The rear tow hook is visible from the back of the car as you stand behind it - it's right in the center.

Myself, I'd lift it the opposite way with two stands - put the stands under the *rear* points, then jack up the front at the subframe and use that as your single point. I used a cheapy 15" jack with some weights stacked to get to the rear point - and the car fell off the jack when I bumped it (thankfully, I had stands underneath the rear, so I got away with some (more) scraped undercoating - a can of the spray-on stuff from the auto parts store took care of that.) But you can see why I'm a bit leery of using the rear jacking point with a jack alone.

That 22" should suit you well - it'll reach the back end fine. My T&SUV jack is a 21", and it reaches the back to get the tires off the ground with a bit of room to spare. Still not enough to flip the hinge on the front undercover, though - I'd save SO much time if it could!

 

GreenAndBlue... Thanks again!!! Based upon your recommendation, I'll reverse the process (lift rear and use stands in rear, then lift from the front sub frame for the front support). I've got air tools, so this should speed up the process (and minimize the time she's balancing up there!). I'll do the wheel torque (80 ft-lb, I believe you said?) back on the ground.

Hmmm... just remembered that my driveway slopes a bit. Might be safer to do this on the flat street. unfortunately, my air hose won't reach there, though!

 

Sorry but my vehicle (Canadian version 06 Civic hybrid) actually has the undercarriage plastic panel that MUST be removed for the oil changes. I've confirmed this with the dealership and they verified that this contradicts the Service manual (which I have) and the owner's manual as well.

Goes to show you that even the existing documentation is not representative of the actual goods.


Cheers;

MSantos

 

I've just pulled my plastic shield off. Besides complicating oil changes, it lowers the underside by close to 2" in some spots. With it off there are a few zones almost as low, but overall the underside is a lot higher.

OTOH, while the shield is low, it deflects up easily: you can push it up with your fingers. So as far as clearance goes it's debatable.

My motivations for taking it off are twofold: to make it easier to do oil changes, and hopefully to make it easier to get through deepish snow. With the latter, I'm not sure how much difference it will make, but think I'll leave it off for a while, through the next snowfall, and see how it goes.

 

Having the shield off is giving me a good chance to look it over: it's too bad Honda didn't put two hinge points in it, or move the single hinge point forward a bit (if that would work). As is they've made things a lot more complicated, and possibly dangerous, for do-it-yourselfers who don't typically have a full-blown lift.

Having the whole car up on jackstands always seems more dangerous than when two wheels remain on the ground. Also, I find raising one end to an extreme makes the jackstands more prone to kick out as you lower the rocker panels onto them.

 

A floor jack and two stands is sufficient for changing oil+filter.

 

Using a floor jack and two stands will work if you take the front undercover completely, but that's 7 more fasteners (compared to just rotating down the hinged portion), in increasingly cramped quarters as you work front-to-rear of car.

If you have sufficient lift (proper service bay lift), you can rotate just the leading portion down and out of the way, at it's hinge point. This involves 2 regular bolts (easy) and 2 of the plastic fasteners (pita), But, rotation of just the hinged portion is near impossible with just the front end raised.

 

To Green and Blue:

I found the floor jack was a pretty tight fit under the front end. It depends on the jack I guess. Just speculating, at least with my jack, lifting the back end first might make it impossible to get the jack under the front lifting point.

 

I prefer taking off the entire front undercover. Doing so lets me make sure nothing is building a home inside there, and it serves as a very nice driveway shield should my aiming of the catch pan be off.

 

I'm inclined to agree about taking the cover completely off, though it is a royal pain:

I experimented yesterday a bit with a higher lift jack I got on Boxing Day sale. I was able to get the car high enough off the slab, with 4 jackstands, to just be able to swing it down at the hinge with just the leading tabs hitting the floor. But:

I got increasingly nervous about the whole thing. Whenever either the front or back end is out-of-level the jackstands start wanting to kick out. And when the whole thing is up it just doesn't feel that stable, I think the extended jackstands were nearing their stability limit. One side of the car is next to a wall, and going down that side made me especially nervous.

I've had the whole car on jackstands before, but just for tire rotation, and I would lift it just enough to have the tires an inch or so clear of slab.