i heard grief for days. but all is good we of course had them repaired look like new hope they last that way or i will never hear the end of it.i have to say it was a pretty ******* thing for the tire guy to see he damaged one cause he couldn't get it off right and proceed to do the others the same way!!

 

Anti-Seize is your friend. It is a good thing on the hub and the lug bolts. All it really does is prevent rust and corrosion.

I am the NAM's biggest fanatic of preventive maintenance. I change my oil every 2,500 miles and my spark plugs every 20,000. I keep all filters fresh and attack problems immediately. I even have a matching wheel and tire with about 1/3 tread set aside as a spare (takes nearly a week to get replacement runflats around here).

With all that said, I don't rotate my tires on the MINI. I eat up a front set every 15-17K miles. I put the almost pristine rear tires on the front, then buy new tires and put them on the rear. Using that method, I always have nearly new tires and only have to pay for two at any given time. I drive nearly 40K miles per year, so I buy tires twice per year. I just started this method. (Previous method was replace the fronts and let the rears alone.) I finally wore out my rear tires at 49K miles and bought a set of 4 and had to write a massive check! That wasn't fun. When I got all 4 new tires, I could tell that the rear tires had aged and the new ones had much better grip, so I decided to make sure they would get used up before dry rot sets in while only needing to buy two at any given time.

Rawhyde

 

This is what I did when I painted the calipers. I used jack stands, and floor jack. Hope the pic attaches correctly, it has been some time since I did this.

 

I was told to always put the new tires on the rear so the rear has the most hold on the road to prevent oversteer

 

I apply a small amount of anti-seize to the hub spread it out and then wipe most of it back off before I put on the wheel. This very thin layer keeps the wheel from sticking but doesn't (I think) interfere with the seating of the wheel and hub.

I don't put anti-seize or anything else on the lug bolts. I would think any kind of lubricant there would interfere with applying the correct torque. In other words - I think it could cause an over-torqued conditon.