Does it matter where you put a car jack on the pinch weld?
Vehicle pinch welds often look identical across their length, making it hard to tell why specific notched areas are designated as official jacking points. Placing a jack slightly off from these marks risks bending or damaging the metal because the frame may not be reinforced to handle the vehicle's weight in other spots.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1guessing where to place the jack
- 2relying on factory manual notch markers
- 3Look up model-specific jacking points online and compare sources
- 4Buy car ramps
- 5Jack on the sides at designated pinch weld locations
- 6Using the suspension bolt-up points
- 7Jacking directly on the subframe
- 8Jacking up one side near the pinch weld, placing the stand, and repeating on the other side
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Is this an ok spot on a 2011 camry? I have jack stands, just double checking if I'm good to crank it”source ↗
“Noob question, but can I use either one of these points that are highlighted to jack up my car.”source ↗
“I need to lift the front of the car to do some maintenance.”source ↗
“I’m not sure what the best method is if I want to place jack stands on those points.”source ↗
“Where should I position the floor jack so that I can lift the car and then place the jack stands safely?”source ↗
“Is there a safe central front jacking point on this model, or can I jack up one side near the pinch weld, place the stand, and then repeat on the other side?”source ↗
“I was looking at it a little closer and could not differentiate between this area and elsewhere on the pinch weld: it doesn't look like there's extra material or different layers between those two notches, there's nothing on the back-side, etc.”source ↗
“If I placed the scissor jack 5" to the left or right on the pinch weld where it looks exactly the same, would anything really be different? Why is this the recommended spot?”source ↗
Where this came up
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