I have jacked up my MINI and put it up on four jackstands. I have removed the wheels and tires and stacked them flat to alleviate any flat spots. My question is with the MINI on jackstands and the weight off the struts is it ok to leave them fully extended? I have thought of jacking the struts up a couple of inches and blocking them but I do not know if that is necessary. Thanks for the help, Steve

 

It is not a good idea any longer to store a car in the winter on jackstands. It is bad to leave the suspension hanging. Tires made today do not require it. Put them back on and inflate the tires to the max. If you are paranoid move the car back and forth 6 inches every month. My wife's Mini is sitting under a Viper on a lift in our garage. Both have their tires on and won't be moved. Neither will have flatspots, I guarantee it.

 

Put the wheels back on and drive it. Much better for everyone

Nik

 

mine has 43psi and on the ground sleeping.

 

Just look at it this way. If they are runflats you won't be able to notice a flat spot in the tire. Mine is on the ground in the garage and won't come out too often in the winter.

 

Drive It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

actually the DSST's had a tendency to have more memory than
non-runflats. pretty weird, huh? pressure up and turn the tire
every other week or so a quarter of a turn. charge your battery every
other week.

 

The first thing I did was change the DSST's for Michline Pilot Sport 2"s.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I was a little surprised at your answer though so I thought I would call Alex at tire rack. Alex said that flat spots on the tires would occur. he suggested I should either leave the tires on the car with it up on jack stands or remove the tires and lay them flat. His opinion was that it would not hurt the struts being in an extended position even with the tires on. I feel better with the wheels and tires removed and that 39lb's per corner off the car. Thanks for all that posted, Steve

 

What is this winter storage you all speak of?

 

I wish Alex at Tirerack would get on here and explain himself. This is absolutely NOT true. Leaving the suspension hanging is NOT good for your car. Leaving the tires on the car, even run flats, for 4 months will NOT leave flatspots. I am part of a family of car nuts and none are stored on jack stands and we live in Michigan. To name a few 95 Viper, 06 Mini, 01 Viper, 69 Roadrunner, 68 Roadrunner, 68 Satellite, 76 TransAm, 71 Corvette, 69 Corvette, 90 Corvette, 98 S10. I'm sorry about the bad advice you are getting and the fact that you are listeining to the wrong people. Spend more time searching other boards on the internet. I'll see you in April when my non flatspotted Mini pulls out of the garage and I'm not moving it back and forth every month.

 

^^ im not sure at which psi you're talking about, but at 36psi my
tire will begin to flat spot in 3 weeks. i know cause when i barely
lift the tire off the garage floor to turn it, it will freely turn about
1/8th of a turn then the tire will rub the ground.... meaning, it's not
circular. not a permanent flatspot, but it does flat spot.

so i use 43+ psi now and turn the tire every other week by 1/4 of
a turn just to be sure.

 

Why don't you just jack up the car and support it so the suspension is still loaded? I don't know the particularts but I'm sure there has to be a spot that will support the weight and transfer it through the susupension.