Proper jack locations

[Nayr747]

I did a search and didn't find much so decided to just ask. Where can you put a jack/jack stands under your car? The 4 points below the sideskirts are obvious. The owners manual doesn't give you any locations and Chiltons only has a couple crappy drawings. It would be really helpful if someone could post a pic of the underside of the car with good points circled or somthing.

Btw, I jacked my car up from here. Is that a good place on the front?

 

[DSMcrazy3]

When I need both sides up I do it there, Just more under the 2 bolts at the beginning of the beam. The stands go under the fender in the front sort of. The body of the car will sort of, lip down at one point. That lip runs from front to back(lip faces the ground) on each side at the front, and back it is reinforced, for jackstand placement.

 

[Synapses]

Could someone get some picture's of the jack point's posted? It would be really helpfull.

 

[DSM90AWD]

Could someone get some picture's of the jack point's posted? It would be really helpfull.

For a 1G check this Thread

 

[Nayr747]

Thanks for the thread. Anything on the 2g though? Defiant onece posted a pic with circled points but I cant find it anymore. I was thinking of making a jack tech article (or someone else could do it better probably) that would have a pic of the entire underside of a 2g AWD, FWD, n/t, and 1g... The best lift points would be circled in green and the next best would be circled in like yellow, and the no-no's in red. Then you could have the little zoomed in circles off to the sides with pointers to the location on the big underside pic. Then it would have all the how-to points of jacking like safety stuff, rocking the car before you get under, wood blocks, etc. And maybe it would end all these threads.

 

[DSMcrazy3]

The actual car pic is hard to tell what I have circled, so I made a little drawing to help show. Hope this helps. I may work on my car tomorrow, if I do I will take pics and post for you to better understand.

Josh

 

[Nayr747]

Yeah, I know those points. Those are in the manual. But I've seen pictures of people's cars on jack stands in a bunch of different places. Does the shop manual have all the points? Cause I've got the CD. I also need some different places cause when I drive my car up on my Rhino ramps, the end of them go under the front divit under the sideskirts so I cant use those. So for AWD it looks like rear diff, 4 points under sideskirts, what else?

Btw, when I tried to use my $35 Craftsman jack on that point in the pic it didn't work very well. The jack kept rolling foreward and seemed very unstable and almost slid off the car to the passenger side, making a couple "CLUNK" noises. Not to mention that I had to put a whole bunch of mats under the jack to get it to raise the car high enough to put the stands under the sides.

 

[CyberEye]

Just jack it up using that front cross member in the very first pic in the page, then put the jackstands wherever you can/want. Obviously make sure they're not under anything that will crush/move. Just look around, theres several places you can use. If you really need a detailed drawing of EXACTLY where to put the jackstands, you shouldn't be under there in the first place.

 

[gixrman]

What ever you do don't jack it up by the "fake" frame rail's that run down the either side of the car. Some tool bag at Just Tires crushed the underside of my car doing this.

 

[Nayr747]

Just jack it up using that front cross member in the very first pic in the page, then put the jackstands wherever you can/want. Obviously make sure they're not under anything that will crush/move. Just look around, theres several places you can use. If you really need a detailed drawing of EXACTLY where to put the jackstands, you shouldn't be under there in the first place.

I don't understand why people say this. Put them wherever you want? Someone could get hurt or killed following that advice. So how did anyone learn where to put them? Obvously they learned somewhere. They could have learned by guessing and trial and error but that's not a very good way to learn. Why are they're detailed VFAQ's on anything then? I wanted to know EXACTLY because I think it's better when things are accurate. Why do you think there are so many threads on the same topics? Yeah, some of it is because people don't search but it's also because people are vauge. I wanted to make a tech article that anyone could easily use and be safe when under their car. What's wrong with that?

 

[DSM90AWD]

Why are they're detailed VFAQ's on anything then? I wanted to know EXACTLY because I think it's better when things are accurate.

Some of them do (clutch VFAQ) but are specific to the job at hand. What exactly are you going to be doing under your car? If it's replacing the clutch, PS rack, transmission then you don't want to place stands under any of the "removable" cross-members. If just an oil change or exhaust, you have more options.

FYI.. if not removing the wheels, you also have the option of using truck ramps

 

[Stapl3]

What ever you do don't jack it up by the "fake" frame rail's that run down the either side of the car. Some tool bag at Just Tires crushed the underside of my car doing this.

That's the jack point though. Everyone's crushes in, it's fine.

 

[LowFourteen95]

Trial and error is never a good idea when your life is at stake. Before I get under the car, I pretty much throw my body at the side of the car and give it a good shake to make sure it's not gonna fall when I'm underneath it. Two points on the front that I have had success with for jackstands are the points where the lower A arms connect to the car. This gives good access to almost anything you need to do under the front.

 

[Talon96tsiAWD]

Trial and error is never a good idea when your life is at stake. Before I get under the car, I pretty much throw my body at the side of the car and give it a good shake to make sure it's not gonna fall when I'm underneath it. Two points on the front that I have had success with for jackstands are the points where the lower A arms connect to the car. This gives good access to almost anything you need to do under the front.

thats where i put my stands as well. The rear is kinda shady when you put it on stands. Ya can use the suspension mounts for removing the rear or anything so i make sure i have 2 stands and a jack to keep me safe.

 

[destruckeclipse]

Trial and error is never a good idea when your life is at stake. Before I get under the car, I pretty much throw my body at the side of the car and give it a good shake to make sure it's not gonna fall when I'm underneath it. Two points on the front that I have had success with for jackstands are the points where the lower A arms connect to the car. This gives good access to almost anything you need to do under the front.

I always place them in this point too, and push on all sides to ensure it doesn't move.

thats where i put my stands as well. The rear is kinda shady when you put it on stands. Ya can use the suspension mounts for removing the rear or anything so i make sure i have 2 stands and a jack to keep me safe.

For the rear I like to use wheel ramps, I have not needed to remove the wheels yet, so I use this method.


I have never used those rails, since in the manual it states its for temporary use with the emergency jack, I was always afraid they would crush or something. I don't think that's normal, but I could be wrong.

 

[Nayr747]

Thanks for all the help. I like those wheel ramps better than the jack. Faster, easier, and safer maybe. But when I replace my brake pads I'll need something else.

Anyone know if there's any info in the shop manual, like the cd one?