just wondering where is the best spot to put stands on your MINI when you jack it up.

cheers

thanks

any pics would be awesome.

 

I find the best place for the jack stands to be the clearly marked jacking points. (them lil plastic boxes)

I use my jack on a different strong point (a suspension point) to lift the car - and then lower it onto the jack stands with wood blocks in the jacking point plastic gizmos. The car is on the wood blocks which r on the jack stands....

 

oh i know that the blocks are for jacking up the car.

but i'm simply asking the best spot for the stands to. i didn' tthink the plastic blocks were meant for that. to leave the stands on for extended periods of time.

you have your car on wood blocks which r on the jack stands, but the jack stands i have look like this.

 

i use the jack points as well.

 

so those jack points are okay for stands like the ones i have.

which begs the question. if i'm using the jack points for my jack stands where do i put the floor jack to jack up the car.

 

That's where I put mine as well. As mentioned above it helps to put some wood blocks between the jack points and the stands.

 

well I can take pics Sat if you can wait that long

Generally, if I know I'm lifting and immediately dropping the car onto a stand that's at the factory jacking point I'll just position the jack as close to the jacking point as I can - lift - then get off the jack. Point being that prolonged stress at an improper jacking point is worse than short time.

Or - I'll jack at a strong suspension point .... we know the suspension can carry the stress - for that I'll need to provide a picture. Why are there strong suspension lift points but the factory says 'lift here'? Cuz you can't easily get a cheapo jack under where there is a strong lift point.... On the other hand (and I'm not calling myself an expert here) if you don't know what constitutes a strong lift point by the car's construction.....don't experiment. A jack in a wrong place can do serious serious damage. Especially if the car is left hanging there for a period of time, If you can not identify what a stronge cross member of the frame is DO NOT GUESS.

{a suggested cheater point....if unsure where to position the jack or you KNOW you must be at the 'wrong' point remember that the issue is PSI - pounds per square inch. If you can spread the stress out the worries are less. In other words, sometimes rather than bringing the small rigid steel circle lift point up to the surface of the car underbody, I bring the jack up to an 8 inch length of 2x4 up against the underside of the car. Now the lifting force is spread over a wider area......

Did you know that a refridgerator on 4 small feet applies more PSI stress to a floor then a queen size water bed resting flat on the floor????? Spread the stress out over a larger area and eliminate damage....}

 

yeah i can wait till saturday. pics will be awesome.

its all getting done final on sunday. i'm waiting for my dealer to get back to me on a few other things first.

thanks

 

Last weekend I needed to lift one side and put on stands (which, like others, I put under the factory jack blocks). I have historically jacked under the "hump" inside and in front of the front jack block. This time, I laid a length of 2x4 (about 3' long) on my floor jack, placed this under the middle of the side between the jack blocks (outboard of where the raised area is under there) and jacked it right up. Went up nice and smoothly and didn't seem to do any damage. The weight seems to be spread over a pretty big area doing it this way... and it's only on there for about 10 seconds with my race jack... then it comes down onto the stands...

 

I think Webb Motorsports DIY shows where to place the jack stands.

 

Some good photos in this thread by Randy: Jack Points

 

That's the point I've used in the past - I've actually seen one of mine start denting in a bit... so now I'm trying the 2x4 method...

 

Will this lift the entire side to put jack stands under both front a rear jack points? Thanks

 

what spots do you guys use for the floor jack to lift the rear of the MINI?

 

Any Mechanics available to offer a suggestion? Thanks

 

Thanks a lot for the info . I was just wondering yesterday where to put them