Just thought I would share my stupidity, hoping it will save someone else a lot of money. Almost a year ago, I placed a floor jack under the round cross member in from of the engine. The car slipped off the jack. I looked (but not good enough) and so no damage. When it slipped off the jack, it landed on the radiator really bending it. There was no damage to the plastic "shield", so I thought I was OK. WRONG!! Last week, while driving from Houston to Tulsa, my radiator developed a bad leak in the middle of Dallas, during rush hour traffic. I made it to a station, cooled it down, then drove to a chevy dealer. It cost me over $1,300 to get the damage repaired to the radiator and the cooling fans. There are no braces or framing under the radiator and thus no protection. I truly hope this does not happen to anyone else.

 

ouch

 

Omfg!

 

yup i did that to my wifes neon back in the day

 

u could have bought new radiator and fans and put em in for much cheaper. 2 thirds of that was labor.

 

Thats not something you can do when your braking down at a gas station.

 

there was a post a few years ago about a guy who did that. i think he tried to jack his car up from the radiator or something.


sorry about ur situation man. good looking out

 

Jotting that one down in my "Note to Self" book

 

guess he was pretty far from home eh

 

Look at it this way, it could have been much worse too. You can warp an aluminum head pretty easy like that, not to mention blowing hoses, water pump, etc. It will (probably did) overheat super fast too, once you loose enough coolant that it can not longer make it over the top of the motor, it will go from normal temp to overheat in less than a minute.

 

did the same thing at the track with the hhr when I first got it, didnt hurt it too bad but I felt like an idiot

 

So your cool now?

I always jack it up from the sides.

 

So if I use common sense like better judgment, I should be good?

 

Its fine to jack the car from the cross member, just make sure the jack is securely on there. Also use jack stands.

 

yeah, I jack it up high enough to get two jack stands on the sides, as security... I also make sure its very secure before raising it up

 

made me cringe when I read that. Good thing it didn't get stuck in the middle of the highway.

 

lifts FTW..