Jack Stand Points for Nissan Altima

I need to get under my car to do maintenance on a component. Cars are heavy and if you get under them and they fall on top of you this could cause amputation or death, so it’s best to research and do this carefully. The most obvious and safest way to do this is to go to a garage and have someone else do it, but this is more expensive.

I’m a newby to cars, so I’m going to attempt to summarize the many forum threads on how and where to use jack stands on a 2 gen Nissan Altima 1993-2001. Though it seems simple, the many people that have started forum threads points to some confusion, so I thought I’d try to clear the air.

Your scissors jack is for changing tires. You put them on the frame rail between the two notches, as it says on the scissors jack instructions. If you use your scissors jack to raise your car, you cannot put your jack stands in the same frame rail place between the two notches. Using jack stands on another part of the frame rail near the notches might bend your frame rail (see pics), unless you have special jack stand adapters (see below diagram) specifically made for the contour of the frame rail.

Unless you use a special jack stand adapter you might bend your frame rails

You need a floor jack, which you can put on the garage jack points or on the red coloured locations in the above diagrams, on the midline of the car. Once jacked up you can put your jack stands on the 4 frame rail areas between the two notches.

Altima lift points: garage jack points and safety stand points

Update: Sept 16, 2010: Joe wrote in saying he could not find the jack stand adapters. I have also looked and also could not find them. Here’s some research:

1. DIY: Some people are making their own jack stand adapters out of hard wood. Get a chunk of wood that fits your jack stands, cut a slot in the middle.
2. Harbor Freight: They carry 6 ton jack stands and two piece rubber pads for jack stands ($10US). They are inexpensive but not exactly as in the above diagram.
3. Protech Products: has lots of jack pads. They are sized to fit your jack stands. $23US
4. flipper325 from this G35 forum thread on custom jack stand adapters for Harbour Freight jacks: As of Sept 2010 he is still making them. They are cast out of a 2-part polyurethane elastomer. $45US/pr

flipper325's custom made Nissan jack stand adapters, cast from polyurethane elastomer flipper325's custom Nissan jack stand adapters, cast from polyurethane elastomer