GA Tacoma Owners BS Thread

Regarding floor jacks/stands:

When putting a jack stand on the front of our other car, a 2016 Elantra GT, I have to lift the jack so high that both the front AND rear wheels come up. If I want to lift both front wheels, is it a bad idea to do so while the first side is sitting like that? I'm doing new brakes on it this weekend.

Aka, if the front passenger has a jack stand under it, and the rear passenger is hanging in the air, can I lift the front driver's wheel to put a jack stand under there so that both front wheels are up? Will that bend anything? It's a pretty light car (I mean it's a Hyundai, they're not exactly fancy cars), but still, I don't wanna break anything. It's that transition period of lifting the front while the opposite rear lowers itself back down that I'm concerned about.

Or should I just lift one side at a time and put both jack stands under the front/rear points? I probably have to check all four brakes anyway, but this would also be good to know for other maintenance things like rotating tires and such. This is my first unibody car, so forgive me if it's a dumb question.

 

I'd think that you'll be fine. Why not chock both rear wheels, lift and place jack stand underneath, move to other side, raise, place jack stand and lower. That way, both the fronts are in the air and both rear are on the ground and chocked.

If it were me though, why not just do one side at a time?

 

I was kinda thinking one side at a time might be the route. I was just used to replacing either fronts only or rears only on my truck, so I was in that mode of lifting the front or the back, not side to side. Obviously in the trucks, the suspension has enough travel that there’s always three wheels on the ground no matter what. With this car, such is not the case.

 

Is there a cross brace or something structural up front/middle that’ll allow to lift both fronts simultaneously? That’s the route I use for cars.

 

I was poking around, and it looks like the only piece of solid sub-frame that’d be load bearing is behind the transmission (FWD), which would make using the floor Jack kinda a PITA since the handle wouldn’t have room to go up much. I think what I’ll have to end up doing is similar to what cowboytaco said and just lift up the side under the B pillar and put stands on the front/rear and do one side at a time.

Stupid Hyundais.... haha. We have a running gag in the family where every Hyundai is just a mortal enemy of mine.

 

Agreed. With the Supra I lift from the front X member then go to the pumpkin. On my GF's '15 Dart I did driver front -> passenger front. Leaving the rear on the ground the entire time. I hate new cars without a car lift

 

Since Josh hosts all the mod days, maybe everyone should pitch in and get him a lift.

 

Is there a front center jack point or cross member so you can jack up just the front. From your description I assume you're jacking from one side and it's lifting the whole side of the vehicle. If you can jack from the center of the front, it will lift the whole front (both sides) and keep the rear planted.

 

I looked around some more last night, and the only solid crossmember is where the engine/transmission mounts. I tried lifting it from there, but I can’t get the jack far enough to the center of the car to lift the front even close to evenly (there’s a bunch of hanging bits that stop the jack from rolling far enough in).

 

I got connections if anyone wants a lift. It’s actually not that much money.
Floor has to be 6-8” and reinforced in order to mount one.

 

How much - I'm going to do a 2-post but wasn't planning till next winter, have the reinforced concrete and garage space, want to change my internal framing of my garage to be able to lift the truck to full height but as it is have more than enough room for my Notch.

 

What about a low profile jack?

 

Haha, it actually is a low pro jack. The red one from Harbor Freight to be specific. I’ll try poking around again later when the mrs gets home to see if there’s another path that’s not blocked by low hanging stuff.

 

I'll start a Go-Fund Me for one

I'll keep that in mind once ya know I've got a lot of money just laying around and most of my house is the way I want it

 

I have the same issue on my notch, I have subframe connectors so I just drive on some 2x6's, then slide jack to the center point - on your car would be between front and rear doors - should be a jacking point there somewhere, or do the front if no center point, from there I do side, from the front and rear it's not as safe as doing front you have e-brake for rear, when doing rear it can - and will - walk forward on you. So I do sides, then jack stands x2 on that side then go to the opposite side etc. I actually made a "lift stand aka cribbing" for mine out of 2x4's - no pics on work computer but will find one to attach really quickly. Here's a link I used to build them originally, sadly I left them in Florida when i moved this summer:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=321263

 

haha well nevermind then. At this point, since it's just brakes, I'd forget about jack stands, and just jack up one side and keep the jack under it and put the tire or some lumber under the subframe to catch the car if the jack were to fails and just change the brakes out and then just do the same to the other side after your done.

 

This is a good idea too, to drive up on some wood to raise the vehicle height enough to make room to slide your jack under the center point.

 

I'll be having to do that for the Supra as well. Double stack some 2x4s screw em together and angle the cut

 

Got to get the on off reverse switch wired to the cutout then it should be done. Next project is fabbing up a flat roof for it.

 

Hey I am interested... and if the floor isn’t 6-8” do they fix that? I want to have the floor coated and lift installed the. My garage will be done. I am looking at doing a 2 post on one side and 4 post on the other side.... probably not at the same time due to funds but the 2 post is definitely on the list.