OK so I was changing my wheels today from stockers to 002's,
I used the factory jack to pick up my car, (you know the usual wheel
changing process), as I was changing my front driver side wheel,
the tilt of the jack I'm guessing caused the stupid thing to fall back
and the whole front left end of my Box hit the ground... I look
seconds later and see that my foot is under my bumper (wondering
am i just to shocked to feel pain) but luckily my foot did have
enough clearance for me to slip it out unharmed... I called roadside
assistance and they came and helped me put my car back on its
feet, no damage thankfully :D ... basically the moral of the story is
if you care for your life don't use it cause they're sh**. just wanted
to let my SL peeps know............ SAFETY FIRST

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Wow. you mean you got yours to go up....mine wouldnt crank up...no lube on the screw. But after that, I got a hydraulic scissor jack.

 

did you have blocks under your wheels and have your ebrake pulled up?

 

yea man acctually i did, thats what kind of scared me
thinking anything is possible.. so im just not going to
use those anymore.. ima use the hydros..

 

okies, i didnt mean anything offensive

a buddy of mine w/ a white tC forgot to pull his ebrake when we did his cai, and when i was undoin gthe front wheel, i pulled too hard and pulled the car off the jack. ended up needing the rotor machined because it scraped the hell out of it

 

ahh its cool man, that sucks what happened to your friend..

 

Strange, I used my jack recently with no problem. Got a flat and had to put the spare on. I did follow the directions step by step 'cause I was scared I would hurt the Box (even though I have changed my share of tires).
It was kinda hard to crank, other than that it did its job just fine. I think my wife had the worst of it having to look at the plumbers butt.

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I never have had a problem with the jack. I used it to put on my springs, and weld on a new exhaust, and to put on my CAI, and to put a spare on, and to put the new tire on.
I have never had a problem, that is weird. Even when I use the torque wrench, I never have a problem, that's weird. I will keep this in mind though.
Thanks for letting me know!!

~Stephanie

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I have had the same happen to me. Yes my E brake was on. I put the jack on what i thought was solid ground and as i raised the front wheel off the jack slowly tilted backwards, then the box dropped. Thankfully i didnt have the front wheels entirely off, otherwise i would have been screwed. Turns out the jack found a soft spot in the ground and shifted.

IMO ... the jack should only be used in emergencies. The ground patch is too small to trust that it wont tip over. The GF bought me a nice aluminum floor jack for Xmas so i wont have to relive that experience again.

 

hmm that's pretty whack. all the times i've used the stock jack to jack up the car, it's been fine. maybe cuz i'm not doing anything too intense ...

 

I've never even taken mine outa the foam, when I put the wheels on I used my real jack, when I rotated them, the lift at work

 

I HOPE you guys talking about using the factory jack for doing repair, maintenance, and mod work are only using it to VERY CAREFULLY lift the car and then ......as the original poster found out he needed too....placing JACK STANDS under strong points to support the car while the work is being done. Place the jack stands at suspension mounting spots or jack points if available, then let the car down with the jack till most (if not all) of the weight is on the stand (or stands) not on the jack. To do anything other than this and go under the car is a death wish......yeah ok you can get away with it 95 times out of 100 but what about those other 5 times. If you use the factory jack for maintenance you are playing russian roulette.

I am a professional and work on cars all the time. I normally use jack stands, but there are times (emergency situations) where I have done things without stands. I have seen 5 cars fall from being lifted in my 33 years of messing with cars. 3 of these times I was working on the car. One of those I had a brake sieze up in my inlaws driveway the factory jack shifted and gave way and down it came...just barely got my foot out from under it before it hit the ground. another was also slight movement of the car while changing a flat (car was ebraked and in gear) factory sissors jack went sideways. 3rd time the cars front end was on jack stands and idiot buddy put the rear wheel drive car in gear running and drove forward tipping over and crushing the stands...he also put a small dent on my garage wall....good thing he stopped my TV and family room are on the other side. The other 2 times were car buddies doing repair/mod type stuff using factory type jacks. I have never seen a car fall off jack stands (forgiving powering the car off the stands with 1st gear) or off a large pad floor jack. (5-6 inch pad is best....the ones with only the 2 inch or so lifting point arent worth buying...they slip off things too easy). I knew 2 mechanics here in Atlanta that injured themselves by disregarding the use of stands...1 a broken leg the other a fatal injury. DO NOT GET UNDER A CAR WITHOUT STANDS OR A LIFT!!

The factory jack is only designed to lift the car to change a tire in an emergency and thats it. It is not designed to hold the car aloft for any kind of maintenance....the base is too narrow and the design to weak to take much movement. When you must use the factory jack certainly set the ebrake, put trans in park (automatic)or in gear (standard), be absolutely sure that the area is level and that the spot where the jack is going to touch the ground is asphalt or concrete not gravel or dirt. Be sure to lift the car only enough to enable removing the flat tire and no more (these jacks get less stable as you jack higher). Keeping you body completely out from under the car at all times change the tire.

For other than tire changing get a real jack. If you must use the factory instead of a real jack at least get a pair of jackstands. Scions are not that heavy, a basic pair of $20-30 regular duty stands is all you need (in fact alot of the "heavy duty" stands are yes a bit heavier but also taller...and taller can be a pain with cars as low as ours). Money well spent and hella cheaper than the costs of a injury.

 

Clean clean and cleaner. Love that off the show room look. No dirt aloud

 

TerribleTed, that's excellent advise.

 

hmm. i've used the stock jack for all of the 40+ cars i've lowered and it's as good as the first time i ever used it.

 

wierd, i used my factory jack with the car in park and the e-brake pulled to put my DR-16's on, worked beautiful.

 

TerribleTed's post (Reader's Digest version):

You can get away with using the small factory jack almost all of the time...but every so often, with the right circumstances, it can slip and drop your car. Injuring or possibly killing you. Be carefull.

 

I used the factory jack several times when I had my short bus and everything was fine.

 

I threw my jack away....I get a flat bed when I get a flat......I only use my 2 floor jacks and stands when I am under the car period

 

I used my factory jack like once...and knew it was crap. I picked up my hydrolic and floor jacks for less than $50.00 combined. Best $50.00 I've spent!!!