i need new jack stands.. what are you guys using? also where are you jacking the car up at and placing the stands at?

 

Also interested

I'd like to change my own oil in this car, but I've always been nervous getting under a car that's on ramps or jack stands. I have an overactive imagination I guess...

What's the best way to get this car off the ground safely?

 

Your owner's manual tells you where the lift points are for the jack that is supplied for the car. Lift points are just behind the front wheels and just in front of the rear wheels where the floor and sides of the body are joined. Those points are where you place the jack stands. You lift the car with a floor jack, either at the rear lift pad (the triangular, black hump between the rear wheels), or the square plate centered between the front wheels. Another solution is to use plastic ramps, available at parts stores or from Amazon.com. I bought mine from Amazon. Good jack stands cost around $20.00 per 2, and good floor jacks cost around $100.00- that's the price at Costco and Northern Tools. Plastic ramps are cheaper. You will eventually need a floor jack for one purpose or another.

 

Yeah I'd suggest just doing ramps if you're just trying to get under the car. I do it to change my oil.

I've gotten all 4 wheels up on jackstands to rotate the tires and I wasn't really happy with how it was working. But I didn't see the rear plate that manxman mentioned until I had a couple of wheels off and never saw the front one.

That said the little notch just behind the front wheels and just infront of the rear wheels is the jack point. I would suggest the plates that manxman suggests because it is a pita to get a jack and a jackstand in there and I rubbed off some of that rubber under coat trying to get it up.

 

you can build ramps in about 30 minutes with leftover wood and a table saw, by the way

perfect for low profile cars and perfect for oil changes/exhaust work!

 

Jacking the fit from the front is a bitch.I hate how we dont have anything solid like a tow hook down low.I always have to jack it from the side (pinch welds), put one jack stand under the cross member, take the jack off, move it in front of the car and jack it up from the center of the cross member and then put two jack stands on both pinch welds. Oh and you have to drive it up on two 2x4's before doing any of this.


I never used those plastic ramps but I have some metal ones and i had to take off the bumper to make it even feaseable to drive up on them.



Jacking the fit from the front=ftl



..damn i need to change cars

 

Sam21, i do the same thing u do but i don't find it a huge hassle. I also have a pair of metal ramps, but i too had to take off the bumper also. But what i did was take a 4x4 and cut it at an angle that extended my ramps about an extra 3feet forward, making it a long ramp. Now i don't need 2 take my bumper off nemore.

 

It's just wasted time/energy though. It would be so much simpler if there was something solid around the bumper area and not 2 1/2 ft INTO the engine bay (cross member)

The more and more i work on this car, the more and more I hate it. Everything is a bitch to do and the gain is damn minimal.

 

i have a hydraulic jack with a fairly large flat platform so i just used
the rail behind the front jack point to raise it. car is not that heavy so
it wont bend the railing if you use a large platform to lift it there.

i use Griot's jackstands but they dont sell them any more. these
are awesome stands btw,

the others i would buy are from Welcome to Ultimate Garage

 

Can you raise the front of the car with the radiator support? Thats what I did with my good old Integra

 

I wouldn't.

I have an ancient, non-low-profile, 2-ton hydraulic floor jack. I drive up on 2x12 chunks and have no problem reaching back to the crossmember to jack up the front of the car. I suspect that if I had a low profile jack I would not need the ramplets.

 

haha, this post made me laugh. I always get nervous when I get under a car with just jacks. Ramps & stop blocks make me feel way better

Ramps FTW!

 

i wonder if i could get my low profile craftsman jack to the cross member with a couple of low profile ramps.

 

you can get your whole body to the cross member if you have a couple of low-profile ramps, so yes, you'd probably be able to get your jack in there too.

 

Drive the front wheels up on blocks of 2x6, then your jack will have clearance. It is a long reach, so working the handle might be, uhm, interesting, but it's doable.

 

im not too worried about going under the car as long as either the
front or rear is on the ground (or on ramps) and tires chocked.

sometimes you get kinda carried away while working under the
car and while trying to break a fastener loose you push
real hard with your breaker bar and realize your car could possibly
shift off the stands. that's a kinda scary thought.

make sure you chock your tires ramps or stands.

 

Ramps FTW! I've only ever lowered one car that I drove daily and I will not do it again. Who the hell needs all the hassle when you change your oil every month and a half? Speaking of shifting jack stands, I was laying underneath my 40 Cadillac using a three foot cheater on a 1/2" drive breaker bar getting the rear track bar mounting bolts loose when the jack stands that were holding the rear end (all 2700 pounds of it) in the air decided to shimmy about an inch to the left. My wife says that she has never seen me move that fast!

 

also what kind of jack stands are you guys using? i feel like mine are way too big

 

No such thing as too big when it comes to jack stands! I have four sets of twelve ton stands from Tractor Supply Co. They are the most monstrous things you ever saw, but I KNOW they won't collapse. Especially not because of the Fit LOL. Usually they are under some part of the Caddy in case you are wondering why in Gods name I would buy twelve ton jack stands.

 

If I was laying under a '40 Caddy I'd want 12 ton stands too! That must be a monster. Good looking car though.