Not to be obsessive, but I read about the guy who had the jack point come off, so indulge me a bit:

I have read several how-tos that say to jack up the car, and put jack stands at the factory jack points. Ok, so my question is, what do you use as jack points if you are putting jack stands at the factory points? I usually just look for something solid and unibody-looking, but after reading about the jack point mishap, I've secong-guessed that.

See, I also had the mixed-blessing of growing up around a shop with hydraulic lifts. got me all spoiled.

 

hey! i just asked that question in the spring diy quide.

 

Yeah, I thought about replying in the exhaust Diy thing, but I thought a general question might be better.

 

The unibody thought was a good one. Use a jack (on mine I've removed the pad and use a hockey puck to prevent paint damage - you can also use a piece of wood, both to distribute load and to keep from damaging paint) under the unibody looking piece. Start by looking under the front of the car behind the front wheels and you will see a 3" wide or so chassis component that extends back toward just about the middle of the car. The MINI is very front weight biased, so you don't want to go to far back - this point works just about right. Go to the end of that chassis piece and place the pad on the corner of it - at the end of it. When you jack, it will lift the entire side. You can then use jackstands under the pads - I've never had any problems with them - just make sure it appears solid. If the pad wasn't installed correctly with the "pin" it will just about twist off in your hand.

I'll have more pics tomorrow, as we will be doing an oil change how-to, since there have been a few questions on that. We'll make sure to get the jack and jack stand points.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions about it.

Randy

PS: The lift is going in soon here at MINI-Motorsport, so I won't deal with it much after that

 

Thanks, Randy, and I'll be looking for that oil change post , too. Time for my first!