Puncture and jacking up the car.

electro64, Mar 21, 4:55am
I saw that my car had a puncture today.No big deal.I've been able to change a tire in 15 minutes.I've never changed a tire on this car before, and there is a plastic decorative section on the side and underneath the car, at the jack point, and along the door section (Honda Integra 2001).

Not wanting the damage the plastic, I put the jack parallel to the car, so the jack was butting up against the metal frame behind the plastic.Because the jack was parallel (and not sticking out, as has been the case in my previous cars) turning the thread of the jack was very slow, and took about an hour.

Obviously this isn't ideal.Any suggestions!Thanks in advance.

Edit: just in case people don't understand what's wrong: usually the jack sticks out from the car, so turning the handle is very easy.In this case, the jack doesn't stick out from the car, so you can't turn the handle a full rotation, usually it's only about 90 degrees.
unbeatabull, Mar 21, 5:01am
Get a longer handle! Surely if you put it on the sill it would stick out enough!
skin1235, Mar 21, 5:03am
get a jack with a swivel head, thought all honda's had them
electro64, Mar 21, 5:05am
I could put it under the plastic, and position it so it stuck out from the car.But would it damage (probably break) the plastic!That's about 300kg on a bit of (admittedly thick) plastic.
electro64, Mar 21, 5:07am
No swivel head on mine, but that's a great idea, thanks.Any ideas on where to get one!
NZTools, Mar 21, 5:36am
Anywrecking yard will have hundreds of them
electro64, Mar 21, 5:55am
Thanks, I'll head off and get one in the weekend.
scuba, Mar 21, 6:56am
as a last resort you could read the manual.or ask the franchise
dunwoody, Mar 21, 8:10pm
Why not make life easy and put the jack under the suspension, Thats what a garage would do.
bill-robinson, Mar 21, 8:48pm
seen a few bent suspension arms caused by that method. find out what the jack points are for your car as already mentioned