A New Perhaps Better Way To Hold the Prius Up For An Oil Change

I didn't see this point being made, so I guess I'll ask:

If these Rhino or other ramps work fine for you (I bought a similar set from O'Rilley), aren't they safer than using jack stands?

I have yet to hear that the weight of a car has collapsed one of these ramps. Jack stands scare me if I have to crawl under the car. I'll only use jack stands if I'm working on brakes or changing a tire, basically working outside of the car.

I have to admit that I was initially worried about whether the ramps would move forward as I was trying to get the car onto the ramps because I have a rather smooth concrete floor in the garage. But I had no problems.

Mike

 

I got them for free from a buddy leaving the island. They are not plastic Rhino ramps and they are metal. There are a small plastic extensions to decrease the ramp approach angle for lower cars. Did you ever find your front and rear jacking points?


Posted from my iPhone via the Tapatalk app.

 

The rear jacking point is really far under there. Even with my medium duty 3-ton jack it's so far under that for the first portion of the lift you can barely move the handle.

Also it's up pretty high so it helps to put a modest amount of pack on your jack cradle to reduce the jack's travel to first contact. I put a square piece of 2x4 on the flat, and a hockey puck on top of that. For the front jacking point I sub a hard rubber cradle for the steel dish style that came with the jack.

For jack stand placement I've stayed with the rocker panel points at the rear, but on the front I've been experimenting with putting them under the main rails of the floor pan, near their front termination. Seems to work very well: more solid, less prone to slippage. The rocker panel points seem like a knife edge in comparison.

There's some pics of those alternative front jack stand points here. It's a second gen I believe, but very similar:

http://john1701a.com/prius/documents/Prius_Maintenance_Changing-Oil.pdf

(I'll try to take a few pic's with ours, and quit linking to the above)

It is worthwhile doing a dry run before you do the oil change: make sure you're able to raise the car safely, get familiar with the oil change door. It has 2 kinds of fasteners: worth marking the one different one before removal, to avoid mix-up.

Also, don't open that door any wider than necessary: pull it open just enough, and tie back with string or something. There are lots of reports of it cracking.

 

I have been using the Rhino Ramps for nearly 10 years to change
oil on both our 2003 VW Jetta Wagon TDI and recently the 2010 Prius.

Never had a problem and both vehicles cleared the ramps without
incident.

alfon

 

I've got to agree that the Rhino Ramps work well. I've had no problems with clearance driving up the ramps (the EV mode works well for this) or with getting the ramps positioned correctly or sliding. I give them a good kick to get them firmly wedged under the tire before I drive up. As was mentioned, the clearance under the car is tight but adequate for an oil change with just enough room to fold the door out of the way. I feel safer under the car with the ramps than with jackstands and they're much less hassle. Certainly for other work, jackstands are essential, but not for an oil change.

 

I suggest you put a big sign on the steering wheel and oil cap that says "put oil in the car stupid". I had to do that at the Votec center where I use to teach in a prior life. I also did check lists and noticed dealers as well as Wal-mart were using checklists and calling out the steps these days. Lately I have tried to watch from a distance at the dealer parking lot as they change my oil.

These guys are sometimes jail releases and or drop outs that got a Votec certificate/GED. Some of them are great mechanics and do excellent work. Just not all!

 

You should check with the dealer that you bought the car from. Mine came with a Mobil sticker on the upper left corner of the windshield, which probably means that the dealer fills the ICE with oil, presumably in this case Mobil 1 0W-20, since Toyota calls for 0W-20 synthetic and Mobil 1 is AFAIK the only 0W-20 Mobil sells.

The best way to really know if the oil is good for 10K miles is to do an oil analysis. But if Toyota recommends 10K changes it seems likely that they have run tests themselves and found that it is good for >10K miles. Don't forget that the Prius' ICE doesn't run all the time and is lightly stressed when it does, both of which may extend oil life WRT miles driven.

+1 on changing your oil yourself if you have a place to do it. One Honda dealer wanted to put 10W-30 into my Insight-I, which is supposed to get 0W-20, because that's what they had in their pumping system! When I went to another and asked for a synthetic change, they were going to put in 5W-20, claiming "that's all we can get". I drove to a nearby parts store, bought Mobil 1 0W-20, and prayed that they actually put it into the car. Now I do my own changes in the Insight. But since I got free service with the Prius I'll take it to a dealer I trust (is that an oxymoron?) until the 2 years of free service is up.

 

All I would assume from the above is that someone put a sticker on the windshield.

All I would assume is their lawyers told them they could get away with it, for duration of the powertrain warranty.

Definitely.

 

Thanks for the pic's! The front jack stand placement is where I most recently placed jackstands, works very well. Suggestion was from www.john1701a.com. Good idea putting ramps as a safety net: I use spare tires similarly, right now, but I'm thinking to look up wheel cradles (or even just make some). Basically ramps without the ramp part, LOL.

If I was shopping for a jack I'd look your choice up. I picked one up on cheapy boxing day sale, a 3 ton. It's very touchy for lowering, but ok once you get the hang of it.

 

One thing to keep in mind about wheel cribs: they are under sprung components. If your jackstands fail the car will come down and the springs will compress before it's fall is arrested.

Also, the few times I've settled the car's wheels onto something similar I've noticed: as the wheels are dangling free they're a little closer to the car's centre, then as they start bearing on whatever's below and compressing the suspension, they move outwards a bit. Something similar happens with a pair of jackstands, but maybe not as pronounced.

If it works, car on jackstands, and the jack left in place, just backed off so it's barely in contact, is quite a good safety net. The downside: the jack can be in your way a bit, or really in the way if you for example want to take the entire engine cover off.

I don't always do it (I should), but I think jackstands supplemented by something very solid and squat under the rocker panels(cannot tip over) is best. I've used mainly a stack of two snow tires under each rocker panel (or the summer tires, depending on the season).

I've also used a steel toolbox that I just push under, back a little past the engine zone, centrally under a main sub-frame component. I'm a little suspicious of how well the latter would stand up with the car's full weight on it.

For a better safety net, I'm thinking to cobble something out of (say) 2x12's: just screw together a stack to make a rough cube of wood, and tuck them under at the rocker panels. Save wear and tear on the snow tires. Or pick up a pair of those cradles, but just tuck them under the rocker panels.

Regarding your wheels: I think you can put a socket through the covers, judging from the pics I've seen. I've got the 17" wheels, so not sure. The cover can just be pulled off with your hands I believe, less damage prone than prying with a screw driver or what have you. Me, I'd take the covers off anyway and clean/inspect.

Official lug nut socket size is 21mm. I went with 13/16" (6 point) which is slightly tighter, and it worked ok on the lug nuts. But then when I tried to put it on the locking nut socket I found it would not quite fit. I ended up filing that socket down slightly, till the 13/16" just slipped on. If I had it to do again I might go for the official 21mm.