Mazda 6 Forums banner

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

28K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  eyedocorlando 
#1 ·
I *hate the jack points on this car. The jack points are basically disposable sheet welds that will distort and rust after lifting your car a few times.

I've tried slipping a couple towels between the jack/jack points to lessen the damage, but it's still doing its damage.

Why couldn't Mazda have proper lifting points in this car, like Honda. My old Mazda 626 has the same terrible jack points, which looked like rusty twisted garbage after just a couple years.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this issue?
 
#2 ·
I'm the last one to give Mazda a free pass on anything, particular this architecture car. That said, the pinch welds on the 6 are no less or no more durable than the pinch welds on any other modern day unibody structure. Get used to it or lift the car from the front and rear jacking points and then support it with jack stands under the appropriate suspension parts, such as the front lower control arms.
 
#3 ·
What are you using to lift the car? Factory scissor jack, or a hydraulic jack? If it's the latter, one thing I've done for my other cars is cut a slit in a hockey puck just wide enough to fit the sheet metal. I place it in the cup of the hydraulic jack to lift the car. Hockey puck rubber is really hard and helps to reduce bending of the metal welded edges of the unibody.
 
#5 ·
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.
 
#11 ·
So how do you guys go about jacking up the car to rotate the tires? Isn't there only one jack point per corner and not one in the middle to jack up one side or the other?

On a related note - what kind of jack are you using to jack up either the front or rear of the car? My standard Craftsman floorjack won't reach those center jack points. Will a regular low profile jack work or does it need to be a long body low profile?
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#13 ·
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.
Agreed wholeheartedly. The rear is a bit of a nuisance to jack up because of the exhaust location and suspension setup, but the front and sides are very easy and very sturdy.
 
#16 ·
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.
 
#17 ·
So using the bushing mounts in the front is ok? been looking for a decent spot to place my jack stands but other than the pinch weld area I was afraid I would damage something. So I would just jack up from the pinchweld using the puck method.

Also Corndwg this is the jack I use, straight from Harbor Freight wait till they go on sale for like $70, that's what i paid for mine. Low Profile Floor Jack - 2 Ton, Rapid Pump® Jack

 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top