newbie

okay, so i have an embarrassing question, maybe so simple and trivial that's why no one ever asked.

so how do you properly jack up our car. i read the user's manual about the jack point, and i thought that i have properly located them (especially when their's a nice arrow pointing to it from the underside of the body). i have attached the picture with what i think is the jack point circled... but it doesn't feel right, because (maybe you can already tell from the picture) it's slightly bent already from my trial attempt.



is that the correct jack point?

now an even more embarrassing question. once i jack the car up, how do i place the jack stand where the jack is (since the jack is now in the way)?

i am just super retarded... so please help. i'd rather admit my ignorance than doing anything stupid that will damage my car (which i may already have), or even worse, critically injure myself.

newbie

okay... the picture that I linked didn't show up. i'll try it again shortly.

newbie

turns out the reason why the picture didn't show up is because i didn't use the direct link to the image.

01tl4tl

In order to get the car high enough to get a jackstand under the real frame rail which is in about a foot from the edge-you need a few blocks of wood to make the jack start from higher ground, it will just clear the tire off the ground otherwise- as you may have already learned

A good safety, is a block of wood or similar wedged against the rear of the tire opposite side and end of the car- working right front- place block left rear- keeps the car from rolling off the jack- now thats embarressing- but less than the Paramedics having to scrape you out from under the car
Thanks for asking- safety is never dumb!!

fsttyms1

If your using a floor jack, there is a lift point on the front of the car just behind the radiator (there is a bump down on the frame for the jack) you can lift there and place the jackstands under teh factory lift points. If your using the factory jack use the factory lift points and look for the Black Subframe that goes around the motor and find a flat place there to place the jackstands

02TLSfan

The factory jack sucks so bad, I couldn't even get mine to jack the car up enough to get a flat tire off.

newbie

thank for the input guys. i'll look into some of the jack points that Kris talked about.

i am not using the factory jack, i just bought a inexpensive jack from sears since anything is better than factory. the only down side with the floor jack that i just got is that the max height is only 14"... but maybe that'll be sufficient. we'll see.

newbie

Kris,

Just to double check on some of the locations that you are talking about.

1. The following (circled in red) IS the correct factory lift point right? Is it suppose to deform so easily?


2. Is the following (circled in green) the "Black" Sub frame that goes around the motor that you talked about? If so it seems that if I need to lift both the left and the right, the jack stands would be really close together and therefore structurally it's not very stable?


3. Do you have a picture on the lift point close to the radiator that you mentioned? Is it visible from any of the picture that I posted?

Thanks!

01tl4tl

just look under the nose of the car- you cant miss the piece that sticks down - lift there

The outer side rails for the cars jack are simply a place that body panels overlap so there is relative strength to raise the car for a tire change
Yes they are easily damaged by people using floor jacks there!

If you have bigger rims than OE- plan on a 2x4 or more under the jack to get enough clearance