Winters Off, Summers On

[Hartside]

Well, I spent this afternoon swapping the winter tyres on steel rims back across to the Toyota alloys with summer boots on. What a waste of time the recommended jacking points are though, unless you have a high lift/long reach trolley jack. Never mind, that's me sorted for the summer now!

Steels all cleaned and pressure washed and stored in my tyre tree till Oct/Nov

[mrpj]

I tried a trolley jack on the front and rear lifting points,those recommended in my handbook for using a trolley jack, I found the front one fine but the rear is too high and the wheels wouldn't clear the ground. The rear one is not flat enough either and I would think would very easily slide off the jack head, even a rubber one! I've no intention of buying another higher lift jack to add to the collection.

I bought a couple of ice hockey pucks off eBay, cut out a suitable slot to accomodate the sill flange and use them now on the side scissor jack points. Perfect, no paintmarking or damage at those points.

I even wondered if the box section "chassis rails" would be strong enough with a suitably long piece of wood to spread the load? I don't want to risk it though for fear of bending something.

[Hartside]

Thanks, I think that's the best solution as my Golf also has sill jack points that have a seam weld. One of the guys at work is slotting some Polypenco for me and turning it so that it fits into the jack lifting cup, so that should make the job a great deal easier. For the Golf it requires a 25mm deep slot to allow the shoulders to sit on the reinforcement either side of the seam weld. I'll have a look at the Yaris this afternoon to see if the underfloor is similar.

[alfiejts]

If you look carefully at the design of the slot on the Yaris jack, it doesn't put its weight on the flange but actually uses the floor on the inside of the flange as the actual weight-bearing point. The flange doesn't reach the botton of the slot in the jack.

I too have bought some hockey pucks from eBay and used a router to cut a slot in one to sit over the flange.

I've also put four small grooves on the other side of the puck so that it sits securely on my trolley jack.

Its still not perfect, because the puck isn't thick enough to allow me to cut the slot deep enough to make it weightbear on the floor at the back of the flange, like the Toyota jack does, so its still weightbearing on the bottom of the flange, but at least it doing less damage to the sill than just applying the metal trolley jack straight to the flance on the sill.....

[Hartside]

Yes that's my thoughts as well. The seam weld is a guide for the Toyota jack so that the weight is taken by the load bearing area behind it. I had a puck also, but reckoned as you slot down into it, there wouldn't be enough puck left as you said. I spoke with one of our guys at work and we came up with the Polypenco idea for the Golf, which load bears on both sides of the seam. I guess I'll experiment with the Yaris to get the inner loadbearing part to contact only, as the outermost part of the sill would crush easily

[mrpj]

"it doesn't put its weight on the flange but actually uses the floor on the inside of the flange as the actual weight-bearing point."

Yes, I noticed that when I had a practice with the supplied scissor jack just in case a wheel change was necessary when out and about, e.g. puncture.

The area of the jack head which raises the car isn't very big either, there must be some serious reinforcement inside the sill/floor to prevent the jack head bending or even penetrating the sill/floor!? I used a piece of 1/8" rubber insertion between the scissor jack head and the floor to prevent marking the paint, that's now stashed away in the jack compartment. I wonder how many people have not read their handbook fully and not been able to find the jack?

[grin factor]

Got mine changed over on Saturday, but as I don't have a set of steel wheels, it cost me £9 a wheel.

Does anyone know of a set of steel wheels for sale, or which other steels fit a MK 1 Yaris

[alfiejts]

Keep a regular eye on eBay. People sell steels as they replace them with alloys....

The Mk1 and Mk2 are the same fit, but the Mk1 was 13" or 14" wheels and the Mk2 is a 15" wheel. Any should do, but ideally the smaller wheels the better for winter tyres as they will take narrower winter tyres - and the narower the better in the winter as there's then more pressure on the road.

[grin factor]

Cheers alfiejts.