Roadside assistance jacked my truck up by this instead of frame. What is this part?

Can someone please help me identify the proper part name on my 01 Tacoma V6 4X4.

You will see it in the red circle, also with some markings from his jack.




I had a flat tire and the the roadside assistance guy lifted up my truck by this part and not sure what else because he didn't have a jack that could fit my frame. This caused both skid plates to fall off and be bent after he left and I drove over a bump.

What other damage may he have caused? I will ask my mechanic to take a look.

regards


Jonathan

http://www.divesummit.com

 

Lower Control Arm

 

that's the lower apple sauce maker

 

Lower control arm. Jacking from it wouldn't have damaged your skid plates, though, unless the jack slipped off while he was doing it and the truck somehow jumped sideways and upwards in the process of having it slip off (which you would have noticed, since it defies gravity). Honestly, jacking from the control arm wouldn't even have damaged the control arm itself, since it's designed to hold up the weight of your truck while you're driving down the road anyway.

 

Its the Lower control arm. I've used a jack under the LCA to jack up my front tires many times. No issues. On my 1st gen, the skid plates don't attach to the LCA. The LCA pivots up & down as part of the suspension.

 

Hmmm I’ve been use the lower control arm to Jack my truck up all this time..
Where are u supposed to jack it up
Edit: and by truck I mean just the wheel

 

Primewell tire’s fault.

 

My owner's manual says to place the jack under the frame just reward of the wheel well, about inline the hinges on the front door. Check your owners manual or there are links to the various manuals somewhere in TC World.

 

You are 100% fine. There is no reason to worry about some little scratches on that part - the lower control arm.

That's a common place to jack from.

As for the skid plates, that is most likely completely unrelated, and merely a coincidence. Neither part is connected to the other.

Those plates are held on with like 9 bolts so there's really no way I can see your skids falling off *because* of anything the roadside guy did.

 

Owners manual shows u should be jacking it up from cross member under tranny. Rear axle for back

 

It’s totally fine to jack up the truck under the lower control arm, and may be preferable so that the suspension doesn’t droop, causing you to have to lift the truck higher.

That by itself did not damage or dislodge your skid plates. They were either already loose or something else happened to them during the roadside service.

 

There is no way the supplied OEM bottle jack will safely reach the frame.

If the lower control arms aren't strong enough to handle jacking from, they shouldn't be used to support the weight of the vehicle in the first place (which is kinda what they do 100% of the time).

 

Jacking the LCA is mechanic 101 for checking ball joints and wheel bearings.

 

Those are instructions on how to use that jack. It's not detailing the only acceptable places to jack the truck up.

That said, I would still rather jack from the LCA anyway, even using the bottle jack.

 

Have fun doing that with the stock bottle jack.
The guy used the right location. Not sure what's up with the skid plate tho

 

Are you positive he lifted it up by that part?

Jacking it up by the front cross member would require to remove the skid plate I'm pretty sure.. At least that's how it looks on my truck.
Is it possible he jacked it up by the front cross member while leaving the skid plates on? Or maybe during his first couple attempts he tried in this area and f'd up your skid plate. That's why he went to the a-arm

 

That's certainly possible, but I don't think even that (by itself) would cause the skid plates to fall off. Bend them? Yeah. Fall off? Nah.

 

Well the skid plates connect to one another pretty snug, if one of them was bent it could have some type of potential energy like a decompressed spring..
This combined with the terrible job of corporate oil-change techs and missing/stripped bolts in the skid plates having an affect (assuming you don't change your own oil) it is certainly possible!

I mean hell, skid plate fell off from a small bump somethin was definitely up!

 

Here comes the "Buttercups" I better stick to the Chinese censorship o