I am trying to do my first oil change... and wow it has not been off to a good start.

Tried jacking it up in the front, but the 14" jack could not get it high enough to put the stands back on the subframes. So I tried for a bit on getting my car on some ramps of my dad's I know are too tall for my car. But that didn't work either.

After a break, I went back out and started jacking it up by the subframe as I had done once before. This ALWAYS worries me when I think about doing it.. I feel like I am going to bend it or damage it and it will rust.

So on the subframes I get it jacked up high enough for the stands and slip the jack stand under there and VERY slowly let the jack down, and see that the stand started sinking into the subframe so I quickly propped it back up and got it the #$%# out of there.

Now I look and there is some bent-ness. I don't know how bad of damage this is or what I should do or how much this could cost. Could someone help me assess what has happened?

Here are some pictures to give you different angles of the damage.

 

Canary where have you been????

and dont worry about it, so long as they dont crush in a way that its just paint with rust underneathe its fine

 

Why not just stick a couple pieces of wood on the jack and get it up higher? Seriously work smarter not harder.

 

I recently had some frame work done, all I can say is it's a good thing I knew the owner of the shop!! It can get real expensive real quick (mine was worse than yours)..

 

why not put your jack stands under the control arms? that little spot is not gone to hurt anything clean any lose paint off and hit it with some undercoating .

 

if you put jack stands under your control arms the car wont sit as high because the suspension will compress


theres nothing wrong with hows that is

 

Busy with school Glad to see you though SKAR


Thank you all for your help. I feel less worried now at least.

I happened to find some shorter (as in height) ramps for $10 at a local antique store that looked to be in great shape. They fit nearly perfectly under my front bumper and allowed me to change the oil finally .

Unfortunately, I realized I put way too much new oil in at first and had to drain it out (what a waste!). Literally, it was twice the length as the maximum full mark on the dipstick. It's all fixed now though and the car runs great

 

use taller jackstands.

 

Actually, that's the problem. My jack stands are too tall for my jack. My jack is only like half an inch taller than the lowest position of my stands.

Most jacks seem to be 14 inches like mine though...

 

Not sure how tall mine is but I raise the car to the height of the stands then if I need to go higher I put a 4in block of wood on the pad of the jack then raise it more.