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I'm trying to figure out where to place jack stands under the front of the car. Is the circled location in the image below a suitable spot?
The small tubular crossmember attaches to this plate and it seems reinforced. You can see where I located the stands in the picture but I'm not sure its a suitable spot. I keep the screw jacks in place because I'm afraid to put the entire weight of the car on the jack stands where I have them located in the picture.
The jacking instructions referenced in this thread show the area I indicated as being the correct location to lift the car with a service lift at a repair shop. It is the best point for Jack stands.
The jacking instructions referenced in this thread show the area I indicated as being the correct location to lift the car with a service lift at a repair shop. It is the best point for Jack stands.
Do you mean the sills? I would advise not to jack up the car or use jack stands on the front floor area you highlighted in purple. That area is prone to rust in many regions. I had to replace a lot of that floor area on my car.
Mine are not rusted. You can see they are solid from the pic. If yours are rusted I wouldn't advise lifting it anywhere on the body. You'll need to lift it somewhere under the front or rear suspension. You'll also never be able to take in to a repair shop for work because if they have any sense they'll refuse to put the car on their lift. Rusted lift points are a high risk activity and the liabilities are too great.
Thanks for the advice, bottom line is don't jack the car up using the floor or put jack stands under the floor in the area you outlined in purple, the risk of damage to the car is too high.
If you want to see the detail of how the floor is constructed there look here.
TC,
I'm with RD on this. my floor pans aren't rusty either, but they're only meant to hold the weight of the carpets and your feet so you don't have a Flintstones car!
Seriously, they're not structural parts and have little inherent rigidity. When I had the front in pieces over the winter, I had a jack on each side at the jacking point, plus a stand on each side with a block of wood on top placed just in front of the jack, so they shared the weight. I also placed an additional jack in the centre of the radiator support for good measure.
Teenage me would have been under there with a couple of randomly-placed jacks supporting my invincibility. I guess I'm just more aware of my mortality these days...
The underside of the floor is def not the place for stands.
Personally I find it impossible to jack the car using the official points and then get a stand in and remove the jack. The point under the sill is just not long enough. On my XE there are points behind the wheels where stands can be placed after jacking on the sills but these do not exist on the xkr.
I have had my xkr on stands for a year now but I lifted the front from the cross bar and placed stand at the sides. When I removed the under tray I discovered the cross bar has been pushed in exactly at the point people use for jacking. I do not know if this was me or a previous owner but now I am very nervous about using this point to get the car back down. One of the things I have down while the car has been on stands is completely strip the front bar down of all rust and repaint it.
Does anyone have any proper suggestions as to how I can now jack the front in order to remove the stands at the sides? I have considered jacking at either end of this cross bar to remove one stand at a time rather than putting all the weight into the middle as this has clearly caused damage before.
Hi Owen, yes, the correct place to lift the car on to jack stands is the way you describe, but as our cars age this cross member below the radiator is prone to, at best damage due to repeated jacking, and at worst corrosion and structural weakening.
I am actually amazed that Jaguar suggest using this point to jack up the car, on closer inspection and from a basic mechanics point of view it can bee seen that this is not a good place to jack the car up from. It is really not a structurally strong node. If I were you I would put a trolley jack at either end of this cross member using thick rubber pads and lift both sides, remove the jack stands, then lower the two trolley jacks a bit at a time.
I also had a deformity at the mid point of my cross member so cut it out and welded in new metal, however I would not use this point for jacking alone. I use a thick hardwood 3x2 timer block spanning the width of the section below the radiator to protect that section now.
Here is what I did.
Not looking so good, I had already had to repair the captive nuts that had come loose years earlier.
First I cut out the raised section.
What was left.
Some thick angle bar welded into the rear section I cut out.
Repair section made of 2mm plate as well as a few other bits being replaced at the same time.
Starting to weld in the new section.
Nearly done, I drilled three drain holes and then injected with Dintrol ML cavity wax to try to stop more corrosion and then painted it with epoxy.
Last edited by RaceDiagnostics; 05-23-2021 at 03:51 PM.
I don't know why I didn't think of this before as - you're right - there isn't much room forward of the front jacking point to fit a stand.
I made up some short wooden blocks with a channel routed along one face to accommodate the bottom pinch seal. It would make more sense to make them longer so they would run under the jacking point, then to put the jack under the block. I always leave a jack in place on each side in any case as belt and braces.
I guess the bottom line is that all these jacking places are fine while the structure is sound. Unfortunately, a few years on salted roads doesn't help.
For the radiator support, you could use a beefy wood batten to spread the load across. You can rout along one face to accommodate the lip on the plastic undertray to save having to remove it.
Hi Owen, yes, the correct place to lift the car on to jack stands is the way you describe, but as our cars age this cross member below the radiator is prone to, at best damage due to repeated jacking, and at worst corrosion and structural weakening.
I am actually amazed that Jaguar suggest using this point to jack up the car, on closer inspection and from a basic mechanics point of view it can bee seen that this is not a good place to jack the car up from. It is really not a structurally strong node. If I were you I would put a trolley jack at either end of this cross member using thick rubber pads and lift both sides, remove the jack stands, then lower the two trolley jacks a bit at a time.
I also had a deformity at the mid point of my cross member so cut it out and welded in new metal, however I would not use this point for jacking alone. I use a thick hardwood 3x2 timer block spanning the width of the section below the radiator to protect that section now.
Here is what I did.
Not looking so good, I had already had to repair the captive nuts that had come loose years earlier.
First I cut out the raised section.
What was left.
Some thick angle bar welded into the rear section I cut out.
Repair section made of 2mm plate as well as a few other bits being replaced at the same time.
Starting to weld in the new section.
Nearly done, I drilled three drain holes and then injected with Dintrol ML cavity wax to try to stop more corrosion and then painted it with epoxy.
This is amazing! I wish I had the tools (and skills) to have done this too.
My cross bar looks to have been in worse condition than yours but once I stripped all the paint and rust off it was actually still very solid and barely had any pitting with no signs of rotting through at all. I have a before pic below but the only after pic does not show the underneath. I notice your oil cooler bracket is/was in a sorry state too. I completely stripped that down and repainted too.
Thanks for the advice, bottom line is don't jack the car up using the floor or put jack stands under the floor in the area you outlined in purple, the risk of damage to the car is too high.
If you want to see the detail of how the floor is constructed there look here.
When I felt this section of the panel on my car it feels like steel. Is it merely two layers of tin?
I also found the video from this thread ... https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...deo-faq-53870/ from "ReverendSam". It shows placing jack stands where I've indicated. He states in his video that these sections of the car are steel. They feel like steel to me which is why I started this thread. Is this incorrect? Are they NOT steel? Is "ReverendSam's recommendation a VERY bad idea?
Thanks.
Last edited by TropicCat; 05-25-2021 at 11:36 AM.
Reason: update for ReverendSam jack stand video
I followed that video when I first bought the car for jacking at the rear and damaged my car, Sam's advice for the rear jacking point is totally wrong and suggests jacking on a flimsy thin sheet metal area. If anyone is still in contact with Sam it would be good to ask him to delete it.
Not sure why sam isn't putting his stands under the points highlighted by jaguar as they are directly next to the place he is using.
Personally I wouldn't put my stands anywhere else.
Agreed. Inboard of the jack point is where the footwell meets the floor, so not really a box section. I found it is possible to get a stand just in front if the jack point, with a block of wood (routed along one side to fit over the pinch joint) on top. There is the strength from the sill pinch joint and front closure plate there. I do leave the jack in place so it shares the weight with the stand, though.
Thanks all. I'll have to see what I can do about this. I used my circled location overnight w/out the jack. It didn't suffer any undue problems but I'm not sure I will leave it there. I can't set the car on the wheels with the strut removed.
It's monsoon season here in Florida and I don't want to leave the jacks out in the rain. The car will be on the stands for a week or more while I await parts and "rebuild" the strut assemblies. They'll be plenty of rain between now and then (hopefully no hurricanes). I'll leave the jacks under the car in addition to the stands when I'm home and it's not raining but I'll have to remove the jacks during rainstorms and overnight. We get too much dew overnight year round and the jacks will end up rusted and possibly frozen if I leave them out continuously for a few weeks. #$%*!
I also thought about getting a second set of mini stands to add in the same place shown in the photo at the beginning of this thread. I really DON'T want to buy ANOTHER set of jack stands. I have 3 now but the other 2 sets are much taller for cars of yesteryear and my truck. Bummer.
05-21-2021, 10:50 AM
Jack Stand Locations
