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jack up 1 side?

7K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  White95Cam 
#1 · (Edited)
'98 Camry 2.2L

Hi Guys,

I want to rotate my tires today, front to rear, and would like to jack up car on one side (with 2-ton floor jack) so both wheels on one side are off the ground.

Approx where should I position the jack?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I jack up the front of the car, put jackstands at the pinch weld notches and then jack up the rear and do the same thing. One jack, four jackstands.

You can certainly jack up one corner of the car, but you wouldn't be able to rotate the tires that way unless you have jackstands. I'm not sure about jacking it up at the middle of one side of the car. There isn't a pinch weld with the two notches at the middle of the car.

Here is a photo of the two notches. There is a set of these at each of the four "corners" of the car. They are behind the front tires and in front of the rear tires. This is where your jack fits. It's designed for the jack in the trunk of your car to fit on both sides of the rail in between the notches. A trolley jack can be used at this spot also:



Here is a photo of one of the other corner's pinch weld notches. As you can see, they are messed up. This probably happened a long time ago when I took the car somewhere for tire service and perhaps they used a jack at this spot to lift the whole side of the car up. Or they just did it wrong.



This is why I no longer like to have my wheels removed by the staff of a tire place. I just got new Toyo tires for my Corolla, and I actually took the wheels off the car, threw them in the back of my '87 Toyota truck along with the new tires and took them to the tire shop to have them switch out the tires. They charge the same whether you bring the car in or whether you just bring in your wheels, so not many people would do what I do. I do this because I want to install my wheels by jacking up the car the proper way and at the proper lug nut torque specs. Many places are not careful about these things. The less I let someone else touch my car the better.

This is where I jack up my car at the front. It will lift both wheels off the ground so I can then put in the jackstands at the notches in the first photo. This is on my Corolla, but the Camry has something similar looking. All my family's Camrys are not here at the moment:



At the rear, there is something similar at the middle of the Camry. On the Corolla there is a bar, which is designed specifically for jacking up the rear. A blue arrow is pointing to it. It is light grey in color and goes from the arrow tip upwards (it's not the black/dark grey horizontal crossmember below the arrow tip) Here it is:



My opinion is not to jack up the entire side of a car, but rather to jack up the front and/or the rear and use jackstands. But, I don't claim to have the technical and exact information.

Maybe someone who knows more about this can respond.
 
#3 ·
When I rotating tires I including the temp.spare. This requires extra up/down cycle for the jack but the stands are not needed.
Here is a sequence:
pull the spare out of the trunk
remove right rear tire and install spare;
roil full size from the rear to the front
swap the front right wheel
roll removed wheel to the back
lift the rear and put full size on the rear.
move jack and spare to other side and repeat the procedure.
(mote there is no need to torque tighten the lug nuts for spare tire, just snug them.
I doing it to keep my car repair activities not so obvious to the neighbors other unwanted viewers:)
I lifted 89 Camry sedan (one side while changed the exhaust system; if you are doing so, NEVER ever open a door when car is supported like this
 
#5 ·
I think I misunderstood your post at first, but now I see what you're saying. I supposed this would work just fine if a person did not have jackstands. Basically, you're using your spare as a temporary place holder. If I were to use this method, I would lift each corner of the car separately. I still don't like the idea of lifting the whole side of the car. But, yeah, for a guy with no jackstands, this is an alternative that can work. Thanks for sharing the idea.

^^^ Both of the above are good ideas. I hate others working on my car. It's always been sloppy..... even the dealership. I was so pissed when they let the freon out of my A/C and then played dumb about it.
Honesty is the best policy. Before I learned how to do my own work, I had a mechanic that I would use for every repair that came around. One time we had this tranny pan leak and he had to fix it two (or was it three?) times before it was successful. He explained it straight up: "My fault. I used the wrong gasket both times. The gasket works on this type tranny, but yours was an exception, so I had to put in the correct gasket. Sorry for the trouble." He is an excellent mechanic and he earned more respect from me that day by simply accepting ownership of his mistake. Good guy. My mother still lives in that area and I send her to this mechanic for everything she needs. He's not the cheapest mechanic in town, but he is honest and that is worth far more than his slightly higher labor rate (still much cheaper than the dealer, of course).
 
#6 ·
I've always put a jack stand on the front, remove the front tire and roll it to the back, use the jack on the rear and quickly switch tires before putting the tire on the front. Break all the lug nuts loose first, block the other side's wheels, and snug the lug nuts while the tire is still lifted.

While I put things away the wife comes by and torques the lug nuts for me:grin:
 
#7 ·
i do it like john. jack up the front center and use 2 jacks the back middle and 2 more jacks and then rotate the tires at once. i do front to back and back crossed over to front and leave the spare alone and it never has to be replaced.
tony
 
#8 ·
I really hate to brag but I have two floor jacks. I inherited one and bought the other one so I pick it up all at once starting with the front. I am like Phil as far as not liking others work on my car especially tire places. They spend more time balancing the wheels instead of having to remove them as well. Since I have a custom set of winter chrome wheels (look it up) I always have the service manager verify that there are no scratches on the wheels before they begin and that he has liability insurance should they get damaged. I them show him the invoice for having the chrome work done.
I never get a scratch on them.
W95c
 
#9 ·
yep 95, i have 2 floor jacks too but i find the car too unstable to have it jacked up front and back at the same time without having a couple of jackstands under it, so that's why i do the front first and then the back, leaving the 2 floor jacks in place under slight pressure, just in case one of the floor jacks failed somehow. i do wish i had a tire balancing machine in my garage too then i wouldn't need the local tire shop for much of anything.
tony
 
#11 ·
I only raise my car enough to remove the tires then when I replace them I do the rear first and lower the car so the rear tires lightly touch the ground.
I have always done this while working alone but I can see how easy it would be for someone to walk up and lean on a fender and tip the car. From now on I will be extra safe and use a couple jack stands so this want happen. Thanks for pointing out this potential safety problem.
W95c
 
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