Hello all,
Jeeves is an '07 MCS with a manual transmission. It is my hope that I can do some maintenance myself. My problem is garage width. Since my driveway has a noticeable incline I want to get Jeeves on jack stands in the garage, but don't even know if I have room to pump the lever. I see that, if the jack stands work, I can place them on the flat garage floor so that I have access to the front or back wheels out the garage door, and I can do stuff on them without being up against a wall. But how much can I do without a lot of side access? What maintenance is performed from the side, especially from underneath on the sides? Should I give it up and buy a moped (lots of work space)?
Thank you.

 

Option B, buy a bigger garage.

 

I do much of my work inside of a single parking space. You learn to get creative, what direction you put the car in depending on what you're doing, how far right or left you go, etc … it's a jigsaw puzzle at times but so far I've done a few bigger things and most of my maintenance inside my one parking spot.

Good Luck!

 

Sounds like the most you could do is Rhino Ramps and oil changes, since the four jacking points are on the sides... But if you could manage to get a jack in there, and had 4 wheel dollies that might work....it raises the car up some and you could push it around for better position as you worked around the car...safely !

 

don't need too much side access as far as basic maintenance/fluid changes etc go - i dont think u need to go too far back/side of the car unless you're doing something suspension wise, or maybe exhaust.. you could try using rhino ramps as well

 

How darn tight is your garage? 2 feet on either side should work.

 

Sounds like the most you could do is Rhino Ramps and oil changes

My previous oil change experiences called for the car to be level. Ramps would raise the front, causing oil to collect at the back of the pan. Is that not the case with the Mini? Is the plug back there? As you can tell, I have not yet done this myself on the Mini.

How darn tight is your garage? 2 feet on either side should work.

It's darn tight. The house is from the 1920s. Maybe a foot on each side. I had to lose weight to get out of the Audi.

WHOA! Something just occurred to me: Drive up the front ramps, then use a floor jack to raise the back and slip two more ramps under the back tires, then lower the jack until the back is settled. This would at least give me access under the front and back.

Has anyone tried this floor jack/4 ramp method? It sounds safe as long as you're on a flat surface.

 

It depends what you want to do. If you are just changing oil, there are people that make kits that suck oil out of the dipstick. The filter is accessed from the top.


Rotating the tires might be tough, unless you can pull the car all the way to one side and just rotate front to back. If you jack up on the front point, both front and rear tires come off the ground.


Have fun,
Mike

 

And I can forget learning to maintain brakes, too.


I'll have to look up that oil sucking device. Sounds like it could save me some hassle.


Thanks for the tip.

 

+1 on the Rhino Ramps, I use them to do my oil changes. Happily the plug is near the back of the pan so it works out well to have the front end elevated.

If you have a few feet of level driveway at the entrance to the garage then just leave whichever end you need to work on sticking out. Iif you have a floor jack it does not need to be perpendicular to the car, any angle at all so long as there's enough room to work the handle. Worst case get a "bottle" jack which will be slower to raise the car but requires very little space.

 

Unfortunately I have no length of level driveway, nada, zip, zilch. And it's black top, so I can't let the car weigh down anything lest I leave divots that her ladyship will be unhappy with.


But, boy, those dipstick oil extractors look great. I just watched a few demos on YouTube. This could save me a lot of hassle.


Thanks for all your advice, everyone.

 

You should be able to do a conventional oil change with a drain pan if you are not on lowered suspension. I have an 07 S and that's what I use in at my apartment complex.

I have a black, open top drain pan from Advance Auto. It slides under nicely and gives me enough room to still remove the drain plug.