Hi, all. By way of quick introduction, I'm just getting into learning to work on my own cars, so please forgive if I just sound clueless (because, well, I largely am!).

I've done a little work on my wife's 98 Civic and had no problems, so this past Saturday I decided to take on my 99 Intrepid (needed to change the brakes).

Here's the quick story: I look in my car's manual for where to put the jackstands (it gives jackpoints for the emergency jack along the sides of the car near the wheels); the Chilton manual says to put the floor jack on the crossmember. At my first attempt, it appears that the crossmember is angled some, because the jack starts sliding across it (towards the front of the car). I reposition the jack, this time further back on the crossmember.

I get it jacked up to where the wheels are just off the ground (I believe this was about as high as my jack would go, actually), and go to put the jackstands on. However, where the jackpoints were, there was no good way to place the jackstands! Instead of having a reinforced slug hanging down, the sill where I'm supposed to put the stands (as far as I know) is at the same level as the body, so I can't really put the stands there reliably. I tried fanagling the stands in there, but I ended up with the wheels back on the ground and little confidence in where the stands were supporting.

I lower the car back to the ground, and notice that it looks like I put a dent in the crossmember where the jack was!

Since then, I've noticed some sounds that seem mostly consistent with a damaged or worn CV joint, but the car also feels a little looser than before (bent stabilizer bar?). I'm hoping I didn't do serious damage to the car (I sent some photos I took to my father-in-law who thinks the sounds are, in fact, the CV joint, and thinks I couldn't have done major damage). :-/

Anyway, I guess my main questions are: where am I supposed to put the floor jack if not the crossmember? And where should the jackstands go? And if I was right about where they should go, what was I doing wrong?

 

Welcome, Let me start by saying, you should always buy the shop service manual (about $100) for any car you own and want to keep. There is a copy of a second gen shop manual in this forum (top of the second gen forum titled "the Holy Grail." It is for a 2002, but it should do fine. These books are much better then aftermarket books.

As for the jack points see pg 0-6.

Last can you post the photos?

Kurt

 

Thanks for the suggestion; where do I find the service manual for purchase? Do I need to go to a dealer for that?

Here are the photos I sent. Forgive me, my statement before was a little misleading; he diagnosed a CV issue based on my description of what the car was doing when driving, though he did base his thought that I probably didn't do much damage on viewing the photos. These photos are just different angles on the dent the jack put in the center of the crossmember.

 

For a hard copy call 800-890-4038. I'm sure the dealer can order it for you, I just like to cut out the middle man...he may make you pay a few to him in the price. They go back 10 years in book form and another 10 years they print from microfiche and send you a big stack of paper. You would need about 3 large 3 ring binders to hold it all. You could get an electronic copy in a PDF form (such as the one found in "the Holy Grail", but the advantage to a hardcopy book, is you can use it in your shop. An electronic version could be used in a laptop, but there’s risk of damage to the laptop. Go to this link (this company handles Chrysler corp manuals), if you want the electronic (and instant) form. https://techauthority.gltghosting.co...atalogId=10051

 

If you look at the sides of the vehicle while it's up on the jack, you can see a reinforced beam on each side of the compartment. This is where i place my stands and also jack the car up from if i only need one side lifted. They run back from the strut mounts to the rear doors.

 

First of all, thanks everyone for the advice. The sound that we were thinking was a bad CV joint turned out to just be a loose wheel. Sigh...I was sure I'd gotten all those lugnuts tightened down sufficiently.

I have noticed another issue lately, though, where I'll get a sudden squeek sounding like it's coming from the same (right) wheel. It seems to be connected to steering, though I can't quite pin it down yet.

chrishalling, thanks for the suggestion. I looked underneath earlier and saw a couple beams that stuck down from the bottom about 2 inches or so (quick guesstimation)...are those what you're talking about? They seem to be pretty far in towards the center of the car, though. Or is there something else I'm missing? I'm going to finally get around to trying to lift the car again this evening, so I guess I can look closer when it's jacked up.

 

chrishalling, thanks for the suggestion. I looked underneath earlier and saw a couple beams that stuck down from the bottom about 2 inches or so (quick guesstimation)...are those what you're talking about? They seem to be pretty far in towards the center of the car, though. Or is there something else I'm missing? I'm going to finally get around to trying to lift the car again this evening, so I guess I can look closer when it's jacked up.[/quote]


THEY SOUND LIKE THE ONES I AM TALKING ABOUT. THE SECOND PICTURE YOU POSTED WITH THE BAR THAT HAS A INDENTATION IN IT LOOKED LIKE IT. IF YOU LOOK AT THE UNDERSIDE OF THE CAR FROM THE PASSENGER OR DRIVER DOOR YOU WILL SEE THEM. THEY ARE NOT AS FAR IN AS YOU THINK.