Hi guys, Santa gave me a hydraulic floor jack and I'm trying to figure out the best front/rear lifting points (for just one wheel at a time ok). I want to keep the normal "body fold" jacking points for use with my car supports so I was looking for alternate lift points on the subframe/suspension. I've taken some photos of the points that look like the best options and just wanted to check that these are safe to use. Rear : Looking under from the rear of the car the bolt shown here (green) at the end of the torsion bar. Is that an ok lifting point? (See first attached pic) Front : Looking in from just behind one of the front wheels here shows the bolt I want to lift from. Is that one ok? (See second and third attached pics).
I would not jack on the bolts to the control arms if thats what they are. hard to tell as your pics are very dark. I have been jacking up the front of the car for years with no issues whatsover on the points in the picture. There right behind the front bumper and in front of the tires on each side. They look like tiedowns or maybe tow hooks but there really strong. And really easy to jack on. My Sears jack slides right under there easy. The problem with the specified jack points right behind the front wheels they are hard to hit perfectly and its easy to bend the fender if not perfect on the floor jack round cup. Its easier if you use the jack that comes with the car as it has a groove to fit on those rails but the floor jack has a round oddly shaped cup platform that does not fit that side rail good. I bent my fender once a little with my floor jack. The service manual specifies the main brace in the center of the car in the front but my jack can't get under there to hit it.
I'm not sure what it's called but if you look in behind the front wheel it's the first bolt you see. I've found a diagram of the official lifting points and I've added my proposed points in green. Does that help show where I'm referring to? Ok thanks. I just checked and I can locate those tow/tiedown points. It looks like there are similar tow/tiedown points at the rear as well. Yeah, those are the points where I want to use my car stands. If I try to use the floor jack from those points then (apart from the issue of possibly bending the sill) I cant easily fit the car stands in there at the same time. Yes I find that too. Plus I only really want to lift one wheel at a time as mine is not a particularly heavy duty jack. See attachment for clearer picture of just where are the proposed lifting points as shown in the earlier photos.
I use the points in the service manual. My jack is a little too high to get under the front one, so I drive the front up on some RV leveling blocks so I can fit the jack under. Long thread on it here: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-.../35358-jacking-lifting-points-your-prius.html
Thanks Dogfriend. Yeah I did search for lifting points before and found that thread. The thing is that I only want to lift one wheel at a time and I want to leave the "side sill" points free to place my car stands there. Here is a bottom view of the car with the official central lift points shown, along with the proposed points that I want to use. They do look like really strong locations, but can anyone reassure me that they are safe in the sense they wont mess with the wheel alignment or steering or suspension in any way. BTW. I lifted that picture from another users post. It already had the two central lifting points marked in red but I thought the front one looked wrong so I crossed it out and moved it to where I think it should be.
I usually jack it up on the tie downs up front than when the wheel is off the ground put metal ramps under the wheels. The kind your supposed to drive on. Its lot less dramatic jacking it up fast and sliding the stands under the tire instead of driving the car up on a stand. My driveway is too slippery to do that anyway. I can jack it up and put stands under the wheel in like 20 seconds on each wheel. I can't remember what i do in the back but I think the bottom of that support you highlighted is correct. Of course if its wheels off like your asking I just put jack stands under the specified jack points while jacking it at the tie downs. Like you I wondered how are you supposed to jack at the specified jack points and put jack stands there too. Maybe if you use there scissor jack which is ridiculous to use. Which is why I found the tie downs. And pro floor jack on the points behind the wheel is tricky as that support beam there is not made to be lifted by the odd cup size of a floor jack. Its built to receive the notch of the scissor or jack stand. The tie downs up front are really strong. Whats cool is you just jack the flr jack up slowly to the td with your hand guiding the flr jack as you kneel down. Don't even have to hardly bend over or get on the ground. Its really quick. Good Luck.
I made a very "short" production run of these custom made lightweight aluminum "pinch weld" jacking adapters for my own use and for sale on eBay, because I couldn't find anything like them anywhere for my Harbor Freight US General flat top aluminum racing jack. They would be great fo the second generation Prius. I don't recommend them, however, for the newer Prius with the plastic rocker panel covers.
The front jack locations is the same as it is on all toyotas right smack dab in the middle just beyond the bumper a foot or two that big metal bump put the floor jack there parking brake on and pump bothe front tires up and off the ground in a second and plenty of room to get at the oil access panel!
