mr.pete

Originally Posted by mr.pete

How to raise a BWM onto Jack Stands

To cut back on costs I decided to do some basic auto repairs in my garage. Using DIYs from enthusiast websites as well as repair manuals I have been able to save some money by performing the repairs or service myself.

Some tasks call for the car to be raised allowing room for me to crawl and work under the engine. Doing so requires either raising the car using a jack, driving onto ramps or using jack stands. Jack stands are the way to go especially if you are going to take the wheels off the vehicle and it also offers the safest of the three ways to work under a vehicle.

I wasn’t sure how to raise the car onto jack stands, especially since the jack stands on the car should be placed at the jack raise points on the side of the car. With most cars you can use the cross members of the front wheels to place the jack stands under. With some BMWs, the under carriage of the car has some sort of plastic covering that limits access to the cross members. Also the manual suggests that jacking and jack stands should use the allotted jack slots on the bottom side of the vehicle, under the front doors (number 5 in the picture)



There is also an additional jack point at the bottom front of the vehicle, which is used the raise the entire front portion of the vehicle.

I also use a hydraulic jack for my lifts and quickly found that that the jack I had was not suitable for use on low profile cars or cars with body kits. The jack was too thick and could not completely slide under the car to the jack point in the front of the vehicle.

Here are the steps I followed to get the car on the jack stands.

Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage or injuries incurred when doing this procedure. Remember to always be sensible and follow all safety precautions possible.

1. With the car in park, engage the parking brake
2. Choke the rear wheels
3. Raise the car on one side using the factory jack
4. When you have raised the car high enough, slip the hydraulic jack under the front of the car to the front jack point under the engine.
5. Slowly raise the hydraulic jack lifting the car off the factory jack and high enough for the jack stands on either side of the vehicle.
6. When the car is high enough, remove the factory jack and place the jack stands on either side of the car
7. Use BMW Jack adapter plug to go between your jack stands and the vehicle’s jack point
8. Correctly align the jack stands, adapter plug and jack points on the side of the vehicle.
9. Slowly lower the vehicle onto the jack stands
10. For an added safety precaution I leave the hydraulic jack locked in position under the front jack point just incase one of the jack stands fails.

To lower the car work in reverse order.
1. Raise the car off the jack stands using the hydraulic jack at the front jack point
2. Remove both jack stands.
3. Insert the factory jack in the one of the side jack points on the vehicle
4. Be careful when you do step 3 above, make sure the factory jack is properly aligned.
5. Raise the factory Jack taking the weight off the hydraulic jack
6. When the factory jack is no longer supporting the weight of the vehicle, slowly lower it and remove it from under the front of the vehicle
7. With the hydraulic jack out of the way, lower the vehicle using the factory jack till it is back on the ground.

I cannot stress how important safety is when you do this. Keep any eye for any shifts and avoid going under the car until it is safely secured on jack stands.

I hope this helps!