Please show me where the floor jack suppose to go!

Discussion in 'Prime Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Salamander_King, Nov 16, 2018.

  1. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Thanks for the suggestion. I think you are probably right about the part that's not exposed to road salts. I still would like to remove some of those plastic cover to see what they look like after two NE winters. And if I do take the plastic off, as might as well spray some Fluid Film. I will see how much of work it involves when the weather breaks. We are having 3+ inches of snow today. And I don't have snow tires on my PRIME any more! :cry:
     
  2. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    When I got my '04 I bought a low profile floor jack. BARELY fit under the car to hit the front lifting point. And yes the first several stokes on the handle were short since I needed to go in angled from the front, not the side. Since I think the Prime is lower it may not fit at all.

    The front point was more obvious on the Gen II since there was much less in the way of underbody shields but even then some people sprayed orange paint on the jacking point so it was easy to see without getting down on your belly. Could be a good thing to do on the Prime since it is not a clearly obvious shaped metal location.
     
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  3. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Great idea. But I have a problem. I can't paint the jacking point without first jacking up my car. There is no way to crawl under it. IF I have it jacked it up, then I already hit the jacking point with my floor jack. So What I am going to paint would be around the jack point... Leaving the jack point unpainted, because it is protected by the jack. The hardest part would be to hit that jack point without any mark for that first time. :LOL:
     
  4. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    Next time it is up on a lift. Or take it to a roadside inspection station that has a pit ;)
    Or maybe jack one side and put in a jack stand, do the same on the other side, suck it in and slide under!
     
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Jack it up and settle it on safety stands, roll out the jack. That said, I wouldn't bother painting it.

    I think you're just joshing, but just in case: you'd never want to crawl under there with just a floor jack holding it up.
     
  6. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    I think even with a painted jack point, with PRIME being so low to ground I probably can not see the painted underbody until it is raised high enough. Once I know how far I have to push the floor jack from the front to hit the jack point, I think I will be OK. It's just that first time is going to be a challenge.
     
  7. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    Figure out where it goes, put paint lines at the rear of the front tires on the garage floor and U shaped paint lines for the rear and sides of the jack :D

    Where is the jacking point for the pallet forks on my tractor? That would be even faster than a floor jack.
     
  8. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Both front and rear jack points are at the center from the sides. All I need to figure out is how far to roll the floor jack. Once I know how far, just quick marking on the body or the handle of the floor jack would be enough, I think. More of the problem for me is to find a level surface on my driveway. With frost heaving, our asphalt driveway has buckled up quite a bit this winter.
     
  9. bruceha_2000

    bruceha_2000 Senior Member

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    I could not get my low profile floor jack far enough under the side of the Gen II's to get it under the front jacking spot. You'ld probably have to run it up some ramps to get the jack under the side. Easy to run the jack up from the rear to get the rear jacking "tower".
     
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  10. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    It's not that hard.

    Throw a piece of carpet down, lie on it, slide a pit lamp under and roll the floor jack in, around the middle. Then check the Owner's Manual pictures of the jacking point, it's just beyond the plastic zone, in sturdy metal, and there's a big bolt in a depression just beyond it.
     
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  11. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    It's interesting that in the video provided by @Mendel Leisk in post #4, the lifting pads on the hoist are not at the places shown in the manual for the scissors jack or the floor jack. I wonder ... if you install a large enough lifting surface on the floor jack, would that open up more possibilities for lift points?
     
  12. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    My dealer also had the hoist on the side not corresponding to the scissors jack points. Mendel has mentioned that those rocker panel edges are not strong enough to bear the body weight. IF NOT PROTECTED WITH HEAVY PA, IT WILL BENT THE PANEL EASILY. There may be some other jacking points on the sides, but from the side, both sides have to be raised making it less convenient. Actually, the first time I did tire rotation, I did raise my car from the side using a floor jack and heavy padding at the scissors jack points. Had to do it four times instead of just two for front and back.

    I just watched the video on comment #4 and noticed something I didn't want to see. At 4:08 and on the guy mentions about exhaust system being one-piece structure going all the way from the middle of the car where it connects to the CAT to the final exhaust tailpipe. They are not protected by any cover and totally exposed to road element underneath. With the heat and road salt, I just know it will rust out after while in my region. I looked it up, and the cost of the parts alone is ~$500. I wonder if muffler needs to be replaced, what the cost would be. In fact, the front exhaust assembly part that includes the CAT is even more expensive at over $1000. :(

    Annotation 2019-04-07 072538.jpg
     
  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    I don't use the scissor jack locations (on my 3rd gen) for safety stands. If you put the scissor jack in position and start it up, you'll see it's not actually bearing on the knife edge, rather on the body behind it. And it's barely capable, starts to dimple in, in my experience, and that was on a back corner.

    I put safety stands in further, four points I worked out by trial and error, and some info about second gen, by Hobbit if I recall correctly.
     
  14. road2cycle

    road2cycle Active Member

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    I rotated the tires on the Prime today since Toyota Care expired. I spent 15 minutes looking under the Prime with a flash light and my cell phone camera trying to locate the sturdy metal cross member that is shown in the pathetic illustration in the manual and which wasn’t visible from the photos earlier in this thread (the one taken while on the dealer’s lift). Has anyone found the location of this cross member and taken a photo of it? All I saw was the flimsy piece of metal which was in the earlier photo. I didn’t want to win a Darwin Award by smashing the floor Jack through that point if it’s not reinforced on its opposite side.

    Fortunately I have two floor jacks so I ended up lifting one side of the car, swapping the tires, then doing the same on the other side. I rather would have done the tire rotation with all four corners on jack stands.
     
  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    @jerrymildred is one 4th gen owner who's persevered, and he resorted to building low-rise ramps for the front wheels (3" IIRC), so that once the jack was rolled under as far as the front jacking point, he had (barely) enough clearance for the jack handle movement.

    I believe it's roughly inline with the front wheels? That's about 4~5 feet back from the front bumper.

    Addendum: looking back through the postings, did you see the pic in post #4?
     
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  16. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    We developed this jacking plate to fit the center hole in the rear control arm. It allows one rear wheel to be raised no much than about two inches for exceptionally safe tire changing without full expansion of the rear spring as would happened if the center rear jacking point is used. That's a really inexpensive $33 Walmart 2 ton floor jack.

    raised.jpg top view.jpg
     
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  17. road2cycle

    road2cycle Active Member

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    I looked at the photo in post #25 since that was a of a Prime. The plate in the photo doesn’t appear thick enough to be load bearing. Perhaps the cross member is on the other side of that plate, but I didn’t see any obvious indication of X marks the spot to place the jack.

    I considered driving up onto a rough cut 2x12 that I had lying around but that would have meant chopping that piece of lumber in half to get both front tires off the garage floor. I hadn’t planned to do woodworking and auto maintenance on the same day.
     
  18. road2cycle

    road2cycle Active Member

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    Nice to see something with a Made in the USA label!!!

    Out of curiosity what is the drawback for unloading the rear coil springs the rear center jack point is used?
     
  19. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    That one shows the same spot.

    Whinge whinge :ROFLMAO:
     
  20. Georgina Rudkus

    Georgina Rudkus Senior Member

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    There should be no problem, since the spring fully supports the full weight of the rear corner of the car even with a moving load. It is much less when the car is stationary.
     
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