DISCOVERY I MADE WHILE JACKING UP THE LEAF

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powersurge

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
1,743
Location
Long Island, NY
Yesterday, I was rotating my tires for the winter and made an amazing discovery.. (Well it was a discovery for me, since after 40 years of jacking up cars I had never seen this...)

While using my rolling hydraulic jack on the front jacking point, (to remove the front tire), I discovered that in addition to the front tire, the rear tire also gets lifted!! Not bad time saver if you want to swap the front and back tires.... You only have to use one jack!!
 
Where is the "front jacking point"? I generally jack the front from the area around the shock tower but I don't believe I've ever had to jack up my Leaf, with no oil changes and all :lol:
 
On the body, right behind the front tire there is a black (I belive) notched area which is the reinforced jacking point. The rear is the same, just in front of the rear tire on the body panel. Jack on the center of the 2 notches.
 
Wow if thats the case(one jack jacks up the whole car) I really have no excuse of not rotating the tires somewhat regularly! I've also not seen that in any ICE vehicle I've had.
 
I've done this with my BMW 5-series as well. But jack must be able to lift QUITE HIGH :lol:

https://goo.gl/photos/nCn9NmsuDD7WkZbF7
 
The mobile tire service that comes to install and remove our snow tires also jacks up the whole side of my Leaf. I don't like it, but if it's safe, maybe I'll try it with my next one.
 
It would be less stress on the body structure to use 2 jacks (front and rear jack points) to raise one side of the car. I cut slots in some hockey pucks to fit the jacking points and sit on top of my floor jack(s) to lift one corner or one side (four on the jacks of my hydraulic lift to lift the whole car).

Gerry
 
Yep. It does stress jacking point more, especially if jack is not rolling on the ground. If it does then there is not a lot of torque applied.
I would not prefer that on Leaf because of how jack point is constructed (vertical sheets spot?-welded)
BMW-s have absolutely flat surface plus rubber blocks hanging at those positions.

Using two jacks is even better than doing regular jacking.
 
Yes, you can use 2 jacks for more safety, but you cant help lifting both tires when you raise the front one. I seriously doubt that you can hurt the car since that is the way the car is made>???
 
You generally put more stress driving down uneven roads then when jacking however one does has to exercise some common sense and not jack it up so high that both wheels come off the ground when there are several bags of law fertilizer or other heavy materials in the trunk. That is BTW how they test trucks for roadworthyness. Its interesting to see how badly some buckle to the point of requiring body work when they do this on a truck that is deficient.

Here is what I believe is an unloaded test on two pickup trucks however on the loaded test the truck with the stuck tailgates required body repairs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f3CAnH7WIM
 
That video looks scary.. because they are torsioning the ENTIRE vehicle body. My original post was made because you have NO CHOICE in that when you raise the front tire, the rear also lifts. This is kind of nice if you want to quickly swap tires.

Of course, if you were doing rear brakes, you would use two front/ back jack stands....
 
powersurge said:
That video looks scary.. because they are torsioning the ENTIRE vehicle body. My original post was made because you have NO CHOICE in that when you raise the front tire, the rear also lifts. This is kind of nice if you want to quickly swap tires.

Of course, if you were doing rear brakes, you would use two front/ back jack stands....

Understood however sometimes we need to state common sense out loud as there will be someone out there that will jack one up fully or possible overloaded with a higher potential for an incident.

The video where the truck received severe body damage because there was a partial load evenly distributed in the bed when they did the test was even more unsettling.

Here is one with Howie Long comparing loaded trucks (wait for the pop on the first pair tested):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKMQjm7i2Jw
 
I've always rotated the tires using two Prius jacks. It really isn't that much extra work to have the second one there, and I do them each several turns then do the other one. Also, it probably isn't necessary, but I always try to avoid opening any door or hatchback when any car is on jacks.

One benefit or rotating the tires myself is that I always get the little stones out from the treads, it always seemed to be unnecessary as other stones will just get right back, but I always did it anyway. This last time, on the outer edge, I noticed it was difficult to remove one, and as I worked a bit further I saw it was a small piece of metal in the tire. I got it out, but I think if it would have been left in it would have continued to be driven further and further into the tire as the tire wore down until it would have caused a leak and wrecked the tire, since it was on the outer portion that can't be repaired with a patch.
 
Sorry if this is obvious ...

You can rotate tires without having to jack up more than one at a time, as long as you have a spare. I've done this many times, and you only have to jack up and down five times instead of four.
 
Is that not normal? On all my other cars I can lift the whole side by using a jack in front (3 ton jack) and then I put a jackstand under the rear jack point and lower it down so the car rests on both the jack and jackstand.
 
My Prius did the same thing but I don't think its a good idea. I always use two floor jacks when I rotate. I use the good one (pumps faster) on the front and the bad one (bought at garage sale for $5 came with no handle so use long ratchet extension) for the back. it takes all of maybe an extra 3 mins per side with two jacks over one....
 
This ain't your Ford Fairlane gramps! It's a modern unibody car, it's way stiffer than that old iron. Use two jacks if it makes you feel better I guess :roll:

powagoat, you should use two jack-stands in that scenario. Don't trust the jack to hold up the car by itself, even if you're not working under it, it could fall and ruin your brake disc or something else.
 
Useless Trivia: The old air-cooled VW beetles with all the weight in the back had only one jack point, Both wheels came off the ground, making chocking even more important. There was a square tube into which a rod from the side of the jack was inserted. The jack used the same type screw mechanism as a camping trailer.
 
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