Mini Cooper 2001-2006: How to Jack Up Your Car
Jacking up your Mini Cooper is easy, but doing it wrong can cost you. Read on to learn how to safely jack up your car.
This article applies to the Mini Cooper (2001-2006).
Unsafely jacking up your 1st generation Mini Cooper can damage it, or lead to it falling and damaging you. Learning how to properly and safely jack up your car is crucial if you want to work on it. Whether you want to change your tires, or if you want to change your own engine oil, this guide will show you how to safely raise your Mini Cooper. And remember, whenever you want to work on your car, you must secure it with jack stands.
Materials Needed
- Jack
- Jack stands
Step 1 – Jack up the car
Place your floor jack under the proper jack points. If you're jacking up the front, the factory provided a plate with a hole behind each front wheel, and if you're jacking up the rear, locate the same-looking plates in front of each rear wheel. Raise the car until it's high enough to fit a jack stand under it. You can also lift the front of the car with a floor jack under the subframe at either of the location numbered 1 in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Jack points. 
Figure 2. A floor jack can be used at either #1 locations to lift the front of the car.
Step 2 – Secure with jack stands
The jack stands go right next to the jack, towards the outside of the car. Place the jack stand on the corners, behind the front wheels or in front of the rear wheels. The locations numbered 2 in Figure 2 (above) are ideal for jack stands.
Step 3 – Lower the car
To lower the car, use the same jacking points to raise the car off of the jack stands, then remove the jack stands away from the car. Finally, lower the car to the ground.
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