Dieselman
Banned
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2003
- Messages
- 34,206
- Car
- Peugeot 403 Convertible
How does that stop the car falling off a jack? Maybe the oil makes the jack pad slippery...
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How does that stop the car falling off a jack? Maybe the oil makes the jack pad slippery...
NW_Merc
Banned
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2005
- Messages
- 5,918
- Location
- Over here, sometimes over there
- Car
- 1994 Mercedes C180 classic
Really? Wonder why they charge for a new drain plug washer then?
I dont know if you're ever going to check. It's easier to remove the oil and less messy by using a suction pump, then you can just empty that into a drum to be disposed. I've bought a suction pump, mind you my car is high enough to slide a drain tub underneath and I'm able to access the sump nut through the engine bay. I know that others may not have that luxury.
NW_Merc
Banned
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2005
- Messages
- 5,918
- Location
- Over here, sometimes over there
- Car
- 1994 Mercedes C180 classic
You won't need a jack if you dont need to get underneath the car will you? C'mon you're not that obtuse.
How to remove clamp legally...Wheel clamping... ( Part 2 ) - YouTube
I was watching this the other day, some idle link clicking I admit.., and was horrified to see this bottle jack used on the van (3.46 mins) ?
If you can further bear to watch, he then removes the wheel and hardly tucks it under the sill before he proceeds to stick his head under and remove the strut !
I would pay the fine if that was the best jack I could find to prove my point.
I was watching this the other day, some idle link clicking I admit.., and was horrified to see this bottle jack used on the van (3.46 mins) ?
If you can further bear to watch, he then removes the wheel and hardly tucks it under the sill before he proceeds to stick his head under and remove the strut !
I would pay the fine if that was the best jack I could find to prove my point.
jackafrica
Member
People are hurt when neglecting to follow common sense.
If you lack common sense, then you probably lack luck.
Why chance both by not following the directions in the owners handbook?
I try to work to the following principal; if you think you know, you probably don't.
If you lack common sense, then you probably lack luck.
Why chance both by not following the directions in the owners handbook?
I try to work to the following principal; if you think you know, you probably don't.
Conquistador
MB Enthusiast
Very glad I read through this thread. I've thought nothing before when I was younger of jacking up my old cars using the standard issue hand jack to change wheels or clean my exhaust tips etc.
I had a blowout in my Audi at midnight on the A12 last year when a nail punctured the tyre, rolled the car into a lay by to change the wheel but wasn't comfortable at all using the Audi-supplied jack which looked rather feeble and unable to hold up a 1900kg car for 10 minutes. Fortunately, 5 minutes after I stopped, an AA man stopped for a ciggy and very kindly used his to help me out.
I now keep a trolley jack and chocks in my spare wheel well which gives me a bit more comfort should the same happen again.
I had a blowout in my Audi at midnight on the A12 last year when a nail punctured the tyre, rolled the car into a lay by to change the wheel but wasn't comfortable at all using the Audi-supplied jack which looked rather feeble and unable to hold up a 1900kg car for 10 minutes. Fortunately, 5 minutes after I stopped, an AA man stopped for a ciggy and very kindly used his to help me out.
I now keep a trolley jack and chocks in my spare wheel well which gives me a bit more comfort should the same happen again.
ontheball247
Member
I'm not sure if the Audi jack you're referring to is like the old Mercedes and BMW jacks (it is literally beyond me how companies like merc n bm could have considered them safe) where it's kinda like two sticks at a right angle to each other. One goes into a hole in the side of the car and slides up and down on the other stick, which is then supposed to hold up and stabilise the car. I had a W202 come down off one of these recently. the jack is now curved! Luckily I was out of the way and the wheel hadn't been removed yet. But the side skirt got shredded around the hole for the jack.
Anyway, aside from ranting, I wanted to ask if anyone knows if there are any replacement options for these so-called jacks, so that we can still utilise the holes in the side of the car to jack the car up, and fit axle stands underneath on the jacking points under the car (hope I'm making sense). So in other words, is there an aftermarket jack available that is like the standard merc/bm one, but with a better, more stable base/support?
ontheball247
Member
Ok I just saw one in this youtube video, at 2:08;
Tire Tips - How to Change Your Tires - YouTube
And its an original mercedes jack! whu didn't they all come with one of these? Now to find and buy one.
Tire Tips - How to Change Your Tires - YouTube
And its an original mercedes jack! whu didn't they all come with one of these? Now to find and buy one.
jeremy156
Active Member
The photos showing the correct placement of axle stands (post#27) appear to be removed. I would really appreciate some guidance around the correct location to put stands - clearly they can't be placed under the jack pads which I'd use to lift the car....
I'd imagine the clue is in the name "axle stands" - but where can I safely position them to ensure none of the complicated gubbins under the car gets damaged? For info mine is a W221, but I'd imagine the principles I should follow will apply to everyone.
Grateful for advice and guidance,
Jeremy
I'd imagine the clue is in the name "axle stands" - but where can I safely position them to ensure none of the complicated gubbins under the car gets damaged? For info mine is a W221, but I'd imagine the principles I should follow will apply to everyone.
Grateful for advice and guidance,
Jeremy
Saw someone in A&E a couple of weeks ago (I'm an A&E doctor). A Clio landed on his chest and abdomen. Was quite a weird story... he was fixing up the clio and needed a pipe for leverage. He was under the car supported by only a single trolley jack. He shouted to his mate to pass over a pipe and his mate grabbed the handle of the trolley jack to pull out and pass to him. Only prob was he twisted it at the same time and the car came down on the guy's body. Luckily it was a light car with the engine removed and his dad came over to lift the car up a little and his mate then jacked it up again. He had a massive bruise on his chest and abdomen but wasn't seriously hurt. As well as checking him out medically I gave him an education on the safe use of jacks/stands/spare wheels etc.
tjamesbo
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2007
- Messages
- 706
- Location
- Sutton Coldfield Midlands
- Car
- CLK430 ,Vito V6 sport ,Jaguar 2.5 X type ,W124's 1993 220TE , 1994 320TE ,Mastercraft X5
Titanium Bar in the Hole and Trolley jack under the Bar , Axle stand will then go under
Works
I suppose it is slightly better than the generic scissor jacks which fit under the sill , but it is still a scissor jack with a handle that starts off close to the ground with attendant risk of skinning your knuckles . I also don't think it is as stable or strong as the standard straight Bilstein jacks that Mercedes have been using for at least the past 60 years , with which the handle always stays in the same place and the load is always transferred vertically down the jack .
Derek Smith
Member
I was a police officer and patrolled a council estate. I got a call to an RTA but it turned out to be a chap who had been working on his car, up on jacks at one end, when a car drove into the back at low speed and knocked the car off said support. A bolt on an exhaust bracket/patch went into his cheek bone and had pinned him to the ground. The weight of the car was just off him.
The locals had tried to jack the car up but had found that his head went up with the car, causing lots of pain. We turned up but without, I'm afraid, any solution to the problem other than getting the fire brigade. The chap was strangely reluctant to have the car jacked up while I pressed his head down.
Some people, eh?
The FB were pretty good although pain was noticeable by the volume of protests. Having nothing to do I looked around, as police do, and found a loaded shotgun in the footwell in the back.
So double pain there. My colleague thought I was harsh to report him but anyone could have taken it.
When I had my second car, a Morris Minor, I had a propshsaft UJ go all silly. I jacked up the car, putting a metal milk crate under each wheel.
One of the bolts stuck and I used an extension to the spanner to give me more leverage. Enough, it turned out, to turn the rear wheels and bring the car off the crates.
The semi-elipiticals landed on the crates at the back - I'd gone in from the rear, so to speak - and the diff just caught the end of my nose, breaking it and causing a little scar which has reminded me over the years that the first thing to find when jacking up a car is a mate to go under for you.
The locals had tried to jack the car up but had found that his head went up with the car, causing lots of pain. We turned up but without, I'm afraid, any solution to the problem other than getting the fire brigade. The chap was strangely reluctant to have the car jacked up while I pressed his head down.
Some people, eh?
The FB were pretty good although pain was noticeable by the volume of protests. Having nothing to do I looked around, as police do, and found a loaded shotgun in the footwell in the back.
So double pain there. My colleague thought I was harsh to report him but anyone could have taken it.
When I had my second car, a Morris Minor, I had a propshsaft UJ go all silly. I jacked up the car, putting a metal milk crate under each wheel.
One of the bolts stuck and I used an extension to the spanner to give me more leverage. Enough, it turned out, to turn the rear wheels and bring the car off the crates.
The semi-elipiticals landed on the crates at the back - I'd gone in from the rear, so to speak - and the diff just caught the end of my nose, breaking it and causing a little scar which has reminded me over the years that the first thing to find when jacking up a car is a mate to go under for you.
Giantvanman
MB Enthusiast
I used KwikFit home service last week to get two rear tyres on the SLK and the fitter used an air bellows jack. I was impressed with the lightness, the speed of lift etc. Very stable with a good sized lifting pad too. Anyone used them?
To be practical for mobile use, it would need its own compressor. Anyone seen such a thing?
To be practical for mobile use, it would need its own compressor. Anyone seen such a thing?
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Derek Smith
Member
Prey tell you went to the "Minor" Injuries unit after the accident?
I would point out that I got the same degree of sympathy from my then girlfriend, later fiancée, later still ex fiancée, when I turned up for a party with cotton wool stuffed up my nostrils. Credibility suffered.
I also had two black eyes the following day when I met her parents, mother and step-father, both of whom believed, as indeed she did it turned out later, that she could do a lot better than a lad who let cars fall on him.
Not only that, in later years, now in the police, I was policing a demonstration when I was pushed to the floor and kicked in the head, breaking my nose again, this time in a different place (other than in the gutter, rather than under a car). When I took the offender to court - as the police could in those pre-CPS days - the magistrates, whom I'd been up in front of many times as I was a busy lad, said something along the lines of: If anything, it has improved the shape of your nose.
Nice! Especially as it was very swollen. So your lack of sympathy is not unusual.
Mind you, on sentencing, they said to the chap, who'd made the mistake of almost laughing at the comment, that they would not be taking this into consideration and they sent the lad to crown court for sentencing proper.
The black eyes had returned, one being partially closed, and this influenced the magistrates somewhat. Crown court, on the other hand, was not so inclined and sentenced him to 6 mnths suspended, something well within the capabilities of the magistrates. But he must have been a bit worried.
That said, my wife reckoned that the second break had straightened it somewhat. I've got two small bumps on my nose now. And I look ravishing.
Good performance, but portable compressors have become readily available at a decent price in recent years...
portable 12v compressor
Not exactly the same thing , but our fire crews have air bags for lifting vehicles and other heavy items people are trapped under - I've seen them used to lift cars , trucks , buses , even trains , and pieces of collapsed structures , when people are trapped underneath .
These ones just work off the compressed air cylinders the guys have for their BA sets .
