2008 Prius Base - Front Jack Point for Floor Jack

Do you have the owners manual handy?

If not, this image might help.

 

If I’m not mistaken, second gen front jacking point is waaaay back, sim to 4th gen? You may need to run front wheels onto some sort of low-rise ramps, to achieve enough clearance for jack handle to work, being so far under the car.

Newer jacks in particular need the extra room, in my experience: their handles tend to be angled up more.

 

You should be able to identify from the details in that pic. I was going to say “jack it up for a better view”, then caught myself lol. I’m pretty sure it’s a central point on the main lower support beam, as far back as the front wheels. Get a good light under there, roll the jack in from the front and look from the side. Aforementioned low rise ramps would help a lot.

I made these out of 2x4 on edge, but something like 2x8 layered on flat would be simpler (@jerrymildred maybe will post the latter style). My style:

 

This image shows the two jack points for a trolly jack in the center – the green circles – and where to place the jack stands (if required – the red squares.

Right at this moment, I'm finding it hard to visualize the points for the stands, but the green circled points are the ones I use for my floor jack.

 

That front jacking point is tricky to reach. I have the long reach, low profile Daytona jack from Harbor Freight and I still have to drive the car up on 2x8s to get under it, and even then I can only come in from the front. The side is still too low even for the low profile jack. I always end up walking around to the side of the car a couple of times to get the jack lined up front to back too.

 

I'm not too impressed by the current generation of floor jacks. A few months back I was shopping them for my son, and the ones we tried all seem to need the jack handle raised to about 30 degrees minimum, to get it started. Which is a deal-breaker when the jack point is so far back. And, with one we tried (and subsequently returned), the handle was prone to pull out, and then the socket it's pushed into snaps up to vertical, aided by a strong spring. Turns the slightly raised car into an effing mousetrap...

 

I used two scissor jacks borrowed from other cars, one on each side, to raise the front far enough for the floor jack to work. Then once it was off the scissor jacks regular jack stands were placed. Also there is a solid rubber hockey puck like block on my floor jack which spreads the load out over a larger area, rather than placing it all on a thin metal circle, or one edge of that circle. That cross member is sturdy but I'm not at all convinced that it couldn't be dimpled by a poorly placed floor jack.

In a nutshell, the front jacking situation is pretty far from ideal.

At least the back jacking point is easy to find and use.

 

Yep, and if I intend to use that center jack point, I drive the car onto 200 x 50 (2 x 8) which gives me just enough clearance for my floor jack. 2 200 x 50 stacked would be better, though.

 

I've been really happy with the Daytona. It was not cheap, despite being from Harbor Freight, but I'm glad I spent the money. I'm not sure a lesser jack would even work on this car. It also comes with the rubber insert on the contact point so I don't have to mess around with shoving pieces of wood in there to keep from marring jack points.

 

I always used the front tow connectors
Look under the left and right of the front bumper you’ll see what I mean
The front jack point the manual shows you to change a tire you have be on it exactly perfectly or you can easily bend the bottom of the car
The one Mendel showed you my rolling Jack cannot get under that low point
It just gets jacked up quickly to put the Ramps under the front wheels
Harbor freight sells plastic Ramps they work good and are light. I leave the Jack under it to as safety measure