Behind The Mag

Internet forums will never cease to amaze. At any given moment you can find out how to season and cook a two-pound ham from a knowledgeable chef yet read utter nonsense from the forum monkeys regarding where exactly underneath your NSX you should place your floor jack. Posts like this are not uncommon on the NSX forums (about jacks, not meat), so it’s really no surprise that someone created a thread asking if he could or couldn’t jack his car up from a certain spot. The spot in question doesn’t have a big arrow on it and it doesn’t have its own stamp next to it that says “jack here.” It also doesn’t have its own page in the NSX service manual. All of this is enough to make the NSX weenies promptly tell the guy that he cannot and should not jack his car up there. But most anybody who knows his way around a car knows there’s almost always at least a few other spots to stick a jack under than where Honda tells you to. And if you need to create a thread on a forum to verify this, well, maybe you should think about putting that jack away for good. Sorry, but if you can’t tell that raising an NSX by its engine cradle/subframe, which sits right up against the rear frame rail, is okay, then make the world a safer place for yourself and stop crawling underneath your car. 

Unlike most other Hondas that can be raised by their front crossmembers and rear structural members, the NSX’s designated jack points are directly under its doors. That means that NSXs are raised laterally, not longitudinally—a strange procedure if you’ve never done it before. It also takes a bit more time than it does to jack up your Civic, which is why some NSX owners look to the rear subframe when only one corner needs to be raised—like when changing the oil filter. Ah, but if only the NSX weenies would approve.