by Bull6791, September 16, 2014
Is the place where you put the OEM jack the pinch weld and the seam that runs from one OEM jack spot to another the frame rail.
I wanted to know what the pinch welds and frame rail was.
Also is the pinch welds and frame rail strong enough to hold jack stands and trolley jack or not.
Thanks Frank.
Correct - there are two notches cut out of the pinch weld where the OEM scissor jack sits over.
The pinch weld is where two sections of the unitbody are welded together to form the lower chassis or "frame" of the car, Generally runs from between the front wheels to just before the rear wheels, tracing out a ridge under the doors of the car. Since the Corolla is a unitbody construction - there is no real "frame" to speak of, the pinch rail is generally the strongest place to lift up the car.
They are strong enough to put jack stands and a trolley jack under, just note that due to the shape, you might bend part of the rail. Not a terrible issue, but if you ever want to use the OEM jack - this might be a problem. There should be just enough meat immediately next to the rail to put the jack/jack-stands on. Otherwise, you'll have to fabricate your own jack mount to go over the pinch rail.
Ok I got it the pinch weld is where you put scissor jack. There is four on car one near each tire.
But still unclear what is frame rail. I though it was next to spot where you put scissor jack that came with car.
Frank
In this context, the pinch rail = frame rail. You don't really have a "frame", as this car is a unitbody. But the pinch rail is considered the closest thing to a frame rail on the car.
There are front and rear "subframes" - those you generally don't want to use as a lifting point unless you had no other choice.
The owner's manual will show you a graphic of the the main and alternative lifting points.
So the only thing I should do is use the four spots for scissor jack and put jack stands under these four spots.
Now in front and rear of car where do you jack it up with trolley jack.
Those spots are designed for the OEM scissor jack - if you can also fit jack stands there, harder to say - depends on the jack stands. Might not be enough room to fit them side to side.
There are cental pickup points on the front and rear - front one is by the front tow point, the rear is centered on the rear beam suspension. There is a nice graphic in your owner's manual. If you don't have it handy - you can look it up on the main Toyota website.
Lots of videos on youtube and similar if you want to see it done.
