>Being a self-professed novice to all of this, but definitely
>wanting to get my hands dirty (and save myself some bucks
>towards bigger better things in the process), I thought I'd
>try rotating my own tires (along with an oil and plug/wire
>change). I did a search through the archives and came up
>with nothing. So my assumption is that this is such a basic
>thing that it's not even worth putting down on paper (or its
>digital equivalent). Any recommendations as to where I can
>find some basic info like this?

Well, I think the info is actually in ur manual. It depends what tires u have. There are tires that are unidirectional, and tires that are multidirectional. In layman's terms, multidirectional means that no matter which way the tire is rotating, it would be fine, compared to unidirectional, which can only be rotated in one direction, due to the thread pattern. Some thread patterns are designed to spin only one way, so as to maximize the thread effect, like displacing water. Also, unidirectional tires are marked with an arrow pointing which way it should be rotating, so u'd figure that out easily. Anyway, back to ur original question. Rotating tires is just that, exchanging the position of the front and rear tires. For multidirectional tires, do it in a cross pattern, ie front right replaces rear left and vice versa. If u have unidirectional tires, just move the front to the rear and vice versa. This is so u wear out ur tires evenly.
>
>Another related thing: if you rotate do you have to align?

Nope. Doing an alignment is only required when u lower ur car. This causes u to have bad camber and toe, resulting in easily worn out tires. Well, if ur really paranoid and u haven't had an alignment in awhile, it wouldn't hurt.
>
>thanks and pardon my new member smell....

No problem! Everyone's been through this, especially me!!! I'm what u'd call a real dumbass with cars. Welcome to the board, and if u have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask. And also check the "things we've seen before" forum to check for things also frequently asked. Good luck with modding ur car!
>
>woodix

SonicYan aka Mikey
1997 Eclipse RS
Pinoy Reppin' SoCal 2GNT
Best: 16.35 @ 83.05 MPH