Tire rotation and jacking points

[ctobio]

As part of the A 1 service in the maintenance minder, I've rotated the tires.

A few observations:

1. The factory service manual says that there are a front and rear centerine jacking point roughly where the winching eyes are front and rear. In the rear, I put my trolley jack just to the left of the winching eye, in the front, I saw no reasonable place near the winching eye short of the eye itself to put the jack on. Suffice it to say I wasn't too keen on this as a jacking point, so I used the unibody frame members on the sides instead.

For my jackstands, I went just inboard of the hardpoints where the regular jack would go. I always put a hockey puck (really!) in between the jackstand and the frame, so I don't dent or gouge the underbody.

2. The wheels were a piece of cake to pop off- no surprises. The lugnuts hadn't been loosened since the factory, but the dealer installed wheel locks (no charge!) seemed a touch tighter. Doesn't surprise me there. When I put everything back together, I torqued everything back to spec.

3. after having rad the procedure for doing the front and rear rotors, I decided that now would be a good time to remove the screws that hold the rotors to the hub and apply anti-sieze. They came off fairly easy since we're only talking 6100 miles and these rotors haven't seen any salty roads yet. I ended up tapping with a hammer a #3 phillips bit and putting that on a 3/8" breaker bar. When I replace these rotors, I'll be congratulating myself rather than cursing.

4. I always apply anti-sieze to the mating surface where the back of the alloy wheel hits the hub. I've had too many alloy wheels bond to a hub after the salty northeast winters- sometimes needing a sledgehammer and a 2 x 4 to break them loose. Once I do this, I've never had a problem removing a wheel.

[jcantanixon]

Thanks for the tips, and the reminder of why I don't live where it snows regularly.

[iglesias]

The location of the jacking points is show here

[ctobio]

Originally posted by iglesias
The location of the jacking points is show here

That's clearer than the service manual. That said, that front jacking point really did not make me comfortable. I like to present the maximum surface area to the jack cup- using the front towing eye puts the weight of the whole front end of the car on a surface area about 1 sq inch. When I raised my Pilot using this point, the jack started to angle off to one side.

I'll need to look into this more...

[iglesias]

Originally posted by ctobio


That's clearer than the service manual. That said, that front jacking point really did not make me comfortable. I like to present the maximum surface area to the jack cup- using the front towing eye puts the weight of the whole front end of the car on a surface area about 1 sq inch. When I raised my Pilot using this point, the jack started to angle off to one side.

I'll need to look into this more...

I haven't had that problem with mine.

[john802]

Originally posted by iglesias

I haven't had that problem with mine.

Ditto!