SilverV6Camaro

Need some help here...I have been using the sub-frame sections in the front of the car as lift point for my jack and for jack stands. The passenger side one seems fine, but over time the driver's side area has rippled. To make matters worse, the jack stand slipped yesterday and put a nice big crater in it. Now when I am coming to a stop a hear a creaking right underneath me. I am shocked that this structural area bent, and from now on I don't know if I should keep using that area. Did I do any major damge, and if I did, can it be fixed?

ActionJack

That sucks!

Can you post a pic?

cyphur

iTrader: (10)

yea, a pic would be of big time help to us in helpin you

#41

phew, i was afraid i was gonna come in here and read that you had put the jack underneath the oil pan or something. post pics though if possible

SilverV6Camaro

Don't have pics....might be able to get some in a few days. It's not really bad, I mean the crater is like an inch diameter ding and the welded sheetmetal is wavy probably from a narrow jack stand support point. I don't think my car is going to fall apart, but maybe I am missing something when I jack it up that's causing this. I have been told using a hard piece of wood or something may spread the weight out more so it doesn't get worse.

msbz_ls1

iTrader: (1)

look at it this way you weren't underneath it ..

msbz_ls1

iTrader: (1)

look at it this way you weren't underneath it ..

always look at the glass as half full and not half empty ..

Gloveperson

iTrader: (9)

I always use a hard peice of wood when I jack up the car, I can't see it doing any damage to the car, only the wood.

Post pics, lets hope nothing is serious (doesn't sound like it).

-Todd

TheBlurLS1

iTrader: (8)

my buddies dad dropped the jack down while my buddy was pullin the jack stand out, took a bite out of the door on his 66 mustang. he was pretty sick after that one!!

Christos

That doesn't sound good. I would love to say some Sub Frame Connectors would fix the problem, but I really don't know if that would help at all. You might want to have a body specialist check it out. I would think they would do it for free, but you never know...

FWIW, my IROC has a big dent in the oil pan, from where the previous owner used it as a jacking point. Nothing hits, but it's still painful to look at...

Good luck, and keep us posted on this!

DaddySS

1x3 pine between the jack stand and the frame protects from damage and the 1x3 is a good fit between the jaws on most jackstands. I use a piece 6" long on each jackstand.

SilverV6Camaro

Thanks for all the replies. I'll have pics in a couple days, someone has my camera. I looked at it last night, just to clarify, it is not caved in or anything. The car didn't fall either. When I said "slipped" the jack stand slid to a different position on the subframe and got into one of the holes in the center of it. Because of the hole, it bent the center of the subframe in about 1/2 an inch 1 inch around.

Anyway, it doesn't look horrible. Other than the small crater, the rest of the subframe section that once was flat has gradually gotten wavy. The car is 99% fine structurally, I'm sure, I just don't want it to get any worse when jacking the car for tire rotations, oil changes, etc. A piece of wood sounds like it'll help and spread the load so I don't bend it any more than it already is. Plus, the lifts in the shop won't hurt it all given that they are evenly distributed around the whole car. At this point I just don't want to hurt it any more.