Scissor jacks and pinch welds

[paulo57509]

I never raised but I have supported the front end with a pad-less stand on the pinch weld of my old LS400 without issue. I put the stands at the location specified in the FSM.

I wouldn't lift the vehicle with any kind of jack directly on the pinch weld, unless the lifting pad had some kind of pad that straddled the pinch weld.

IMO, the pinch weld pretty strong; if you look at it's location it's typically right below the A and C pillar panels. It's more prone to impact damage than lifting. Provided you're using an approved manner to lift.

 

[Donald]

Every scissor jack I've had that came with a car has a space to fit around the pinch weld jacking point when changing a tire, however our new Corolla scissor jack has a flat surface contact point that seems like it would bend the pinch weld when raising the car. Once it's "deformed" or flattened is that just how it's designed to be? Just seemed odd to me.

Yes the Subaru factory jack fits on both sides of pinch weld. The lifting force is on both sides of the pinch weld. The pinch weld just seems to hold the jack in place.

But bring your car to a shop with a lift and the lift arms will lift the car on the pinch weld. I doubt the shop puts a puck on each arm before lifting the car.

The issue comes in when that area is rusted and trying to lift just mushes the pinch weld up.

 

[repairman54]

If a shop is lifting a vehicle with pinch welds run away. Must be a Sears Auto center, the ones who used to drop cars monthly.
Here are the shop manual lift points for my '16 Equinox. And yes it has a roadside pinch weld tire jack. Manual says pinch weld for corner of vehicle lifting at the tire to be changed only.

 

[SubLGT]

My Toyota has floor jack points center front and back. I put the jack stands under the pinch welds. Is that wrong?

That's what I have been doing on my old Subaru for 18 years. I put jack stands (with a wood or rubber cushion) under the pinch weld, at the factory marked locations. Zero damage.

 

[Dave9]

I've used pinch welds many times to jack a vehicle for purposes other than changing a tire, but this was almost always using a floor jack with a pinch weld adapter puck on the saddle, and only till I put a jack stand somewhere else.

I do have a pinch weld adapter pad for my jack stands, but I've always found somewhere else to put the jack stands instead, with thicker metal that was less subject to rust-weakening. If I see a lot of corrosion on the pinch weld area, then I don't jack on them at all.

 

[D60]

Major hackery today, CX9 on my lift at the pinch welds. Surely catastrophic structural damage has occurred