Being a vehicle owner comes with a certain set of responsibilities, one of them being the maintenance of your vehicle. This ensures that your vehicle is always in good working order and that you keep your costs down. Two of the most common areas of maintenance is engine oil and tires, so why not do both at the same time?
At Jiffy Lube you can maintain your tires by rotating them at an average cost of $40. This is an approximation because Jiffy Lube rotation costs vary depending on location. Though $40 might be a little high than you expected for a tire rotation it is around the average price for a tire rotation. However, you do save a lot of time getting your tires rotated while at the same time getting your oil serviced.
What Services Does Jiffy Lube Offer?
Primarily Jiffy Lube provides an oil changing service, but they do take care of some other vehicle maintenance needs. Along with changing filters, brakes, and other fluids, Jiffy Lube can also rotate your tires.
Typically, they will charge around $40 to rotate your tires. This price does fluctuate a little from Jiffy Lube to Jiffy Lube, which is largely due to the average income rate in different areas and states. Though you can get your tire rotated for much cheaper at a place like Walmart, you do save a lot of time by doing one-stop for all your maintenance needs.
What Is a Tire Rotation?
You might be wondering what a tire rotation is and why you should be paying $40 for it. Well, a tire rotation is simply swapping the wheels of your vehicle around. In most cases, the front wheels will be swapped with the rear wheels and there will often be some kind of left to right switch involved as well.
Why Should You Get Your Tires Rotated?
It is important to rotate your tires so that they can wear evenly. Because different wheels have different jobs depending on where they are on your vehicle, they experience different levels of stress. For example, the front tires are going to experience far more wear than the rear tires.
Because the front tires are used for turning, they have increased edge wear which rounds the tire out. If not rotated; the tires will become a completely different shape compared to the rear tires which will retain a flatter tread shape.
Furthermore, most vehicles have a higher braking percentage in the front. Once again, the front tires are working harder because they are doing more work to slow the vehicle down. The percentage on most front-wheel-drive vehicles is around 80% front braking to 20% rear braking.
Additionally, whichever tire has more weight will experience more wear. These are once again, usually the front tires as that is where the engine is and where the majority of passengers are. Furthermore, the driver’s side tire will wear more because most often the driver is the sole occupant in the vehicle.
Finally, the drive of your vehicle will affect the wear of your tires. Whichever wheel is used to deliver the power from your engine to the road will experience more degradation than the non-driving tires. Most of the time these will also be the front wheels.
Rotating your tires allows all of them to experience the same amount of wear which dramatically increases their overall life span. Additionally, they wear more evenly, also increasing their usability by a substantial amount.
How Often Should You Get Your Tires Rotated?
On average you want to get your tires rotated every 5,000 to 7,500 miles, depending on your driving habits. If you tend to accelerate quickly and brake hard then lean toward a shorter rotation cycle. Fortunately, 5,000 to 7,500 miles coincides with most vehicles’ recommended oil change cycle.
This gives you the perfect excuse to get both your oil changed and your tires rotated at a Jiffy Lube at the same time. There are however two exceptions to this rule, however. With modern full-synthetic oil, a vehicle’s oil change interval may be double that of conventional motor oil.
A full-synthetic engine may only need an oil change every 15,000 miles. This is good for the budget because you need to buy less oil over a vehicle’s lifetime, but it does mean you would need to rotate the tires more often than getting an oil change.
Additionally, four-wheel drive (4WD) and all-wheel drive (AWD) vehicles need tire rotations more often for the best outcome. On average a 4WD or AWD vehicle should have its tires rotated between 3,000 and 5,000 miles. Again, throwing out the balance between oil changes and tire rotations.
Can You Do Your Own Tire Rotation?
You can definitely perform your own tire rotation and your vehicle most likely came with all the tools you need. The bare minimum you will need is a lug wrench to remove and reinstall your lug nuts and a car jack, all of which your vehicle should have.
There are different tire rotation patterns so make sure to consult your vehicle’s user manual for the right pattern. Also confirm that you do not have directional or staggered tires, as these will limit your tire rotation pattern options. Directional tires can only be rotated back to front while staggered tires can only be rotated left to right.
Conclusion
For the most part, Jiffy Lube will charge you around $40 to rotate your tires. This is more expensive than other places but will save you some time because you don’t need to visit multiple locations to get tires rotated and your oil changed.
Keep in mind that Jiffy Lube likes to look for extra work. They will most likely offer to change any other filters and try to find something that is wrong with your vehicle. Filter changes are good for your vehicle, but Jiffy Lube may recommend a new filter when one is not yet needed.
