When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Toyota and Lexus unibodies employ pinch weld seams at jacking points.
This explains why your emergency trunk jack employs a u-channel to avoid damaging pinch welds when raising vehicle.
However, unless you take your Lexus to the dealer, the independent repair shop is unlikely to use a proper pinch weld seam clearance pad on their lift equipment and your vehicle will sustain $$ damage. (Same thing goes for do-it-yourselfers.)
When doing oil changes, I always jack up on the front cross member and then slowly lower the car onto jackstands set at equal heights on either side. I think its too much weight to use a jack just on one corner of the car personally so I never do so.
In the rear, I jack up by the differential and do the same, lower onto jackstands if I'm swapping out to winter/summer tires or working on my rear brakes.
On the not crushing the pinch weld, many years ago I made some of my own little adapter things out of Oak, reinforced with bolts so the wood does not crack. Tightly fitting on the jack stand so it does not fall off, going around both sides of the pinch weld so it does not flatten that.
Easier and almost as good is to use a router to cut a channel out of the middle of a hockey puck.
And this goes for most cars out there. Japanese ones at least, in my experience. German ones usually make a custom solution.
+1. I've worked on cars an seen many pinch welds crushed. The saddle on my smaller jack fits the pinch weld but on the larger jacks like Yodaposted those are the issue. Same with jackstands in some instances. Good reminder for me to get some pads for them.
I jack from the "frame rail" due to too many pinched seams as well.
if you have no choice but to lift from the seam (in a case of a very low car) there are other ways to minimize bending.
I do like the block/hockey puck method depending on the jack used.
using two jacks and lifting together the entire front/rear simultaneously also helps, as well as on one side to help distribute the weight off just one point.
always chock the grounded tires to prevent slipping, and try to perform on a level surface!
Images of SVI brand rubber pads which prevent damage to pinch Weld seams on LS400 when jacking vehicle with floor Jack or at indy repair shop. . SVI pad prevents damage when jacking an LS400. Grooved pad over pinch weld seam on 1999 LS400 illustrating clearance.
The current LS 500s have special reinforced metal covers over the pinch weld to strengthen them and to provide more surface area to lift the car from.
There used to be a close-up photo on this forum or on another, but I've been trying to find a part number for that piece. I would not mind ordering a few and installing them over my existing pinch welds.
EDIT: Image attached. You can see the individual plates highlighted in red.
It's good to use the rubber spacer w/ a slot to protect the seams, however these cars are 20+ years old so most likely the damage had been done countless times by many shops & even the owners. I've checked both of my 97 & 00 LS400s, 1 of the seams is smashed but the other are just slightly deformed. They have survived all these years so I wouldn't worry about it but thanks for posting though. Btw, for my C6 Vette, I've custom-made the spacers using the rubber hockey pucks to protect the rocker panels from getting crushed. It works great.
For those of you that may have known me & were wondering why I haven't been posting & commenting on the forum so here is why: I was a senior scientist at an Aerospace company. After 36 years of giving it my all, I've decided to retire young. I was able to convince my wife to retire w/ me as well so we've been traveled all over the world & our plan is to travel 7, 8 months out of a year for the next 10 years & hopefully many more years after as long as our bodies still being able to. We were in Europe for 5 months, visited a total of 18 countries & 40+ cities. We love Europe as it's such a beautiful part of the world with so much history. We're currently in Asia & had planned our trip for 4 months but will have to cut it short to 3 due to current Coronavirus crisis. We're coming back home to California tomorrow. I miss driving my cars, especially the LS's so can't wait to get home. Hope everyone is doing well & we'll get through this. Take care.
02-27-20, 03:47 PM
Protecting pinch weld seams when jacking
