Gen 3 Jacking Points

What kind of jack are you using on the pinch welds, scissor, hydraulic floor jack? Do you have a pinch weld adapter, if you are using a floor jack?

Jack at the pinch weld on each side, then place the jackstands under the front of the side rails that run along each side of car. The frame rails are a little farther inboard from the pinch welds, they are mostly covered with plastic, but they are exposed in the front, they are about 2 inches wide and have a flat, beefy surface underneath, perfect for jackstands.

I'm sure Mendel will be along shortly with the picture showing the front and rear locations for jackstand placement on the Gen3.

 

NVM, I have indicated where to put the jackstands in this picture with the orange arrows.

 

Borrowing the above pic, position the jack stand cradles as shown:



I believe it was PriusChat member @hobbit that worked this out on a gen 2, and it's equally applicable on gen 3. The scissor jack points are totally inadequate for safety stands. If you place the scissor jack there and start running it up, you'll see it barely touches that crimped edge, just cups around it, and actually bears on the sheet metal behind. And dimples that...

They'll ride over the plastic slightly, no matter. And there's a specific position tor the floor jack cradle, from page 423 of Owner's Manual*:



It's about 15~16" back from the face of front bumper, slightly towards drivers side. There's a circular opening in the plastic engine bay underpanel. It's a black-painted bump on the underside of a sturdy cross-beam. You can't miss it...

Good that you've got wheel chocks. When raising the front, you want to place chocks firmly on both sides of each rear wheel, then release parking brake. That way the rear axle is free to "hinge" as you raise the front.

BTW: take a look at my signature, there's several relevant links, for EGR clean and head gasket replacement. Oil change link has more info on jacking and jack stand placement. Note: last link is the full engine section from the repair manual. (If you're on a phone, turn it landscape to see signatures)

A few oil change pics attached:



*I If you don't have the Owner's Manual, you can download a pdf from Toyota. One source is Toyota Tech Info (just google that), under the "Manuals" tab.

 

This is where I jack up in the front