I don't like putting the metal jacking plate against that metal piece under the front doors. Instead, I use hockey pucks. I cut a piece of wood to fit onto the jack plate, I cut a hole in the center of the wood. Using a table saw, I cut a wide groove into a hockey puck. I screwed that on top of another puck. When I jack up the car, the groove in the rubber puck is contacting that piece of metal.

For the rear, I use an uncut hockey puck.

 

The jack tabs are thick steel that extends through the bodywork to the frame rail. The long seam between the front and rear tabs, sometimes called the drip rail, is a few spot-welded layers of thin sheet steel which is designed purely as a joint between body panels. The jack tabs are designed to carry the weight of the car. The drip rail is designed to shed water while protecting the inner layers of the body. Use the jack tabs to lift the car. Lifting the car by the drip rail, the body panels on either side of the drip rail, or any other body panel, is likely to damage them and/or their rust-protective coatings.

 

@SilverEX15 I like that hockey puck with the groove.

@bobski He's not lifting by the "drip rail." The groove in the hockey puck relieves the drip rail and allows the jack to only contact the underbody. I can't imagine that the underbody between the "jack tabs" is not as strong as the jack tabs. Are you saying that it is not as strong?

 

That's exactly what I'm saying. The unibody has thicker internal elements that major components like the engine, suspension and bumpers attach to. The jack tabs extend into the body, attaching to those elements, as well as the thinner stuff along the way. The drip rail is composed of a sandwich of what are more or less cosmetic panels. Those panels do contribute to the car's structure, but they're not designed for lifting forces. The rail itself will crumple from forces the tabs just shrug off. The panels on either side of the rail can dent or even tear through, though a large rubber pad should help spread the load.

 

Good to know. Thanks, amigo.

How about using the rear tow hook as a jack point?

 

Tow hooks should be fine. There's a couple of mid-body jack points that let you lift both front or rear tires to allow for placement of jack stands at the jack tabs. That's really all you should be using the tabs for if you're working under the car.
You can get away with jack-on-the-tabs for changing tires because there's almost no opportunity for the car to fall on you if the jack collapses. That is a thing. DIYers die under their own cars every year because they didn't use proper support. A jack is not proper support - it's a lifting tool. Lift the car, add support, lower car onto support. Cinder blocks (especially with the holes turned to the sides) are not proper support. Stacks of wood are not proper support, with or without cinder blocks. Jack stands on dirt or other soft/loose surfaces are not proper support. You want a hard, level surface. If you're working on an asphalt surface, get jack stands with flat pad feet. The cheaper sheet metal corner legs can sink into asphalt. Wider bases are more stable, lower height settings are safer. Pin-style height adjustment is safer than ratchet tooth-style - whichever one you get, make sure it's fully engaged every time. Once the car is on the jack stands, still treat it with caution. Give it a firm wiggle to make sure it's settled on the stands, then check the stands again to make sure none of them are going sideways. /PSA

Jacking suspension arms can work if you're 100% sure the arm can't slip off the jack. Again, just for lifting the car onto jackstands.

Bumper beams/structure are a bad idea as lift points, as they're designed for impact forces. I recall in the early days of internet video, someone posted a video of trying to pull a Geo or Suzuki or something out of a snow drift - it violently tore the whole back bumper (cover, foam and beam) off the car.



Vehicle lift = two-post, 4-arm service lift. They're saying position the arms on the jack tabs.

Safety stands = jack stands. They're saying put the jack stands on the tabs.

 

Look at the picture from Honda. That's exactly what I do with the hockey puck.

 

Do those lift arm ends look like hockey pucks to you? ^_^

It has some merit. A service lift is going to keep the body level while lifting, so the steel always-level arm ends are going to maintain good contact with the tabs. That isn't the case when using a jack on a jack tab ("support point"). Jacking one corner (or one end of the car with the jacking brackets) will put the body (and therefor the jack-contacting edge of the jack tab) at an angle, opening the possibility of the tab slipping on the jack. This is pretty common when lowering a car onto jack stands, and one source of "settling" when doing a wiggle-safety-check. The rubber puck should provide some traction and mechanical compliance against the angled tab.