This may have been brought up before, but not for a while. Anyway, for those of you who are dropped and have either the stillen or ionic lip kit, how the heck do you get a jack under the front of the car? I bought a new Craftsman Professional jack last year and when i redid my suspension, it was close then. Now i'm plannin on getting a lip kit and i have no clue how i'm going to jack the car up. I was thinking maybe drive it up onto bricks or something, and then go from there? seems tricky, but if that's what it takes...

also, even when using the emergency jack on a car with a lip, can you even access the jack point on the edge below the door sills anymore? obviously there must be a way as not too many people complain about this on a regular basis, so enlighten me!!

thanks

(and don't tell me to buy a new $200 lo pro jack... )

 

Good question. I'm down 3.5+ inches and I just about get a jack under there. I don't know how I could do it with lips and skirts.

 

they don't even have those ramps that you roll up on. the incline on those are usually too steep also!

 

you could buy a racing jack that has a low profile so it slides under the front or oyu could jack up one side of the car and then slide the jack under the front and raise it that way.

 

i suppose a racing jack would be the best, but i don't think i can even get my jack under there now to jack up one side...

 

I dont have a lip on my car but this is the only jack that can fit under my car. Im lowered 4 inches. this craftsman racing speed jack measures 3 1/8 inch tall. when I need to jack my car up i jack it up front the front in the center where the crossmember is. There is a small ball like object at the front of the crossmember that is where i place the jack

 

what u need to do is drive up on a couple of 2x4s is a step like manner thats what i do...it works great

 

thats a good idea drive onto two ( one under each front tire) 2x6's then jack the car up

 

yea, i was about to say you need to use a 2x4, drive on it and you should be ok, thats how i do it. no other way for me.

 

i just drive on a piece of wood.

btw weird thread

 

haha, sorry. i was just thinking today about it and i couldn't go check since my car isn't at school with me. i figured a brick or a 2x4 (x6) would work. just checkin what others are doin. thanks for the answers.

 

i wish i was low enough to have this sort of problem

 

^^^ a lil photochop, i assume?

it's bittersweet. looks good and feels good when your driving, but gettin around town's a bish. i'm not even slammed and i scrape. especially sux cuz my driveway is about like this: \ at the beginning. i have to be so careful... but i love it!

 

You could always get coilovers... but then again you'd still have the jack problem. Ha how about you get a bunch of guys together and lift up the side of the car and slide a jack under

 

planning on it!! no, i'll probably end up just using an old 2x8 that sitting in the garage. it's about 8 feet long, so i can hit both tires at once and not mess around with aligning two 2x4. i was just wondering if there was a better solution. (other than an hella-expensive jack). should be fine with the boards, though.

 

drive on a brick to gain some clearance. thats what i usually do but thats to clear the side skirt upfront. i have never jacked the car from the front !

 

You could use the crappy Nissan jack that came with the car to get it high enough to slide your floor jack under.

 

stillen lip+ flex agent when painted= ability to pull up lip just enough to slide jack under. Havent had a problem yet. Driving up on bricks and 2x4s will work too if you are worried about pulling up the lip, that's what the flex is for, done it a bunch of times, no cracks, no problems. Fiberglass lip/front +lowered car=

 

my craftman jack just barely fits under the front lip. well only when im in a certin spot in the driveway. i think its a cheepy 2 1/4 ton. its all black i know that for sure.

 

what u need to do is drive up on a couple of 2x4s is a step like manner thats what i do...it works great




Best comment I've heard in this thread. Exactly what I have been doing.

 

Is everyone that low that they cant even fit the stock scisor jack under at the side? jack up a decent amount then use your floor jack for the front when you have enough clearance.

Word from the wise. . . keep that stock sicsor jack in your car, if you get a flat and you slammed that low, it will be damn near impossible to lift you car up.

I had a flat, and there was no way I could fit my fat floor jack under the car, sadly my side skirt took one for the home team to get my car up in the air. . .

 

use some wood like stated or buy a set of ramps like so..
http://www.discountramps.com/plastic_car_ramps.htm

 

yeah definitely...

I use my scissor jack to lift the car enough so that the floor jack will fit underneath....

 

so even with the sideskirts on, the notched part of the frame (where the scissor jack is intended to be used) is still accessible? i'll probably do that then. jack up the side enough to get the floor jack to the ball under the front. thanks for the responses guys and gals.

 

yep

10chars....

 

I'm lowered on Eibachs with a lip kit. I've actually never jacked up the car from the front, only along the sides, but I imagine I could still fit a jack under the front.

 

Yeah, the frame rail or whatever it's called is back under a ways; the side skirts are at the edge.

Those plastic low-profile ramps look great, but $35 shipped for one pair is a bit STEEP, yuk yuk yuk.

Man, WTF is up with you guys who have never jacked up the front...it's by far the easiest and most useful place to jack the car up!

 

I have an RX-7 that has a low lip and the front jacking point is about 18" under the front of the car.

I started by lifting one of the corners to get my normal jack under the front, but that was slow and tiring. I also made some ramps using 2x10s, and they worked ok. Just make sure you use a miter saw to 'ramp' the leading edge or you might find yourself pushing the boards across the garage. Again, this works, but can get slightly annoying.

By far the best solution is a proper jack. Try a DK20: http://www.ultimategarage.com/acjacks.html
Since the front jack point on a Maxima is so close to the front, it should be trivially easy with this jack. If you can afford to properly drop a Maxima 4", then this jack should be an understandable investment.

But I have to soapbox - 3-4" drop is ridiculous. Even if you took it to a track, you'd have your *** handed to you since you destroyed what little performance this suspension had. Consider how a running back runs with a little bit of crouch - but now your car is trying to move while crouching so far its *** is touching its heels. If you want a lower CG, get a shorter running back.

Dave

 

sorry, i may have been a little unclear. i'm not planning on dropping nearly that far. i have a drop, and then possibly planning on a lip kit, hence the thread title. with the kit, it will make it as though the car is dropped that far. but why buy a $200 jack when i already have a perfectly fine craftsman one? all i need are a few 2x4's.

 

Having 2 jacks is much more useful than you might think.

Dave

 

For all I'd suggest figuring out a way to jack up your car in case of emergencies.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....27#post4699027

If I had a kit on, it would have been harder. I'd suggested keeping the tools needed to take off your side skirts (assuming there just bolted on) just in case, so you can take off your side skirt, and not end up in the predicament where you have to decide on leaving you car there, or damaging the sideskirt in order to get the car back on the road.

 

i have a small floor jack with like maybe a 2 inch diameter metal cup shaped thing that presses against the car to lift it.
every time i try jacking it against the frame it puts indentions in it. but i cant use it on the lip meant for the scissor jack because it bends that, its rediculous and i feel bad about making the underside of my car look all messed up.
nobody else has this problem?

 

Use the stock jack points. The square hollow frame rail is dented very easily (I've done it). The little notched rail is what you're supposed to jack from on the side, but even that seems pretty flimsy and it's designed to be used with the stock jack or the dealer's special jack point connector. This is why I prefer to use the beefy front and rear jack points. If you can't get under the front lip, use the stock jack on the side and then slide the big jack under the front.

 

alright thanks. i might have to get one of those nice floor jacks with a big flat rubber piece on the end.

 

sorry, but can you just tell me where these are? well, the front is pretty obvious, but i'm just not sure about the rear. is it the beam? from diagrams, that's what it looks like, but I put my jack up to the cylindrical beam inside of the 3-sided square, the circular rod seems to bend. i'd hate to loose my rear alignment because of this. so where exactly is the jack point in the rear? i see nothing else other than the beam pics would be cool too.

 

No pics, but get your jack saddle lifting on both sides of the 3-side square beam (I call that C-Channel). Lift it right in the middle.

If your jack doesn't have a big enough saddle, use a chunk of wood.

Dave

 

Ditto what Dave said. The rear jack point is the center of the beam, yes. There is a circular hole to mark the center. You don't have to be exact, but you definitely should put a big enough piece of wood between the jack and the beam to avoid touching the rear stabilizer bar!

 

what is your suspension set up to be dropped 4 inches?