1996 Toyota Camry my car fell off the jack

CINCYSEWINGSISTER

MEMBER
1996 TOYOTA CAMRY
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
191,000 MILES

My car fell off the jack today. My son jacked it up to see what was wrong with the brakes. I needed pads, so he went to the store to get them. When he came back he said the car was lying on the driveway. We jacked it back up and put on the pads. Started it up and the gears wont engage and only the emergency brake works. And it's really low to the ground. Any ideas. What did we break and is it expensive to fix?

Monday, September 7th, 2009 AT 7:51 PM

2 Replies

F4I_GUY

MECHANIC
3,302 POSTS

The gears won't engage? Is this manual or automoatic? Can you better explain your situation.

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Thursday, September 10th, 2009 AT 6:36 PM

ANJR

MEMBER
32 POSTS

Both front wheels off when the car fell?

Probably bent the shift linkage but there may be more too it than that & obviously y'all need a set of jackstands before working on the car again. I can't stress enough how important it is to use jackstands on level ground & secure the rear wheels so the car can't move - people have been killed doing simple things on a car that was only supported by a jack.

Once you get the front end raised up & SECURED on jackstands, parking brake set so the car can't move, then one person can try to move the shift lever while another watches the linkage underneath. Also look for other damage. Like to the oil pan, the brake rotors, etc.

Also, every time you replace brake pads you need to take the rotors to a shop with a brake lathe - they may look fine, but be out of parallel. If so, you'll get a pulsation when braking & the pads won't last long. Shops in this area only charge $7 per rotor to turn them on a lathe, so it makes no sense to not have them precisely measured & turned if necessary.

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Thursday, September 10th, 2009 AT 7:25 PM