After jacking up the front of my 1990 XJS a few times I made a worrying discovery. The floor in both the passenger and driver footwell appears to be bent upwards!

I used a floor jack with a piece of wood underneath the front subframe, and placed jack stands on both sides, at the recommended jacking points. My jack stands have a castellated top with a small diameter (~3cm), which I place around the nipple on the jacking point.

The bend in the passenger footwell seems to be centered around a peak 2 or 3 inches from the outside of the well, about a foot rearwards of the jacking point. Its hard to judge, but the deflection seems pretty significant, perhaps an inch higher than the rest of the floor at that high point. The drivers side is similar but less severe. I can't say for sure whether it looked like that before jacking, but I don't think so.

I'm wondering if anyone has seen or heard of this before, or if there is any insight on whether that sort of bend could even be caused by jacking.

 

I think you will find the bends were there already. If the jacking point will not bear the weight of the car, the bottom of the A pillar collapses (ie the strengthened part the jacking point is connected to above) and the sill gives way at the front.

 

I am with Greg here.

With the beast jacked up, and supported, do the doors open and lose "normally"????

If so, the body is NOT moving, as we suspect, so the culprit is a tyre fitting outfit that has jacked the thing using a scissor lift and rubber pads anywhere they touch the underside. Care factor is generally fairly low with these people down here.

FORGOT
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I have to watch Tire Gorillas Like a Hawk to be Sure they jack from the correct points!!
I do NOT leave my car unattended with a new guy until he Proves to me he can do it correctly.

In fact, I have changed tire stores because of just that problem. I showed this guy where the points were, but the "Charmer" thought I probably really didn't know, so started jacking on the body seam. When it began to fold over he thought better of it, let the car down and I've never been back.
(';')

 

Likewise - and not just tire gorillas - test stations and garages in general - I even carry special donuts for the jacking points and depending on the reception to them I stay or leave.

 

Both doors function as expected when it is on the stands, and I don't see any deflection around the jacking point. I'll assume the bends were there before and proceed with caution.

Thanks for the replies!