Jacking up car on wrong jack point, damaging to car?

[Edmo7]

I jacked up the NSX the other day by using the front jack point closest to the front tire....Then after reading the FAQ, I realized that these are "Jack Stand Locations", not the "Jack Point Location", which is in the middle of the 2 "Jack Stand Locations"....

Will Jacking up the car the way I did it damage the body in any way?

A long time ago, I jacked up my RX-7 on the wrong jack point, and it bent the body a little on the bottom side.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Not a problem!

 

[drew]

Naw, no damage....that seam is very tough. I've done the same because of tight quarters...enough to take the closest wheel off. If you think about it, that point should be able to handle at least 25% of the vehicle weight.

Now I suppose if you lift three corners of the car off the ground at that point there is probably going to be an issue.

Things to worry about: on jacks with large lift "pans", if you have the pan too far inside or lift the car too high...it WILL damage the under body.

What is really neat is that when you use all four jack stand points on your NSX. The car is so rigid that will only need three of the four jack stands...it will wobble on two of the points diagonal from each other. Which I suppose is why they stress using rubber covered stands.

 

[nsxr1]

That's good to hear. I put my NSX up on jack stands last night and noticed that the front passenger side stand was not quite making contact with the jack point (due to the concrete floor not being perfectly flat). At first I was concerned that this would result in stress that might bend the frame.

 

[W]

Any damage is cosmetic. You should be more worried about safety.

 

[Hugh]

What is really neat is that when you use all four jack stand points on your NSX. The car is so rigid that will only need three of the four jack stands.

That doesn't sound like something I'd want to risk. What if you were under the car and some numbnuts decided to lean on the unsupported quarter? Ouchie!

 

[drew]

That doesn't sound like something I'd want to risk. What if you were under the car and some numbnuts decided to lean on the unsupported quarter? Ouchie!

You DO put stands on all four corners. It is possible to kick out a jackstand that doesn't have weight on it during some acrobatic moves.

The reason it will [probably] wobble is that it is unlikely that your garage floor is perfectly flat and/or your jack stands are all the same exact height.

I suppose you could use a shim to take out any play. OR use some deep cushy rubber topped stands as specified by the manual.

Since I don't have cushy jack stands, I just double jack the car (keep the hydraulic jack pumped up and under one of the side lift points) and that seems to work great.

Believe me: getting trapped under a car scares the heck out of me...especially the NSX, where the ride height alone is low enough to crush the life out of you. I like to think I take the proper precautions.

Drew

 

[Tom239]

Believe me: getting trapped under a car scares the heck out of me...

Me too, especially living in earthquake country.

I don't use jackstands; I have four ramps, and turn them sideways
and set the car on those. They have a much bigger footprint than
jackstands and can't topple as easily.

As long as we're on the subject of jacking points: someone at Acura
must think they're unsightly; I've seen pics in NSX brochures that
had them edited out (by airbrush or Photoshop or the like).

 

[steveny]

So you won't feel dumb...I did the exact same thing, very easy mistake to make.

 

[drew]

I don't use jackstands; I have four ramps, and turn them sideways

I think you would be better off to have two of them sideways, and two of them straight. Maybe each diagnol tire should match.

How do you do an all 4-corner brake service with the tires on?

 

[ChrisK]

I would say it is perfectly fine to jack the car up at the front and rear points since the owners manual states so. On my 92, I believe it is page 185 is says to use the jack point closest to the wheel you are changing. They even have pictures showing the front most jack point used. In the Helms manual the 3 jack points, rear, center, and front are all labled as lift/support points.

 

[Tom239]

How do you do an all 4-corner brake service with the tires on?

I was describing how to use ramps as stands.
All tires are off the ground and the wheels can be removed.

 

[burbel]

All of those points shown are official jack points.

If you are lifting the entire side of the car, you use the center point. If you are only trying to lift one end, you use the endpoint nearest. You can put jacks or stands on any of those points; when working on my NSX, I tend to use the middle points for the jacks (one on each side), and jack stands on the 4 corners. However, if I am working on the engine/exhaust, I will use jacks on the rear jack points, and jack stands on the center points, after chocking the front wheels.

What you did was perfectly fine; that one picture is at least somewhat misleading...

And for the record, most times I have the car on 4 jackstands, only 3 of the points connect. There's nothing wrong with that (although I wouldn't leave the car like that for weeks at a time), just make sure to keep the jack stand under the correct 4th point; if someone leans on the car (or jumps up and down on the quarter panel to see if it moves), it will touch the jackstand briefly.

 

[D'Ecosse]

Interestingly I found the stiffness of the chassis to come into play considerably as I was adjusting the final heights on my coilovers after installation - if you adjust just one corner, it really doesn't change the height on that corner that much! (I was measuring from floor to center of wheel well). This is really the same phenomenom as the 3 or 4 jack-stand situation.