How to Jack Up a Car and Place Jack Stands: A Step-by-Step Guide for Winter Storage

ByKenji Alvarez

Getting a car onto jack stands safely is one of those jobs where the risk isn’t in the lifting — it’s in the small details most guides skip. A stand that isn’t seated right, a jack point chosen by guesswork, a flange crushed by a bare metal cup. Here’s how to do it correctly, with notes on long-term winter storage.

What You Need Before You Start

A floor jack. Not the scissor jack that came with your car — that’s for roadside tire swaps only. Its footprint is too small and its base too wobbly for anything else. A hydraulic floor jack, even a cheap one from a tool store, is far more stable.

You also need at least two jack stands rated for the weight you’re lifting, wheel chocks (or a couple of bricks), and a flat, hard surface. Concrete is best. Soft asphalt can compress under load. Gravel is not an option.

One last thing: a piece of 2×4 lumber or a rubber pinch-weld adapter. You’ll need it.

Finding the Jack Points on a Chevy Cobalt

The Cobalt uses pinch-weld jack points — the same system on most front-wheel-drive GM cars from that generation. The pinch weld is a narrow, doubled-up metal flange that runs along the underside of the rocker panel, visible from underneath as a seam roughly an inch wide. There are four contact points in total: one just behind each front wheel, and one just ahead of each rear wheel.

On the Cobalt, those four spots are reinforced from the factory and often have a small locating notch. Your owner’s manual will have a diagram showing their exact positions. It’s worth pulling it up before the first lift — the jack points sit close to surrounding sheet metal, and placing a jack even two inches off-center loads unsupported body panels that will fold.

Step-by-Step: Lifting the Car and Setting Stands

Work one end of the car at a time. Never try to lift all four corners with a single floor jack in one go.

  • Park on flat concrete. Shift into Park, or first gear on a manual. Apply the parking brake. Place wheel chocks behind the tires you are not lifting — the rear wheels when working the front, the fronts when working the rear.
  • Slide the floor jack under the correct jack point. Do not let the bare metal jack cup contact the pinch weld flange directly. Set a short cut of 2×4 in the cup so the wood cradles the flange, or use a rubber pinch-weld adapter. The flange is thin and will bend under a bare metal cup.
  • Pump the jack slowly until the tire just lifts off the floor. Stop and check that the jack is sitting square — not tipping to one side, not rocking. Then continue to working height.
  • Slide a jack stand under the same location. Adjust it to the right height, then lower the car slowly until the stand takes the weight. The car should settle firmly onto the stand. The jack stays in place underneath as a backup, not a primary support.
  • Move to the other side of the same axle and repeat before doing anything else.

Once all stands are positioned, push the car firmly from both sides. Nothing should move. If anything shifts, set it back down and reposition. This step takes ten seconds and is not optional.

Protecting the Pinch Weld Flange

Most first-timers skip the wood or rubber pad and pay for it later. The pinch weld flange can handle the load — that’s what it’s there for — but only when the force is spread across the surface rather than concentrated on a single metal edge. A jack stand cup with no pad digs into the flange over time, and after a winter of storage the flange can be permanently bent or cracked. Repairs to a damaged rocker panel or pinch weld run well into the hundreds. A piece of scrap 2×4 costs nothing.

Why Jack Stands Are the Right Call for Winter Storage

Leaving a car sitting on its tires for three or four months in a cold garage causes flat spots. The contact patch — the small section of tire touching the floor — deforms under the car’s weight. At low temperatures the rubber stiffens and holds that deformed shape. When you drive it again you feel a rhythmic thump at every wheel revolution. Modern tires usually work this out after a few miles of driving, but on older rubber, or when the car sits through a particularly cold winter, some of that deformation is permanent.

Lifting the car completely off the ground removes the problem. It’s the cleanest solution. If you’d rather leave the tires down, inflate them to the maximum pressure stamped on the sidewall — not the number on the door placard — before putting the car away. That extra pressure helps the tire resist deformation under load. Moving the car a few feet every few weeks also helps, if you have the space.

A Few Other Winter Storage Details

While the car is going away for the season: fill the gas tank and add a fuel stabilizer. A full tank limits moisture condensation inside the tank, and stabilizer keeps the fuel from going varnishy over several months. Hook up a trickle or maintenance charger, or pull the battery entirely. If your garage floor is cold enough to sweat, lay a plastic vapor barrier under the car — moisture wicks up into the undercarriage. And if rodents are a problem in your area, plug the exhaust tip and air intake with steel wool. A warm, enclosed engine bay is exactly where mice want to spend the winter.

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