Jacking Point and Stand positions

[nzasian88]

Hi everyone.
Am planning to do my own tyre rotation at some point and am wanting to see where everyone else has their jacking and stand points...

I have a floor jack which is not low profile so I either jack from the both sides, or use the factory jack to lift it up a little before sliding my floor jack underneath.
I also have a history of screwing up my side split welds where I jack the cars from and place the jack stands, I dont what this to happen with my sonic so some input would be great

 

[KlassKlown]

I use those half moon slots on front and back where you're supposed to put the standard jack until I slip my jack stands underneath

 

[Papasonic]

I just lifted my LTZ hatch yesterday to rotate the tires. I used two heavy duty, wide stance hydraulic floor jacks, with a four foot length two by four on top of each jack's lift plate and under the pinch weld seam of the rocker panels.
To balance the vehicle, I placed the lift plate of the jacks ~ middle of the front doors. With this method, I can have the whole vehicle suspended to ease tire rotation or other maintenance. Be sure to use jack stands also, as removing the wheels may affect the balance point with only one lifting point on each side. Also use stands if you intend to get beneath the vehicle.
There doesn't appear to be an accessible center lifting point under the engine area in front, and in the rear, the axle beam isn't easily accessible with a floor jack either.

 

[sonic13rs]

I drive the front on some 2x6's so my floor jack fits under. Then I lift rear using trailer hitch and put jack stands by each wheel. Then I do a front and swap rear to front (cross/straight) as per the manual.

 

[nzasian88]

I drive the front on some 2x6's so my floor jack fits under. Then I lift rear using trailer hitch and put jack stands by each wheel. Then I do a front and swap rear to front (cross/straight) as per the manual.

Do you use jack stands at all?

Also, The sonic seems to have some soft greyish underbody coating... Does anyone know what this is? It seems to come off quite easily....

 

[Eric Smit]

Do you use jack stands at all?

Also, The sonic seems to have some soft greyish underbody coating... Does anyone know what this is? It seems to come off quite easily....

he stated he put jack stands by each wheel.

picture of grey stuff?

 

[nzasian88]

Did the rotation today. Took me almost one hour mainly because I can't get my hands on a low profile jack to get under the front of the car. - had to use the factory jack to get the car up a little bit before sliding floor jack underneath.
I jacked up the front from the subframe and use lower control arms as stand locations.
For the rear I jacked up from the rear axle and had stands under the rear axle.

Here's that grey stuff I was talking about. On my other cars, the side rails are usually just metal (painted) but the majority of the underbody has this tacky coating. I initially tried jacking from one of the side rails but half of the coating ended up sticking to the piece of wood I had on top of the floor jack.

 

[5.0]

My car definitely doesn't have that grey stuff.

 

[nzasian88]

My car definitely doesn't have that grey stuff.

Really? Can you take a pic of what your underbody looks like?

Mines a Holden Barina (redbadged sonic) but I can't think of any reason why one does and the other doesn't have that coating.

Here's what I mean by how the coating comes off really easily. Was Jacking on the rail with the coating and the diy wood adapter was covered in this...

 

[5.0]

No undercoating. There is only a coating on some seams like yours. Thats it. Did you buy the car new? It looks like that rattle can undercoating you can buy. Not factory undercoating.

 

[5.0]

For anyone interested in another safe way to lift the front or rear end of the sonics, a trick we use to lift corvette's is to build a spreader bar out of 2x6 and nail a small wood pad on each side. This way you can reach across to each side of the subframe and lift the whole front end level. Lift where the control arms are bolted on to the subframe. If your car is to low drive up on homemade 2x6 steps as shown. I use this method on the the sonic and corvette.

 

[nzasian88]

No undercoating. There is only a coating on some seams like yours. Thats it. Did you buy the car new? It looks like that rattle can undercoating you can buy. Not factory undercoating.

Purchased brand new from the dealer. Only thing I can think of is that there was some sort of imperfection that they tried covering up? This soft coating is even on the split weld factory jacking point

 

[nzasian88]

For anyone interested in another safe way to lift the front or rear end of the sonics, a trick we use to lift corvette's is to build a spreader bar out of 2x6 and nail a small wood pad on each side. This way you can reach across to each side of the subframe and lift the whole front end level. Lift where the control arms are bolted on to the subframe. If your car is to low drive up on homemade 2x6 steps as shown. I use this method on the the sonic and corvette.

Has it (the piece of wood) ever slipped before??

 

[5.0]

Has it (the piece of wood) ever slipped before??

Not once. And I've been lifting the corvette like that for years.

 

[nzasian88]

Not once. And I've been lifting the corvette like that for years.

Do you lift the Sonic using the same method?
I didn't have any adapter/wood and lifted from the centre of the subframe.

 

[5.0]

Do you lift the Sonic using the same method?
I didn't have any adapter/wood and lifted from the centre of the subframe.

Yes I lift the sonic the same way.

 

[elmuchogrumpy]

I haven't seen any useful recommendations for the jack stand positions in this thread. I use the factory scissor jack in the half moon to jack up the car and then place my jack stand directly next to the scissor jack on the pinch weld. Is this a safe spot? I've changed my oil probably 4+ times and have rotated my tires a few times using this jack stand position. I haven't noticed any problems so far.

 

[$ub$onic]

I jack using the sub frame bolts on the front and lower spring mount on the rear.

I put my jack stands at the factory lift locations on the rocker panels.

 

[nzasian88]

I haven't seen any useful recommendations for the jack stand positions in this thread. I use the factory scissor jack in the half moon to jack up the car and then place my jack stand directly next to the scissor jack on the pinch weld. Is this a safe spot? I've changed my oil probably 4+ times and have rotated my tires a few times using this jack stand position. I haven't noticed any problems so far.

What kind of stands do you have? 99% of stands will usually bend your pinch welds...

 

[Sailurman]

I actually can't think of a reason to jack up the car's front end.....though I have done it when I installed the OEM flaps. My oil changes are performed by the dealership for $35.00 (mobile 1 full sythetic) and my tires are balanced and rotated by Discount. I have a lifetime alignment package from Firestone. Hmmmmm..... well I do still need to install my new eibachs.