I am lifting the Z up now for an oil change "first on this car", and was wondering what are the best points to put my jack, to raise the car.

 

Bump

 

Probably at the points that your owners manual recommends. Look in the "In case of emergency" section.

I sure hope you don't plan on crawling up under the car supported on just a jack.

 

 

+1

 

Rear differential and engine cradle.

 

These are some of the other points I like using also.

Note: the aluminum suspension parts are not where I jack, but only where I place a jack stand after the cars has already been elevated.

 

pinch weld. go easy on 'er

 

Good point. I use some 3"x3"x1" hard rubber blocks with a groove cut in them. The groove slides over the welded "pinch" or flange, then I use my floor jack to lift on the rubber block. The same works with the jack stands.

 

Remember thats why they make jack stands, weather you wana beleave it or not floor jacks are not made to hold the weight of a car. yes they will hold but theres a chance that seal will blow out. in my experience with a z, and with most cars for that matter, theres 2 cars i have dealt with that are tricky, mini coopers and bmw, bmw is one of the only cars you cant use 3 jacks cause it will fall, you need 4 because of its design, just some helpful hints.

 

Sorry I'm a little slow, but can someone draw on the pic the EXACT Front+Rear jack Garage points?

I assume if I have a low profile jack (with a minimum height of ~2inches), I can just jack the Front Garage Jack Point of the car, and put 1 Jack Stand on each side of the Safety Jack Points closest to the front, and remove the jack. But wouldn't it be difficult to see the Front jack point, since the wheels are covering it?

My 04 car is stock-not lowered, and I'm planning to do my own oil change soon. Thanks for the help!

Oh yeah, any comments about me being a noob-I already know, and suggestions for me to take it to a shop will not be useful! And I do not want to use any ramps.

I attached a pic of my guestimation of where the Front+Rear jack Garage points are.

 

Drive the car up on a couple of 2x4's to get a couple of inches of extra clearance for your jack. There's a brace up front which I don't see shown clearly on the picture which you should use to jack the car up. See the first graphic in this thread- it shows it better, IMO.

You can then put the jack stands under the factory jack spots, as you stated.Those points you can see easily, or feel them with your hand. There's small ridges in the frame close to where the front door seam is... maybe 8 inches behind the front wheel well? Something like that.

For the rear, you just jack up the differential. There's factory jack points toward the rear also, again- just a little bit forward from the rear wheel well.

 

Yeah, you've got it right. The suggestion about driving up on some 2x4s is a good one as it helps make finding the front jack point a bit easier.

I've used both a floor jack as well as ramps. Not sure why you don't want to use ramps. For a lot of things they are really easy and effective for getting either the front or rear of the car off the ground.

Dave

 

doesn't it say on the stock jack where the points are?

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to start looking for ramps or make my own.

 

I use the black plastic rhino ramps (I think that is what they are called). Then I can jack up the rear with the diff and then place my jackstands. Quick way to get it level and off the ground for fluid changes. I guess for front brake work I could drive up on ramps and then jack up car from front center point to pull ramps out and place jackstands under front.

 

For oil changes, i lift from the sway bar up front. For one side, i use subframe extension which comes close to the side. for the rear, i use diff.

 

just look for the notches

 

So this thread helped quite a bit. My only questions is this: How safe are Jack stands? Just did my oil...first time since lowering and I just didn't feel as safe as with ramps. I did it in a level garage with them set at the right points. Maybe I am just a safety freak.

Anyone construct "ramps" from wood....just in case the jack stands gave out? I am just a little freaked because a guy recently died around here....but because he only used a floor jack. Just trying to be extra safe.

 

Just be careful to those that use ramps. I used the rhino ramps on the front with jack stands for the rear for my oil change. When I went to jack the rear up to remove the jack stands, my floor jack pull the car backwards and it started to slide down the ramps! Luckly the jackstands got stuck which stopped the car from rolling onto me.

Lesson learned, put choke blocks on front tires even when on ramps.

Definitely freaky.