I have to replace my catalytic converter today, and I'm wondering where I'm supposed to put the jack in order to lift the front end up to put the car on jack stands.

Is there a cross member or something under the front end? I just don't want to damage the tranny or oil pan.

Anybody know?

 

on each side of the car, there are rails that go from behind the wheel to about 1/2 way past the doors. put your jack there and lift the car. you can put the stands on the rails if you want or under one of the CAs. if you have a big jack, you can jack the whole car up by the huge black crossmember that goes across the bottom of the car. just don't jack the car up too fast. easy does it is the trick.

 

I do have a decent sized floor jack. I'll look for that cross member. Otherwise, I'll have to find those rails that you're talking about.

What risk am I running if I jack the car up too fast by the cross member?

 

If using a floor jack, get a piece of wood and you can jack at the corners of the subframe (huge black cross member) right under the subframe mounts if you want. Hopefuly you are using something more heavy duty than your spare tire jack..?

 

Of course! It's a lot like this one.

 

You might not be able to fit that under and under all the way to the sub frame. Just jack at the rails. If you were to jack at the subframe mount points then it wouldn't matter how fast. But I don't think that kind of jack is low profile enough to fit that far in/under. I was thinking of something more like this:

 

I was worried about it not fitting under there too.

How about this idea?

Suppose I drive it about half way up a set of ramps, roll the jack under it and then take'er on up?

This may seem stupid now that I've mentioned having ramps, but according to a write-up that I found, I have to remove the passenger side front tire in order to access the heat shield and the bottom bolt from cat to turbo.

 

That is correct about removing the passanger side wheel. It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes it a ton easier. Having the jack under the subframe would also take away from your working room. go with the rails!

 

Will do....I 'preciate the info!

 

the pinch welds are your best bet... My car sits too low to even get my floor jack under them, I use my oem jack to get it high enough for the floor jack... You will just dent up the cross member if you go that route and then have no room to work..