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Yesterday it happened. The car fell down after being lifted. Here's the story: I lifted the rear end the way I normally do: 2.5 t floor jack, rear trailing arms as lifting points, jackstands (with a foot long blocks of wood to protect the car) placed in front of the jack points like the book says. Meaning I lifted one side at a time. Safe, but slow. But when lowering the car I tried the jack-under-the-diff method for the first time: I lifted the car slightly, got the jackstands out of the way, and opened the jack valve to let the car down slowly. Then BANG! The jack shot sideways - and tipped over, luckily, so the car didn't rest on it. It hit the right torque arm, but it still looks straight and the car doesn't feel any different. The action wasn't anywhere near the brake lines, so I guess I got away easily considering the potentials for severe material and physical damages.
Apart from my general clumsiness, I think there are three specific reasons why this happened.
1) My car had an underbody treatment only six weeks ago. While the stuff is surface dry, it is far from being hardened. And as this is the fourth layer added on top of the factory treatment, there is a lot of it for a jack to slide on.
2) The fact that I used a urethan pad between jack and diff probably didn't add to stability.
3) Even if I tried my best to line things up, the jack must still have been slightly off center. The pad didn't make it any easier to see the exact pressure point.
I hope others may learn from this too. I am not saying you shouldn't lift your car this way, I am sure others have done this hundreds of times successfully. Just use some more brains than I did.
Boy, did that car come down fast. I didn't have time to blink.
Erling.
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My 240 Page
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