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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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    I was trying to raise my PRIME with a floor jack to swap snow tires on yesterday. OK, I have consulted the manual and found this diagram.
    jack.JPG
    I tried to find the spots, but PRIME has such a low profile, I could not see anything underbody without first raising the car up. lol I do have a low profile floor jack, but not being sure of where the jack points are, I ended up using rocker panel jack point on the side to change each tires. That worked fine, but can someone please show me exactly where the floor jack points are on PRIME and how I can be sure of the placement of a floor jack with such low clearance to the floor. Also, on the diagram for rear floor jack point, it shows some adaptor(?) like object indicated by arrow. I am assuming it is not a part of car, but something you have to place in between the jack and car. What is it called and where can I get it?
     
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  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I don't have a Prime, but this is just red-flag for me lol. You should not be having problems finding that rear jacking point, it's a bodywork protrusion, directly next to the rear suspension linkage. I think I can even dig up a pic (I was crawling under a 4th gen demo at a local dealership, I'm funny about that). Well not quite, but close, just beyond the frame, right over thar:

    upload_2018-11-16_18-2-10.png

    Front appears to be a little more subtle. But some clues: it'll be central, it'll be just about the reach of a medium sized floor jack, and it'll be a substantial piece of metal. Some bigger blow-ups from the manual:

    upload_2018-11-16_18-5-21.png

    upload_2018-11-16_18-6-0.png

    A lot of clues there I think. Looks to be just aft of the plastic zone, and there's some distinct looking pieces to orient yourself.

    One thing on our third gen, there's an opening on the engine underpanel at the jacking point, and a big embossed arrow on the panel pointing towards the jacking point. There might be something similar on 4th gen?

    Note the text too:

    upload_2018-11-16_18-8-29.png

    On third gen it's a spot on the underside of the lower cross-beam. It seems to be the same on fourth gen.

    I appreciate the weather hasn't been to kind on the east coast, maybe that's a factor. Are you out in a driveway??
     
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  3. EyePrime

    EyePrime Active Member

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    Whoops look at my other post
     
    #3 EyePrime, Nov 16, 2018
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2018
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  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Here's a screen-grab from a 4th gen (2016) walk around video. Judging from the owner's manual pictures, I'm gonna say here:

    upload_2018-11-16_18-18-48.png
    (at front of car, looking rearward, at 3:25)

    Link to the video:



    And the rear point:

    upload_2018-11-16_18-22-26.png
    (at rear of car, looking for'ard, at 4:01)

    If you're using jack stands, unless they've improved substantially compared to third gen, I'd be looking for some alternates, something near the official scissor jack location, but heavy gauge steel, and not a vertical knife edge.
     
    #4 Mendel Leisk, Nov 16, 2018
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2018
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  5. EyePrime

    EyePrime Active Member

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    I put mine on the side of the car next to the tire the owners manual says that is the correct place
    I put my hydraulic jack next to the tire on the side of the car the owners manual even says this works its on page 619 dfsfdsgsdf.JPG
     
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  6. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yap, I was trying to locate the jack point on my asphalt driveway at sub freezing temp. To be honest, I tried to look for the front jack point, and could see only plastic covered area and nothing beyond. I did not even look for the rear jack point. So the triangular thing in the diagram for the rear jack point is part of car body? If so, that should be easy to find. Though I am not going to look for that for a while, now my driveway is covered by frozen packed snow.
     
  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    The owner's manual says to put the scissor jack there, not a floor jack.

    If you put the scissor jack at those locations, I think you'll see it just cups around that crimped edge, actually bears on the body behind the crimped edge. I use the scissor jack once on a rear location, it bears on the bodywork, and managed to dimple it a bit, with one use.
     
  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Well I thought it was, as it was so on 3rd gen. But it might be a protrusion on the suspension piece, with 4 th gen. It is pretty apparent, in between those two rear linkage arm pivots, much nearer the driver side.

    It's easy to see: you just need to crawl under there in the freezing slush. :cry:
     
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  9. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yeah, that's exactly what I ended up doing. Worked fine, but was very curious how to place a floor jack to raise front or end on this car. Thanks for chiming in.
     
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  10. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Even without freezing slush, the problem was that I could hardly fit my head under the car. I don't remember what is the ground clearance of PRIME, but it is very low. Without raising the body somewhat, I just could not see anything on underside of the body.
     
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  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I find on our 3rd gen with a 3 ton floor jack, if roll it under the front, not quite central, a little towards the driver's side, as far as it'll go until the (vertical) jacking handle bumps against the front "bumper", then pull the hand back slightly, roll the jack in a bit more, then flop down on a piece of carpet, check location with a lamp, I'll be pretty close, need to maybe nudge it slightly.
     
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  12. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    I used heavy duty Slotted Jack Pad like this. ABN 5 ½” Jack Pad Universal Large Cross Slotted Frame Rail Protector | eBay on my floor jack and worked fine without damaging any of rails.
     
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  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    For tire rotations I like to raise the whole car and put on jack stands (on a flat slab in garage), with as little clear between the tire and the slab as possible, less than an inch for sure. I used to just squat and lift the wheel up and on, but my back is telling me to stop doing that, so now I zig-zag the wheel up then lever them up and on with a pry bar at the underside to lift. It helps to have someone holding a light over your shoulder, to align the studs with holes.
     
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  14. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    That's a great idea. Although the weight of wheel and tire combined was only 32lb and was manageable to lift and hold while I tried to align the studs with holes, I can see this procedure can get bit laboring. I only have two jack stands, I guess, I will have to buy two more for this. But before that, I have to first figure out how to raise both front and rear of the car. :)
     
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  15. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

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    And the tire shops I've been to? If they don't put the car on a lift, they just roll up two floor jacks and place one behind the front right wheel, and one in front of the right rear wheel.... Without looking at anything underneath.... And lift. Then repeat on the left side.

    They place the jacks in the same position on all types of vehicles. I guess it's ok, my Prius is still rolling. :) I felt along the lower body sides, and never noticed any dents or damage.



     
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  16. Usle

    Usle Active Member

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    I just mounted my snows yesterday.
    The front point is behind the front tire, a low profile jack, just behind the tire, there's metal there that the jack can engage, a round frame part with a nut in the middle, perfect spot, the rear like the Gen 2 and 3 is a metal protrusion in the center behind the rear axle.


    Jacking a unibody by the unibody, hahaha.
     
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  17. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Yeah, they make it look so easy. Cars nowadays are so complicated (least to me). For a long time, I just felt it's easier and safer to leave them to pros. To be honest, I was not very motivated auto DIYer. I have not done even oil change myself on my own cars for a long time. I remember changing oil on my old Toyota Celica I bought right after college but that's over 30 years ago. Not having auto specific tools and not having heated garage to work on a car gave me an excuse for not doing most of car maintenance on my own. But since I started to come to Prius Chat, I am slowly learning how to do some basic auto maintenance DIY.

    PC is not only for experts to discuss on some technical issues which is waaaay beyond my comprehension but it is also a great site for a novice beginner just starting to learn very basics of auto mechanic 101. Huge thanks to folks here at PC.
     
  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Wait a sec: you didn't have it up in the air and crawled under, within a week of purchase? That's all the fun. :p
     
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  19. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    I did that with the wife’s RX450h ;).

    She wasn’t too keen on that:love:.
     
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  20. Salamander_King

    Salamander_King Senior Member

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    Last year, after my previous Gen3's Toyota Care run out, I was all ready to start doing minimal maintenance, like tire rotation and oil changes myself. I purchased floor jack, jack stands, some wrenches to start. Then, I saw PRIUS PRIME at dealer. I was just going to test drive, that's it. But I ended up trading in my Gen3 and purchasing PRIME on the day of test drive. Just too good of deal to refuse. With new PRIME came another free TOYOTA CARE, thus the brand new floor jack I purchased for Gen3 30K oil change, sat in a box for over year. NO, I DID NOT PUT THE FLOOR JACK UNDER MY BRAND NEW PRIME. I waited little over year to do that, but still have not seen the underside of my PRIME yet. :oops:
     
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