OlGeezer

O.K.

I'm doing my first oil change (in this car, anyway).

According to the photo in my Haynes, the drain plug is pretty far back.

I've got a hydraulic jack (3t) and a pair of jack stands.

Sliding the jack in from the front, if I push it far enough in to grab some "meat", I can't move the handle. If I use the frame member under the radiator, I can't lift the car far enough to get under it.

For those who use a hydraulic jack and jack stands, where do you place your jacking point?

Is the drain plug under a skid pan, or behind it?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Fizzics Boy

I just drive mine up on a few 2x4s and that works

ShadowDrake

Pinch welds or the main unibody supports on the corners and put my jacks under the A-arms. The bottom of the spring seats sit nicely in the grooves of my jacks.

RogerDodger1

The repair manual should have a listing of factory approved jacking/jack stand points for the car. Wherever you decide to jack the car up from, make sure you are in an area that has hefty metal and not sheet metal, (like the bottom of the door panels), or you'll bend that sheet metal, obviously.

The control arm is a good, strong jacking point. This is the large chunk of metal behind the front tires and you can slide the jack under them and lift the car. The front of the car near the radiator, (but not the bottom of the radiator itself of course), will have a strong section of frame you can install the jack stands under. Before you raise the car, be sure to engage the parking brake so the car doesn't potentially slip out of gear and roll away off of the jack and jack stands. If you happen to be under the car, this of course could tend to ruin your day.

OlGeezer

Got it on the parking brake.

I tried using the frame section under the radiator. The problem with that location is that it won't raise the car high enough to get my jack stands under the control arm.

I've never done this before, but what about jacking from a point on the frame under the pasenger door, lifting from the side instead of the front?

RogerDodger1

Well I tried to give you other tips that you had asked for, many of them very important tips, but for some reason they were edited out. I guess you can't have other tips you asked for?

35aniv stang

I found it easiest and I feel more safe when I use ramps. I have some of the plastic ramps they have at walmart. But I am not a very big guy and its pretty tight under there.

Xemeth

Is this your first oil change ever? Or just on this car?

It's really pretty easy. Just put the jack under something that looks sturdy. The k member, control arms, or fram rail work well. Just use some common sense. Obviously the floor board would be a bad spot, as would be oil pan. You should be able to get in there enough even just jacking it in the front like you were saying. You don't need to get your whole body under there, just enough to reach the drain plug with a wrench, and to get at the filter. Unless you're a really big guy (like a ****in' fatass) you should be able to get at those two things without much lifting (on a stock height car, of course). Just put an old tire (on a rim) under the car where you're laying if the jack stands don't fit just to be safe. You shouldn't be under there for more than 5 minutes anyway, and if for some reason the jack fails, the tire should give the car enough room for you to not be crushed (again, unless you're ****in' fat). Just have an extra person in the room to jack the car back up real quick or something.

I'm sure people are gonna see this and say this is really bad advice, but doing an oil change should take all of 5 minutes, so the chances of anything happening are slim to none. It's like putting your seat belt on to move your car around in the driveway. Sure a wandering truck can come flying over your front lawn and cause a 4 car pile up that ends in a fiery blaze, but what are the chances? Really? Just make sure the pressure relief screw on the jack is nice and tight and you'll be fine. I've been under cars with just a jack holding them plenty of times for way more than it takes to do an oil change and haven't had anything happen. Just make sure it's not some POS Walmart jack and you'll be fine.

OlGeezer

IIRC, your other tips were general about changing oil. I've done this several times, just not on this car.

OlGeezer

I had a pretty bad experience with ramps when I moved to my current home. The garage floor has an epoxy coating. I rolled up the ramp (with my front wheel drive car) and the left one shot under the driver's door. I had to climb out jack up the car to remove it.

Maybe with rear wheel drive car, it won't be so bad.