Good day.

I plan to do my first tire rotation on a Forrester. rather than lifting one wheel at a time with the scissor jack, I would like to lift the entire front (or rear) axle using a floor jack, place the jackstands and remove both tires.

Question: where (under which part of the Forrester) should I place the jack head? what is the safest/stronger part of the car which I can access for lifting purposes? I am looking for a frame element along the centerline, of course, since the standard lips near the wheel will only allow lifting off the pavement one tire at a time.

Thank you for any suggestion/tip/hint.

AFAIK Subaru recommends front to back tire rotation. What I do is lift the front of one side with the scissor jack and the rear of the same side with my floor jack using the lift points on the rocker panel. I made a small wood piece to sit on the saddle of the floor jack that has a small groove in it that the rocker panel seam sits in.

I've used a floor jack to lift the Legacy at the center of the rear differential and the center of what I call the engine cradle. I've also lifted one side by putting a 2x4 under the sill and jacking it up in the middle. Jacking points should be listed in the service manual. Check to see if this is applicable for the Forester and be careful.

 

 

I thought the Forester had a real spare. If so, just jack up one corner, install the spare, move to the next corner and put on the tire you just removed, etc. That’s part of the beauty of a full size spare.

If you have a large enough jack, just jacking at the front factory location is enough to lift the entire side of the car. A jack like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91039 does the job nicely. As for jacking the entire front or rear... Jack on the rear diff for the rear, and jack on the plate across the subframe piece that sits BEHIND the oil pan for the front.