We've all read the horror stories of garages (and previous owners) who've jacked vehicles up using inappropriate jacking points. Apart from the obvious sill locations for the jack provided with the vehicle, can anyone recommend how/where to use (a) a trolley jack (b) axle stands without risk of causing damage to a modern vehicle (Pug 406 to be specific)?
Thanks in anticipation...
Phil T
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I'll leave the jacking point advice to the techie guys, but many years ago (before MOTs?) I decided it was time to get rid of my Ford 100E when I went to jack it up and the jack pushed the jacking point up into the sill (cill?) whilst the car stayed firmly on the ground!.
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Both spellings are correct. Well done!
Mike
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Did I buy that 100E from you? ;-)
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In 1992, I purchased my Father's company car from his employer, at the end of it's three year lease. The car was a 1989 2.0 DOHC Sierra, and I purchased it because I knew the entire history of it. Namely, it had never been pranged, was kept spotlessly clean, had a genuine 20K on the clock, spent it's week days on the driveway whilst Dad commuted to the Smoke by train, and it's weekends hauling my kart racing equipment and trailer the length and breadth of the UK with me at the wheel. As far as a Sierra ever could be, it was a minter.
Why then, the first time I jacked it up to fit the spare tyre to the offside front corner, did the jacking point tear away completely from the body of the car! No warning. No groaning. No teetering. Just BANG.
Thank the Lord that from the earliest age that I showed an inclination towards motor cars (about three, probably!), Dad instilled in me never, ever, EVER to trust a jack alone. All that happened was that I suffered a glancing blow to the back of my head from the top of the wheelarch as it came down. Looking at the car resting on the brake disk, with the sill so close to the road that I subsequently couldn't even get a 1 tonne trolley jack from another motorist underneath it, I never felt more grateful for advice.
/Steve
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Phill,
I think it best to find the jacking points on your car for trolley jacks from a Haynes manual and then spray them with coloured paint.
Then when some loony, slack-jawed, spotty tyre fitter throws his jack under your car, you can tell him where to put it.
Most don't care, as has been said many times before.
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Under the outer attachment points for the front subframe? (Many garages seem to attack the body just below the pedals, which often goes concave)
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Phil
I'm sure you've checked, but is this information not in the handbook? Otherwise, check with the dealer.
You do have to be careful these days because of crumple zones on cars
Regards
John
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John,
The handbook only tells you to "use the sill jacking points provided", which is of no use with a trolley jack/axle stands.
There was me thinking this would be an easy one to answer - How do the trade do it? I've watched tyre fitters use trolley jacks before and they just seem to randomly shove the thing under the front suspension mounts - makes me cringe!
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It could be helpful to have a wooden block with a sill-seam-wide channel cut into it. Use this block between the jack/stands and your car.
I'm sure this was recommended in one of the owners manuals I've had.
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Neil
Yes, that would be my advice too.
regards
John
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terryb
No, but you might have bought it from the scrapyard!
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Mondeo manual recommends the sill block
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On all the cars I have owned, the jacking point on the sill is marked in one way or another - usually a small imprinted triangle or "arrow".
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