Swapping wheels and tires for winter.

[MTLbroker]

The dealership wants to give me an appointment for tire swap in 3 weeks because they are sooooooo busy due to new law up here that makes winter tires mandatory.So, OK, now I'm a born again DIY'er. I think I'll just do the tire swap myself, but I don't wnat to screw anything up. Here's where I need your help...I have 18-inch mags that have to come off. I'm putting on my winter tires that are already on 17" rims already balanced and ready to go.Do forum members do their own tireswaps and are there any common mistakes? Is it pretty straightforward? What do I have to pay attention to?I wish I paid more attention to what mechanics do when my car was in the shop. I'm sure I can handle it, it's not rocket science. Pls help and thx in advance.

[evildky]

swapping one set of wheels for another is no big deal, just be sure you torque the lugnuts sufficiently and retorque them after a week or so, the only minor issue is the TPMS, if your winter wheels have them I think you just hit the reset buttom if not then you just inglore the light till thethaw

[MTLbroker]

OK, so this past weekend, I decided to go for it and swap the wheels on my 2 cars. The Maxima was first. Off came the mags, on went the winter rims. No problem.Next was the 350z. Off came the mags. No problem. Tried putting on the winter rims - front ones first. Tried for like 30 seconds and the rim wouldn't fit. Examined the wheel, made sure it fit over the brake assembly..... no problem. Then I saw the pin..... DUH! The front rotors of the 350z have a pin screwed into it. This is to prevent the rear mags from being installed in the front. They have a staggered setup. So I took a chance and put a wrench to the pin. It came off no problem. I just hope having no pin would not cause problems.Now the rim installed without problems. All in all, 2 cars, took 1.5 hours to swap on the winter tires - without power tools. Felt good about doing it myself.