I was wondering how is the best (ie safest) way to jack the maxima up? I am going to buy either a bottle jack or one of the "folding" ones from wallymart. I already have a couple of 2 ton jackstands.

1) With the bottle jack where would the lifting point be? I see at the front just under the bumper in the middle there seems to be a spot that would take it - will this spot be ok to crank up the entire front weight of the car or will it buckle?

2) Can I then put the jackstands on the outter rims of the car (where you'd use to jack up if you had a flat tire), or do I have to put a little further under the car and if so can I simply pick any piece of metal that looks like it probably won't buckle/snap, etc.?

Thanks - I am probably being picky but I get nervous when my head is between a suspended vehicle and a concrete floor

 

I'd never purchase a bottle jack. I bought a 3 ton floor jack at Sams for $50.

I did a brake job and tire rotation this weekend and used the lower engine mount brace as the jack point and the two jack points located behind the front wheels for the stands.

 

If you're doing work underneath the car, absolutely buy a floor jack and prop the jackstands up on any suitable parts of the suspension--on the front-end there's a convenient bump in the center for jacking it up, then I put my jackstands under some bolts in the control bar/link.
You don't want to put the jackstands on a possibly "soft" part of the car and have it drop on you when you're underneath...
(SAFETY COMES FIRST!)

 

Here's a thought. Try looking in the manual. That would probably give you the best/safest tips for lifting points on the car. Any advice you recieve here (while it may be well meaning and possibly very good) may not be worth risking your life with.

 

You have a lot of faith in the expertise of this board!

 

Actually the manual says nothing about jacking the car up. The only reference to anything like that is in the "changing a flat tire" section, and they say to use the tiny wind-up jack supplied with the car and use it on the outer rails where the notches are...

We jacked up the front using the outer rails but it doesn't seem very solid. It kinda bends and metal flakes come off it, etc. When we were looking for a good spot we found 2 little circles with rubber gaskets around them about 1ft in from the side of the car, behind the engine that looked perfect for a jack spot... But we didn't use them since we didn't know if they were a soft suspension part or something. Anyone know what those are?

 

The service manual does... Jacking points are in the middle of the front crossmember (just where it looks convenient.) Rear point is the middle of the rear "axle", the shaft going between the tires. I have a sway bay at that point so I have to be creative

 

Thanks for the info Michael.

I spent half an hour looking through mine. Hell, even the index fails to have an entry for "jack points". As stated above, it only tells you how to use the weak little scissor jack that comes with the car.

That's why, after much consternation, I decided that the lower engine mount bracket would have to do.

 

Where is the front crossmember please?

 

I have a simple scan from the service manual showing the jack points / jackstand points. I can email to you or if someone has web space I will email to them. Send me your address.

 

Odd, on mine there's a nice protrusion in the chassis in the very center of the front end underneath the radiator (or whereabouts); fits PERFECTLY into the cup of my floor jack...

 

Yes spirilis, either that point, or right behind it, is best for the front.

 

I just use a few old tires w/o rims...

Works great and you can even rock the car up and down.

 

I also couldn't find a darn thing in my manual or the haynes. Thanks for answers

 

Quickest way to jack up a car ..... lower the suspension, put on 20" chrome rims, tint all your lights blue and maybe a nice basket handle wing.
Yep, that'll jack it up pronto!!

 

This pic should help. For my 3 ton indy jack, I took a piece of 2x4 and used a router to create a slit in the middle. Now I have my own safety stand adapter, works great.

 

Uconn411 -- Now that is what I call a comprehensive description.
Very nice!

 

Nice Uconn411.

Is it true that with an RSB installed, the rear "garage jack point" is rendered useless?

 

What about those rails parallel but closer to the middle of the car to the rails pointed out in that illustration. Are those the chassis frame rails?

 

where can you buy the stand adapters from?

 

Surreal, those rails will not support the car whatsoever, with the exception of the front and rear 3" of them (where it is 2 rails overlapped.) If you don't have adapters to put the jackstands on the side, this is one place to put them.