I had to jack up my wife's MINI Clubman last weekend and used my floor jack. I remember reading about using a jack pad adapter to prevent damaging the under carriage. I just researched them and found these adapters made by ECS Tuning and was thinking about buying one for the future - anyone have any experience using one?

http://www.ecstuning.com/News/ECS_Al...mpaign=newpost

 

CA94960 - Thanks for the mention , They really help prevent damaged to the foot base of the jack pad. A very clean solution. We use them on a constant basis for changing out wheels.




Let us know if you are instered in anything else.

BTW nice R55 , looks like you have the Sport Aero bumpers, with factory driving lights , and web spokes. Nice!

 

ESCTuning - I was at the MINI dealership today and asked the parts guy about these and he came out and showed me the plastic pads under my Clubman where I am supposed to put the jack. Are the adapters only for the early Minis'?

 

Also long as you have the stock OEM pads look like this. It will work.

Stock pads:




Number 4 in pic



Thanks




Do you have modified one?

 

Are the adapters only for the early Minis'?

My 02 had these blocks and my 07 does too . . .

hmmmmm ... where did you position your jack when you lifted your car? The pads the parts guy showed you are the points built to take the jack that comes with the car - the recommended jacking points. The provided jack fits INTO the box. A standard hydraulic floor jack ends up with this block resting on the usually irregular face of the jack....SOMETIMES you can break the plastic block on the car.

The ECS pad - and those from other suppliers - are intended to sit on the face of your jack pad and fit INTO the car block just like the factory jack would ... thereby lessening the chance of breaking the block. Follow me so far? They 'clean up' the interface between your floor jack and the car's jacking point....

You can accomplish the same thing by cutting a piece of hardwood to fit into the block and extending a wee bit out and use this block of wood for your jack .... same function and will cost you a few cents worth of wood . . . see recent threads about jacking a MINI in general.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-the-mini.html

Now I have a problem with both the ESC product (and similar ones) and the wood idea.... I'm STRONGLY from the safety school and that school says you do not work on a car supported by a jack (except in road side emergency aka changing a tire). You use the jack to lift the car and place it on jack stands for safety.

So if you lift the car by the front jacking block .... where are you going to place your jack stand? That same jacking block is the BEST place. But your jack is there!

there is a recent thread about jacking a MINI that talks about the 'alternate jacking points' that allow you to lift an entire side of the car with your floor jack, leaving both blocks on that side free and ready for you to position jack stands and lower the car to a secure working position - on stands positioned at the cars jacking blocks . . .

That's how I've lifted my MINIs for 10 years now ... and the jack does not come near the jacking block so these 'pads' do nothing for me. They appear to be well made and if you are going to use your jack in the way these intend may be a good idea.

In 10 years of working on my MINIs and for others, I've yet to 'break a block' and am not fond of the poor safety practice these 'pads' suggest....

p.s. all cars have 'jacking points' .... in theory these spots are reinforced to take the weight of the car on a jack at that point without doing damage. Today these are most often places on the pinch weld under the rocker panels marked with symbols. This is where you are supposed to position the provided jack to safely lift the vehicle to change a tire. Using your floor jack at the same place is a safe idea. On the flip side, if you simply find a flat spot under the car and jack there you risk breaking plastic parts, buckling unsupported floor pans or worse . . . (a big issue with classic Minis .... MANY have had the floor pans damaged in this way)

{in the 60's and 70's cars often had square holes in the big chrome bumpers that a tab on the jack fit into and you could lift the car from that big hunk of steel!}

 

I've got four pads - two in front and two in the rear that I believe are stock.

 

Capt_bj - I positioned the floor jack under the frame, not noticing the plastic mounts and slipped a jack stand right next to it. I lifted it up enough to get underneath it. I'm used to the old US cars that you can put the jack and jack stands under the frame. I hope I didn't damage anything.

 

unibody cars don't have 'frames'

if you catch the strong sub-frames you are usually OK

if you catch what looks like a frame but is just a bend in the uni-body sheet metal ..... ????

MINI is very light so it is unlikely you damaged anything (much)

but I would learn how to lift the car properly if you plan to do this often . . .

the reason there are many threads on this is (imo) because a poorly positioned jack breaks things (usually plastic but still $$)

 

Live and learn - today I learned something new.

 

I have a 2013 roadster with JCW body kit. I also have two different jack pads (from two different company's, wanted to try both) and stands with jack pads as well.

 

Those look like the ones we had on the 07 and 08. The 12 has slightly different jacking points, which are much more fragile. I could get away without the pad on the earlier ones, but not the later ones.

The pad I got has a round bit larger than the head of my jack, so I took it apart and just used the rectangular bit which fills in the hole in the jacking point.

 

I use a hockey puck on top of the floor jack cup, it provides an even surface for the floor jack to interface with the plastic jack point. Been using it on Bmws and my Mini for years.

 

If you want to use a floor jack on your R56 Mini and lift it from the front factory location you can fill the front stock jack point with a block of wood. I used 3/4 plywood. The filler block is small and you can put it in your tool kit in the trunk. Easy! I made 8 so I would never have to worry about finding one when I needed it. I keep some in the garage and some in the car. I had the scrap Baltic Burch wood so it cost nothing but a bit of time to make. The front jack point will lift both the front and rear wheels on one side of the car. Without the wood block the mount point will crush and fail at some point. I use the block all the time. Just place the block on the jack and slowly lift the jack's platform cup toward the mounting point and slip the block of wood in, seat it and jack up the Mini.

 

OceanMine2 - do you happen to remember what the dimensions were?

Edit: I cut them 2" x 1" and now have a pair - thanks!

 

Here's mine. Also plywood- in two pieces since I have a little bigger jack than most and it won't fit under till the jack is in place and then I slide it in and up we go.

 

Rgoodwin - that kind of looks like what I ended up with. Taking white3's suggestion I bought a hockey puck for the round part and made a couple of wood inserts like OceanMini2 for the jack pads.

 

Last Sunday I found this broken jack cup from a MINI on the ground. It is not from my car. You have to be careful not to damage the cup when jacking up your MINI.