Jacking the car on one side - is this a bad place to put a jack stand? Will it hurt the car?




[IMG]local://upfiles/5989/7AEF3AEFC4CD478BADC58A1837E20971.jpg[/IMG]

 

it would be fine if you ge it up there like it wouldnt hurt the car any...when i jack it up i put the stand on the subframe behind the front tire but idk whe 4th gens have under there so if it looks good to you

 

Are you putting it on a jack stand? I always place my stand under position #2. due to the fact that is the better place if you want max height and room under the car. Reason being is that if you place it under any place other than suspention, when you lower your jack, the suspention will drop. If you place it under the suspention, the suspention cant move which means the car wont mover closer to the ground when you remove your jack.. ALWAYS after placing your car on the jack stand and removing the jack, shake the car easily to besure that it isnt going to move on you. Nothings scarier than having a car move on you while under it let alone fall on you....Chalk your wheels also. Becareful..

 

I used the subframe last time. Doing that actually seemed less secure. That's where I put the jack to jack it up, with a piece wood between the saddle and the subframe. Then I put the jackstand just a little beyond where the huge bolt is that connects the control arm to the frame (as you can see in the pic). I liked it because that section wasn't as wide as the subframe area, behind the front wheel well. I have the orange and white 2 ton jack stands from harbor freight - the tops of them aren't very wide, so putting them on the subframe meant that the tips of the little jaws are the only thing actually making contact. But putting them on the control arm meant that it actually went down inside of the jaws very securely. But I was afraid that I might be stressing that bolt that holds the control arm.

 

Chappie-
I didn't want to put it near #2, because, like you said, that would make the suspension compress, lowering the jack height.

I talked about this some in "longest thread ever" but the post was quickly lost, since there's high traffic in that thread.

I bought some ramps at walmart, but they suck. I couldn't keep them from sliding. I'm taking them back tomorrow. I'm sure there are ways to prevent them from sliding, but if it's that much trouble, I don't feel like screwing with them.

And by the way - I'm talking about jacking the car with the purpose of changing the oil. If I were doing a big job, I might consider a different location (not sure where though).

 

well from the looks of that picture it looks like a very short bolt...and the shorter the stronger and bolts are strong to start with so i figure it would be ok...but ide get a second opinion on ti cuz i dont trust my own advice lol

 

What the worry of compressing the suspention? It wont harm it any. I dont like using the sub frame because thay are weak and I dont trust them. Under the front A-arms, i feel comfortable enough to let my 4 year old climb under there with me. They are solid and sturdy. Unless its a full frame car, I dont like using the sub frame.

 

I think I'm beginning to form that same opinion about using the subframe. Although I think I will continue to use that area for the initial jacking, since it's hard to get my jack under the car and move the lever if I go anywhere else.

I didn't really want to put the stand farther out on the control arm because I was afraid that the movement of the arm (shocks) as I let the jack down onto the stand might cause something to wrong. I wanted a place that was rigid and wouldn't move, was farther towards the front of the car, and over to one side. The red box seemed to meet those criteria, I just hoped it wouldn't hurt that bolt that the arm pivots on. It's sorta like the "bed of nails" principle. When the car sits on the wheel, the weight of the front left quarter of the car is distributed among many different things (laying on many nails means your skin won't get pierced). But putting the car on a jack stand means that the front left quarter of my car is sitting on that little red box in my picture (laying on one nail means it will go through your skin). I just wanted to check with you guys and make sure it could handle it.