I have never before jacked all four corners up, any advice how it is best done?

Is the front cross member in front of the engine strong enough to get the front up in one go, for example?

If not, and it should be done one corner at the time, anything to look for when the third corner goes up and what would be recommened order? I would image that is the tricky bit because at that point something has to be hanging in the air without support.

 

Please get informed. Jacking up your car wrong will damge it. Get the service CD off EBay. It's only $10 and has a diagram of the proper points to jack up the car. Do not use the front cross member or the rear pumpkin.
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I am informed and I do know the jacking points. I am just looking for advice if people have found alternative way of doing it (sometimes there is something that in practice works), or if not what to look for if doing it corner by corner.

 

Here are some pics I made for jack stand positions. I use the normal jacking locations and put the stands in the these positions. I start with the front and do each side to get the whole front up. Then I do the drivers rear and that will get it up enough to remove the black plastic cover to do the passenger side. Hope this helps.

Fronts.




Where I jack up the front on each side.


Rear Drivers side


Rear Passenger Side

 

You might want to do it in stages. That is. setting each jackstand progressively higher to get to final height.

Experienced mechanics know that it is "generally" safe to use the outboard ends of the suspension arms on "most" cars as they have to support the weight of that corner anyways. You will have to determine if this is the case on your particular vehicle.

Finally, make sure that the jackstands are secure. A backstop is always a good idea. Stacking a couple of mounted tires under the rocker panel is pretty good. Leaving the floor jack engaged is also a good idea. The more backstops the merrier.

 

I don't need very high, just enough to change the transmission fluid and the filter (wife's leaving for few days, good time to do something without explaining what ) I have jacked the car up quite few times, but always just the front or the back at the time.

I think vance's idea of doing front first is a good one given that it is closer to the center of the gravity and the do the back after that. However, the "official" front jack stand positions are very close to the gearbox where I want to go. Maybe the spot where the wishbone attaches to the crossmember is a good alternative point for jack stand.

 

If you are doing the trans the wishbones would work. Where I put my stands really depends on what I'm doing. ie If I'm doing suspension work I'll want the suspension to hang and if I'm doing trans work I'll put the front on the suspension and use the standard rears. Its just a matter of what you are doing and what will safely get it up and get it safely stablized.