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How do you jack up this car without ruining the weld points??

28K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  eyedocorlando 
I bought a pair of rubber "pucks" like this that have a cross-slot cut in them for exactly this reason and purpose, and use them to lift unibody cars. Then you place your stands under the proper suspension locations that bear the load when the vehicle is on its wheels and all is good.

I've been doing my own work on unibody cars for a couple of decades and have yet to fold over or trash any of the pinch weld locations doing so.
 
There's a front and rear jack point; a cut puck does fine to lift without damage, then place the stands under hard points. On the front you have the bushing mount that fits a standard jack stand's curve perfectly (and is very solid) and the rear has a couple of good options, including the lower spring perch (with a piece of 2x6 to spread the load across it.)

The rear on this car is a bit more of a pain than on some others, but in terms of lifting and supporting the front it's easy.
 
The chassis is also extremely stiff. You notice the first time you jack up the front and the rear wheel on the same side is almost completely off the ground.

Mazda wasn't lying about their claim of greatly-improved chassis stiffness.
 
You jack up the front corner, place a stand, jack up the rear corner on the same side, place a stand, rotate the tires and drop that side.

Repeat for the other side.

Since you have a compact spare you cannot do a 5-point, and radials should generally not be cross-rotated (if they're directional tread as some are they CANNOT be.)

Takes me about 20 minutes, which is roughly one beer's worth of time.
 
Forza: That's where I went with the stands. The trick with any of these modern cars is finding a hard point that can bear the mass of the vehicle without deformation or other damage.

I did my oil change on ramps without a clearance problem.
 
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