Mishmosh

iTrader: (3)

Hi there. I'm obviously new at this so bear with me.
Was jacking the car today to inspect the breaks. I wanted to get jack stands underneath the "m" portion of the frame. Unfortunately, this meant putting the actual jack close to but not on the "m" part. It was apparent that the areas around the "m" don't really cut it to jack the car up as the metal started to buckle.

Q: where are safe spots, both front and rear, that are acceptable for jacking the car up so that I can fit jack stands at the "m" spots on the side?

Thank You
Mishmosh

mzmtg

iTrader: (11)

The middle of the suspension beam in the back is a good place. Put a piece of wood between the jack and the beam. And you can jack under any part of the crossmember that goes under the engine (front to back).

Daniel B. Martin

A general guideline for jack points:

Choose a sturdy reinforced part of the unitized car body floorpan. Look under either side of the vehicle and you will see a boxed section of the floorpan, running fore-and-aft. This amounts to a "frame" on a frameless vehicle. You may position the saddle of your floor jack under the leading end of this "frame" (just behind the front wheel) or under the trailing end (just ahead of the rear wheel). These are the spots which are used when a shop technician uses a lift to raise your car. You may use these same points for jackstands.


The Maxima factory service manual identifies two "garage jack points":

(1) The leading end of the fore-and-aft stamped steel brace which is under the engine/transaxle in the center of the vehicle. Jacking at this point raises the entire front of the vehicle.

(2) The center point of the rear axle. Jacking at this point raises the entire rear of the vehicle.


I replaced the original cup-like steel saddle on my floor jack with a rubber-faced flat plate (Harbor Freight #36004, $10 +s/h, or equivalent.) This is kinder to the car, marks it up less. Another approach would be to fashion a rubber insert for your cup-like saddle. Collect one of those truck tire treads which litter the highway roadside. Look for a thick one. Cut out a piece which will fit inside the saddle. Let it "float" or secure it with a big gob of adhesive, as you wish.

NYCe MaXiMa

iTrader: (9)

If you jack up the front of the car on a small incline or decline, pull the handbrake up to prevent any chances of it rolling back, my drive way is on an incline and I forgot to pull the E-brake once and it started to roll back just a little bit and also fell off the jack.

tmax

If you are only jacking up one end of the car and especially if you are on a slight incline/decline, you should be using wheel chocks. They are cheap. You can get a pair complete with slip-resistant rubber bottoms and reflective safety tape for about $10 at Hi/Lo O'Reilly. A small investment worth preventing a "freak" accident.

TMAX