More Jacks, Jack Stands & Questions....

DISCLAIMER: jacking & jack stands are dangerous. All information provided at no cost and with no liability. the goal is to help as much as possible, but you are ultimately responsible for any potential actions and liabilities. I'm not a professional auto engineer, but hope this helps you. Your feedback will also help me!

First Off: Many thx to Mendel for his deep awareness of jacking up the Prius. I noticed he even posted and corrected a few folks on youtube. So either Mendel you are very bored, or a true champ, providing great information. thank you!

We have a 2010 and 2013 Gen3 Prius II. I spent time trying to get comfortable doing under-car work again. the oil filter and transaxle access points are quite far back and not really arms length on these Gen3's. This means you'll be pretty deep down under and may be applying substantial torque to a few things like the Trans. drain and fill holes. Some mentioned using a breaker bar, which means potential for some car rocking, during the "breaking".

I gave the old standard jack stands a whirl this weekend, with contact points of the front pinch welds (spare tire jack position). This didn't feel right, so I research some more. Here are some findings. A lot of this relates to using the official Toyota pinch welds for jacking the car, or using some other point. For example, just under the big bolt of the front end control arm. In one of mendels pic's, the shop lift has picked up his car from that point.

I'm a bit leery of using mendel's recommended point as if anything ever goes wrong, Toyota will use that as a excuse to back out of any repair. Jack position is also a critical question, and probably involves a great deal of field knowledge. For example, is anyone out there a tire guy or Toyota shop mechanic? What do you guys do when lifting the prius: pinch welds, control arm, other spot? Putting jacks on the control arm moves the fulcrum in a bit and could contribute to tipping. but when on a lift, the arms protect against tipping. So what's the best thing for jacking? I like the jacks as far outside as possible. and this lead back to the pinch welds.

Take a look at my pics. here are some observations:

1. the spare tire jack has a notched head, with uneven lips. the outside lip is about 1/8-1/4" lower than the inside lip.

2. the pinch-weld vertical member never hits the bottom grove of the notch.

3. Upon load-bearing contact, the back lip makes contact with the inside of the unibody, just inside of the weld vertical member.

this suggests a few things:

1. lifting by applying pressure on the vertical pinch-weld member is not intended. This is done pretty much all over youtube videos and probably at most tire shops - unless they care and have some sort of adapter, which I doubt.

2. any DIY jack stand should probably have an adapter head similar to the spare tire jack. That is a notch which protects against horizontal slippage and a higher inside lip.

Now, is it per spec to jack all four corners up by the pinch weld inside horizontal member? I'm not sure. Anyone from Toyota here that can answer that? I'm inclined to believe that its safe. I have attached an official Toyota unibody pic, but it doesn't instill much any confidence.