Nah, the weight of the vehicle will put a nice cut into the hockey puck.

 

Damn, Ive been using the jack to jack up one side at the jack point and then putting a jack stand on the frame rail and then repeating the process on the other side so i can have access to the front wheels. Any chance i bent the frame rails doing this? If so how can i check?

 

Well, when you raise one side of the car w/ a jack you're exerting about 1/3 to 1/2 the weight of the car on one tiny point - say about 1200 lbs on about 2 square inches if you're using a scissor jack. So, yeah, I'd say there's some chance it's been bent.

However, if you look at the jack point and don't seen any obvious bend or indentation, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

If it's not apparently bent or indented, you'd need to put it on a frame rack to really find out if there's any frame damage.

On my buddy's car, the damaged frame was very obvious b/c it was so indented that you could feel a bump on the interior floor board from the bent frame!

 

You'll need to drive the car up onto wooden ramps (or something similar) by bolting 2x8s or 2x10s together. Then if you drive the car partially up the ramp, you will be able to get car high enough to get the floor jack far enough under the car to jack it up at the center cross member.

 

Its a unibody car, not a conventional frame, all you're going to damage is just a section of the floor or body seam, its not going to affect anything other than cosmetics unless you try to lift the car by the 1/4 panel or the bumper or something silly like that.

 

Bumping an old thread.
im assuming this is the same for the coupe, so when i jack it up on the jack points, i can put a jack stand on the other jack point?

 

Sorry to bring such an old thread up, but just wanted to say "thanks" for the hockey puck idea. Works perfect!

 

Soundly asleep for 3 years...


For the record, a small square of 3/4" plywood works well too.


WOW, just wanted to mention that this is a total falsehood. The whole reason you don't want to make unnecessary dents,bends, or creases in a unibody is because all that sheetmetal is only engineered to be strong in its original shape. If you don't believe what a difference a dent can make, just try this experiment: Take two empty aluminum soda cans and put a small sharp dent in the side of one of them. Now carefully stand on top of the undented can and you should see it will support your weight (if you did it carefuly). Now stand on top of the dented can and you should see that it collapses under your weight. Just a small imperfection in the shape of the can becomes a focus of forces, thereby creating a weak spot. The real trouble is, you may never know if, or how much, your unibody is weakened until you need it to save your life in a crash.

 

^^ to lift the rear of the car as a whole, I usually just put the lack right under the pumpkin, works great and you can get it super high.

 

Wouldn't the best method be to drive up onto wooden blocks then jack up from point A, or reverse onto wood blocks then jack from the differential if you need to lift the rear end up?

Only reason to even use wooden blocks would be if your car is too low. Right?

 

Even though I have no issues reaching the diff in the rear with my regular floor jack, I'm seriously thinking about just getting one of these puppies so I can reach right in to the front cross member: http://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-l...ump-68050.html

Super long reach + super low profile + super high lift = WIN!

 

I like that jack, might have to get one too!

 

My car's been on stands for a good portion of this summer and I've always done it like this:




I just jack it up with my floor jack using a hockey puck to straddle the pinch weld, and then place the stand right next to it. It's not exactly on the recommended point but i only go up to 6 inches left or right with the placement, not a big deal.

 

This ^ isn't the correct way to position jack stands, need to turn them so stands are gripping the rails. Taking off wheels would be dangerous with jack stands positioned like this since your G would move considerably!
Gary

 

Whs ^

The point of its v design is to keep it from falling off if you bump the car... This way you have done it is so dangerous.