I bought some new wheels for my 2013GT and I feel a bit stupid because I have no idea how to properly jack up this vehicle and put a jack stand under it.

I checked the owners manual and while it clearly indicates the jacking points (with raised arrows on the plastics fascia) it does not state a proper place to put a jack stand (and the notch in the plastic is certainly not big enough to put both the jack and the stand. Some googling leads me to places for placing stands when lifting half or all of the vehicle.

I am quite happy to work one wheel at a time.

I've always worked on cars with a body in frame design 2 axels so it was always easy to know where was safe to support the car.

So what's the simplistic and safest way to properly change a single wheel on these machines?

 

Don't feel stupid. Nobody knows everything, after all, and for everything there is a first time, yes? The 10,000 moments in life, y'know..

When I need a jackstand, I take the my floor jack (you do have a low profile 2-3 ton decent quality floor jack, right? If not, get that first!) and place the pad of it on the pinch weld, more to the middle of the car, so as to be behind the front notch, or in front of the rear notch, and jack the car up. Enough so that when the car is up and ready to receive the jack stand, the notch is where the jack stand is going to go. Right where it should. Remove jack, repeat as needed. You can do all one side, or fronts first, or rears first, whatever floats your boat.

Be aware that *PROPER CHOCKING OF WHEELS MUST HAPPEN* when doing this. Go get a chocks, or blocks of wood, especially if you're doing the rears first/only. The fronts have no way to stop from rolling off the jack/stands, after all.

If you need the suspension loaded, the axle can be jacked from the middle (being aware to not place the pad on the cover!) and then the stands placed on the ends of the axle tubes a near where the hardware's mounted as possible. You can also do this via the pinch weld jacking and do one side if you'd rather, that'd be your call. The front suspension would be done while the car is on jack stands above, then use the jack to raise the lower control arm... just be careful where you place the jack. You're probably doing this with the wheel off, too, as it's a suspension item you'd be working on that would call for this, say, properly fastening a control arm's bolts (arm should be in 'ride position' when tightening the bolts)

Changing the wheels/tires you probably don't want the axle loaded though, just info for ya.

That's what I'm doin' So far, so good, years of practice and all that.

All that being said, if you're doing four for four, perhaps the one at a time, just jack up the corner in question method is simplest. Chocking still applies, of course. You can jack up and put a stand in if you want to feel safer, I would. If you're doing a rotation, front to back only, then the one side being up on the jacks would work, then bring it down and do the other.

Really, it's up to you, all the info's here now, I'd say... practice will be the key, and just be safe!

Hope that helps!

/Off to get some Mentos...

 

Another option would be to get the bolt-in Steeda jacking rails. I have them on my '13 and they made it much easier to jack the car up and place the car on jack stands.

https://www.steeda.com/steeda-s197-m...ing-rails.html

 

+1 on the jacking rails. They save time and where an easy install.

 

They say there're for a s197 ???? still fit a s550??

 

Steeda makes them for the S197 and the S550. This thread is in the forum section for the 2010 - 2014, so an earlier poster gave the link for the S197 rails. Here is a link to the S550 rails.
https://www.steeda.com/Steeda-S550-M...e_p_15941.html