I've been trying to jack up my car. My K-member at the front looks a bit sketchy - I think it's been beaten up by the previous owner. However I spotted these under the front bumper:



There's one either side of the radiator and they seem to be attached to the front crash structure/chassis member. They look like a pretty solid, genuine factory jacking point. However I've not seen them mentioned anywhere in any Chilton, Haynes or shop manual, nor on here. I know how sketchy some of the factory jacking points are... but how about these? Does anybody use them?

 

Use the k member.
Those plastic things are what the car sat on when it was being built. They don't make a good jacking point. It helps to make small wooden ramps to help get the car up a bit more so the floor jack fits under the nose of the car

 

The front of the car's already raised up and sitting on a couple of wheels. The back's raised and sitting on two wheels each side. I lifted the rear by jacking on the differential. The front I intended to lift by the K, but even with the car raised like this the K's inaccessible - it's too far under, the plastic dam is in the way and mine doesn't offer a good jacking surface. I tried to raise the front further by jacking the car by one side (I hoped the car would absorb the movement due to the rear sitting on its springs) but it quickly became sketchy with the jack starting to tip. So I'm back to looking at these things. If I'd come to the car without any instruction, I'd have sworn they were the standard factory jacking point. They look really solid and stable and designed to take a jack. If they were only for use in manufacture... why are they still there...? And if they were to support the car in manufacture, why can't they support it now? They appear to be bolted directly to the chassis.

I'd probably have used them already, if it hadn't bothered me that I'd not heard of them before, despite even checking the shop manual.

 

They're not from manufacturing, they're for towing the car. Back in the day, tow trucks used slings and hooks. Trouble is with a Camaro, there's no steel bumper for the sling to rest against, so they came up with those blocks. The idea is the tow truck driver uses a fabricated adapter that butts up between those pads and the sling, to keep the sling from tearing the front spoiler off the car. They're not jacking points.

Remove the air dam, or jack under the control arms, or under the frame rails.

 

Never understood - or cared - what those things were for ! Learned somethin' new today !

 

Ah ok, that makes more sense.

So, if I've got this right, these aren't designed to take the weight of the car, only to hold the sling away from the nose? I guess they used to hook onto the control arms to drag the car?

Ah well, they do look pretty damn robust though.

Now contemplating getting one of these things and doing away with the whole worrying about jacking points altogether!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4t-ton-Exh...QAAOSw4GVYHNCQ

I would probably use it to lift the car up one side at a time, placing two jack stands on each side as I go. Looks like a relatively stress-free way to get the car in the air.

 

I know your not supposed to do it but on my formula I used the front sway bar. I watched it carefully and it never moved while slowly jacking. Then quickly put it on jack stands.

 

Thanks for the advice Mr. Soupman.

I may try jacking off that front cross member, using a solid piece of metal and some wood to spread the load between those two towing pads - I'll remove them first. If I can't make this work, or I can see I'm causing harm, I'll try and get the airdam off and see if I can get purchase on the K-member.

Failing that, I know I can at least try the anti-roll bar!

 

You guys are making this harder than it need to be. Get two pieces of wood, 2x10 or 2x12 maybe 2 feet long, nail them together slightly staggered to make a small ramp. Make one for each side and drive the car up on them
. Then the floor jack will fit under the car and reach the k member.

I tried to use those plastic feet years ago as a jacking point. When I got the car up a bit the slight angle cause the plastic feet to rock slightly and tear off. the car fell down onto the floor jack and damaged the nose of the car.

 

Because of the low bumper height and lack of jack handle swing, I jack up under one a-arm and slide a screwed together stack of three 1x8's under the tire.



Then I move the jack under the k-member from the slightly lifted corner with the jack pad centered and lift from there.

Jack stands are then positioned under the a-arm spring pockets.

 

Don't jack by those things, the sheet metal that the bumper is made of is not strong enough to support the front of the car. Both of mine are sitting at different angles from whatever the PO did to the car (looks like he tried to jack by those and the pinch seams on the front fenders, both are crushed, dude kept talking about what a good mechanic he was and that he was given the car by the original owner for taking such good care of the car since it was new), and that bent things up enough that my fog lights point in different directions and various other small issues (I have an aluminum front bumper support to replace it with whenever I get around to it).

 

by all means, go buy a "LOW PROFILE" hydraulic jack. i do use the driving up on a piece of wood method first sometimes, but its not needed in most cases. with the correct jack its not difficult to reach the center of the k-member by going in at a slight angle around the air dam. if you plan on keeping your third gen, i guarantee you will appreciate having the right jack for the job.

heres an example that will fit under 3".
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-l...ump-61282.html

 

Ok, ok! Calm down you guys!

When I got back to the car this weekend and looked at it in daylight when I wasn't tired, I found that with the front tyres sat on old wheels as I had, I could feed my jack in through in front of the front tyre and get to the K-member at an angle. So, in the end I did the proper thing and jacked off the K-member and sat it on jack stands. Unfortunately that was all I got to do all weekend due to family commitments... Oh well, maybe next weekend I'll get the gearbox off!

That low profile jack does look good - does the handle pump from low to the ground? One problem with my jack is that the handle is mounted on top of the jack, making it really difficult to get the clearance to pump it up with it underneath the car.

 

i don't have that exact model jack, but my handle will lay flat. have to do small pumps til the car starts moving up. i'm sure if you shop around you'll find one that you like, and works good for ya.
a few weeks back i picked up another low profile floor jack and some jack stands a guy was selling for $50. i'm a tool junkie, lol.

 

Can you jack your car straight off the floor using that jack, or do you still need to drive up to something first?

If I can jack it straight off the floor, that jack's definitely worth the money!

 

I have been using a 2.5 ton baby floor jack for over 10 years now.

I slide it in and under the A-Arm from the front of the tire a little to the inside of the springs doughnut (red arrow)and lift the car using short strokes of the handle just enough to slip a jack stand on the inside of the tire on the outside of the spring doughnut.(yellow arrow).

Once the jack stand is in there you can raise it a good 3 clicks and give yourself the height you need.
From that point and height I have done 90% of my work. = a lot.


I do that on both sides.
It takes time but has never failed me.
This is a photo I found on the internet. That is the style jack I'm talking about.

 

I jack it up straight off the floor. i have to go in at a slight angle because of the air dam, but no big deal. definitely worth the money.

 

The problem I have is that there's not enough ground clearance to swing the jack handle without first putting the wood block under one tire.

My car isn't lowered...

An extended reach, low profile jack is the solution if you don't want to lift in two steps.

 

I like using the A-Arms because it keeps the front suspension under load as apposed the letting the tires hang at any point. Just my preference.

I have also been know to place two more jack stands where the blue arrows are just barley touching.

Just as another precaution when I'm working on a difficult project. Wheel chocks are always used with the safety break on.

Once you have done it a few times you can see the benefits of this technique using the small floor jack.
As I said earlier this is a photo from the internet. Not my car.