impee's DIY Raise BMW On Jack Stands

DIY Raise BMW On Jack Stands

impee's DIY Raise BMW On Jack Stands for BMW 318i e46
How to Raise Your BMW on Jack Stands yourself!

Prices:

Professional labour costs for Raising BMW On Jack Stands - £N/A (private) or £N/A (BMW) - per hour X 1 hours

Please Note: Tools required below will also be useful for other DIYs

Difficulty Level: Easy / Medium

Approximate Time For This Project: 30 minutes

REQUIRED ITEMS
items	INFORMATION	OUTLET	QUANTITY	PRICE*
Trolley Jack	Should support upto 2 Tonnes.	http://www.halfords.com http://www.argos.co.uk	1	£30
Jack Stands / Axle Stands	Should support upto 2 Tonnes.	http://www.halfords.com http://www.argos.co.uk	4	£30
Ice Hockey Puck	Usually 3" x 1" - see note in Section #1	http://demonxtreme.com	1	£1.50
Block of Wood	A Small Piece, approximately 6" x 4", not too thin.		1

*prices correct at time of publication

1)	Assemble Your Kit + Notes
	Below is the total kit I required. 1 Trolley Jack, 4 Jack Stands and either an Ice Hockey Puck or then a small block of wood (however, I definately recommend the Puck over the block of wood). Note: The other day I raised the car and my pieces of wood kept splitting and slipping. It took me over 45mins to just raise the front of the car. I then came up with another option, i.e. an Ice Hockey Puck. This is normally 3" x 1" and made of tough rubber. Buy an Ice Hockey puck and carve it out so it fits snug on to the Saddle of the Trolley Jack. The Puck stops the car from being damaged and also does not slip at all. It is a perfect accessory for the Trolley Jack. It took me over an hour to carve it out; the method I used was to cut out 4 small bits with a blade (be careful) and then scrape up and down in the groove with a thin flat head screw driver. Running the screw driver within the groove effectively scrapes the rubber away and makes nice grooves / slots.

2)	Trolley Jack
	Take a look at this / your Trolley Jack...you will notice the saddle (round part on the top) and further you will notice that it is not smooth, instead it has 4 points pretuding upwards. If you raise your car with these, it will get damaged. I had a look the Trolley Jack and it is possible to remove this top part of the Saddle, but I think it may be useful to have a Saddle that actually can move a little, to adjust while you raise the car. To avoid damage to the car, use the Ice Hockey Puck, or then a small block of wood by placing it on top of the Saddle. You must ensure the car is on flat level ground, otherwise it will be a headache and impossible to lift both sides of the car to the same height (as happend to me).

Trolley Jack

Take a look at this / your Trolley Jack...you will notice the saddle (round part on the top) and further you will notice that it is not smooth, instead it has 4 points pretuding upwards. If you raise your car with these, it will get damaged. I had a look the Trolley Jack and it is possible to remove this top part of the Saddle, but I think it may be useful to have a Saddle that actually can move a little, to adjust while you raise the car.

To avoid damage to the car, use the Ice Hockey Puck, or then a small block of wood by placing it on top of the Saddle.

You must ensure the car is on flat level ground, otherwise it will be a headache and impossible to lift both sides of the car to the same height (as happend to me).

3)	Raising Front Of Car On Trolley Jack
	To raise the front of the car, place the trolly jack beneath the highlighted area. This can be found at the front of the car, next to the splash shield. As you will notice, the point to raise the car on has been squashed in...this happened to it before I used a Puck or block of wood as the Saddle's jagged parts damaged & crushed it. However, using an Ice Hockey Puck will prevent any such damage. But more importantly, while you are liftting the car, keep on watching the Puck or the block of wood, as quite often as the car gets higher, the jack and block of wood start slipping forward and the car back, then all of a sudden the car will slip off the lifting point (as happend to me). However, I found the Puck didn't slip or move at all and remained stable.

	As you can see, I have placed the Puck just behind the crushed part. That thin plate worked fine, it did not crush any further or slip.

	The Puck has a perfect grip and does not move at all.

4)	Raising Rear Of Car On Trolley Jack
	To raise the back of the car, place the trolly jack beneath the highlighted area. This can be found at the back of the car, next to the differential.

5)	Alternative Method
	Alternatively, if you would like to lift the car from the sides, again use a Puck or block of wood, other wise the plastic rectangle bits get damaged easily. This is the location where you normally place your car jack.

6)	Car On Jack Stands
	Place the Jack Stands in the locations where you normally place your car jack.

Car On Jack Stands

Place the Jack Stands in the locations where you normally place your car jack.

BMW On Jack Stands

6)	Precautionary Measure
	One may think that the car is heavy and could just tilt to one side whilst on all 4 jacks, but trust me, try pushing the car off the jacks while it is up...it simply will not move! (provided it has been raised correctly and is balanced) As a precaution, it is good to also have the Trolley Jack raised slightly below the height that the car is raised at. This alows an insurance incase one of the Jack Stands fails / falls. Note: Ensure the weight of the car is on the Jack Stands and not on the Trolley Jack.

DIY BMW e46 Raise BMW On Jack Stands by - impee www.impee.co.uk

Any questions please contact me