Near Death Experience

[05GT Guru]

I have had scissor jacks from gm, honda, and subaru fail me. I always swapped mine out with my 97 silverado jack. It still fits nicely in the car but is made to hold double the weight, and i use the floor jack when at home

[Living Legacy]

My OEM jack from the Subaru failed on a flat surface while jacking up my beater (regular jack took a crap on me). To be fair I jacked it up to high, but I'm a logical person and it didn't seem like it would fail at that height (makes sense for the engineers to have a height restriction, doesn't it?).

 

Regardless I told Subaru what happened and they gave me a used replacement for free (was under warranty). I still haven't replaced the jack yet though.

 

Operator error: maybe. Poor design: absolutely.

[whobaru]

I've got a good story. I put my wife's Mazda 6 on the ramps and chocked the back tires just to be safe. After changing the oil, I get back in the car and try to back down off the ramps. After a lot of clutchwork and revving, the car won't move. I get out, look at the ramps and front tires...everything looks okay. I don't understand why the car won't back up. So I get back in and say to myself "Well, I guess I just gotta give it more gas". So I do. Like a retard I gun it and BOOM! I forgot to take the chocks off the back tires so the FWD car shot both ramps out the front and the car came slamming down. Both ramps hit the back wall of my garage. Scared the CRAP out of me. I was extremely glad nobody was around to see it.

[bdisco]

Jacks & ramps Pffff... Nothing a couple of 2x4 can't do.

http://www.humanics-es.com/men-women.jpg

[whobaru]

I don't know if dudes in poor countries have more balls, are more stupid, or just have to work with what they're given and have no choice.

[xihearthookersx]

lol this is a picture of my dodge dakota high centered(stupid drunken 4x4ing accident).

Had the factory jack fully extended lifting up the back end so i could put wood and rocks under the back tires to get more ground clearance. that is my cousin under the back end with the jack lifted up quite a ways. way dangerous, but that was our only option. ended up with like 4 feet of lift from where it sat originally. was kinda fun lol.

[XVR_legacy]

glad you are ok....yea get a real jack or just buy ramps....ramps are so cheap

 

-Brian

[ShrinerMonkey]

Factory jacks are for emergency use only and are only intended to be used on flat hard level ground. They are also only intended to raise the car up enough to get the wheel off... not high enough to gain access under the car. This was user error and not the fault of the jack IMO. NEVER crawl under a car held up with one of these flimsy jacks.

[srgdrum]

I've got a good story. I put my wife's Mazda 6 on the ramps and chocked the back tires just to be safe. After changing the oil, I get back in the car and try to back down off the ramps. After a lot of clutchwork and revving, the car won't move. I get out, look at the ramps and front tires...everything looks okay. I don't understand why the car won't back up. So I get back in and say to myself "Well, I guess I just gotta give it more gas". So I do. Like a retard I gun it and BOOM! I forgot to take the chocks off the back tires so the FWD car shot both ramps out the front and the car came slamming down. Both ramps hit the back wall of my garage. Scared the CRAP out of me. I was extremely glad nobody was around to see it.

 

That's a great story!

[SilverSeraphim]

I've got a good story. I put my wife's Mazda 6 on the ramps and chocked the back tires just to be safe. After changing the oil, I get back in the car and try to back down off the ramps. After a lot of clutchwork and revving, the car won't move. I get out, look at the ramps and front tires...everything looks okay. I don't understand why the car won't back up. So I get back in and say to myself "Well, I guess I just gotta give it more gas". So I do. Like a retard I gun it and BOOM! I forgot to take the chocks off the back tires so the FWD car shot both ramps out the front and the car came slamming down. Both ramps hit the back wall of my garage. Scared the CRAP out of me. I was extremely glad nobody was around to see it.

 

I had similar temporary retardation. I was driving up onto my friends ramps to put in new shifter bushings. He waves me forward and I give it some gas and make it like 1/4 of the way up the ramp with what I felt was PLENTY of gas. So I let off and he waves me forward again. "Come on man you've got a ways to go!" Now he's STANDING in front of the car so I don't wanna just gun it so I gently let off the clutch again as I try to climb the ramps. Three times I make it half to 3/4 of the way up and then brake cause I'm POSITIVE I'm going to overshoot the ramps. Finally I give it way more gas than it should have needed. I was sure I was going to go straight over them and I make it up to the top and stop. My friend goes "Finally! Now put on the ebrake and I'll grab some chocks" as I look down to see that the ebrake has been on the whole time.

[whobaru]

This could become the "stupid isht I've done" thread.

[jarrod]

I use rhino ramps for oil changes...they work well for me

[Spec B]

^^ no one is having issues clearing the ramps? The ones I have are useless on my lowered whip. Do they sell lower profile types?

[whobaru]

I am. I bought them before the coilovers and now I can't use them. I'm looking into some ramps that come with an extension. Kinda like these.

[Spec B]

^ Very cool, thanks for the link.

 

I too am on coilovers and even removing the RBS front lip doesn't help clearing my ramps.

[ehsnils]

glad you are ok....yea get a real jack or just buy ramps....ramps are so cheap

 

-Brian

 

And Ramps are also useless when you need to change tires... As I have to do twice a year...

[whobaru]

My lip is the problem, I'm not very low. If I took the lip off, my ramps would work. But I'm not gonna take my lip off for an oil change.

[srgdrum]

I drive it up on a 2 x 6 then onto the ramps. Works for me and I'm slammed on coilovers.

[DukeTrout]

I have an aluminum floor jack that is low enough that it can reach in from the side to the front center jack point. Then I put it up on stands.

 

Edit: Even lowered on Pinks and Bilsteins and with a RBS front lip, I can jack the car up at the front jack point with the floor jack. Just changed my oil this weekend and discovered it can be done. I didn't expect it. The jack is a Costco Alcan aluminum 2 ton floor jack.

[whobaru]

I drive it up on a 2 x 6 then onto the ramps. Works for me and I'm slammed on coilovers.

 

Great idea... I tried some wood blocks I had laying around, but that didn't work out. I'll try this, thanks!

[Gasaraki]

I've got a good story. I put my wife's Mazda 6 on the ramps and chocked the back tires just to be safe. After changing the oil, I get back in the car and try to back down off the ramps. After a lot of clutchwork and revving, the car won't move. I get out, look at the ramps and front tires...everything looks okay. I don't understand why the car won't back up. So I get back in and say to myself "Well, I guess I just gotta give it more gas". So I do. Like a retard I gun it and BOOM! I forgot to take the chocks off the back tires so the FWD car shot both ramps out the front and the car came slamming down. Both ramps hit the back wall of my garage. Scared the CRAP out of me. I was extremely glad nobody was around to see it.

 

LOL

[TPLGT]

So after consulting some of you guys on here about the oil and stuff, I decided to go with what I use for my Honda, Valvoline Synthetic. I buy the stuff from AutoZone and pull the Subaru into the driveway. I pull out the never used spare tire jack to crank the car up a bit. Place that sucker in the right place and start pumping up the car. I grab a jack stand to place under the car because i just don't trust those damn jacks. As I peek under the car with my head under the engine, I notice that to put the jackstand under the car, I need a couple more cranks to pump the car up a bit more. The second I take my head from under the car to head over to the jack, the car comes falling down. I was literally 2 seconds away from being able to see the light of death. I peek under the car and there it is, the jack failed me. The base of the jack is still flat but the rest is all bent and pretty much garbage. I grab the jack from my Honda and pump up next to where the Subaru jack was. I grabbed the messed up jack and took a look at it. Garbage. I decide this is not fair. I called my Subaru dealership and they told me to call 1-800-Subaru3. I did and the lady was not helpful. She told me that since the car was no longer under warranty, she couldn't help me. I'm like WTF does the damn jack have to do with warranty? You make then last 36k and then let them fall on the people using them? She told me that I could buy one from the dealership and then fax her the reciept so that their investigation team could look at it. WTF! I'm now stuck with no jack. Anyone got any advice?

 

 

That's a scary story, man!! I had a jeep Cherokee bust through my bed room window about 15 minutes after I had left to randomly go into the office on a Sunday morning. Kinda makes you think...did I do something 'right' to deserve to get out nof that?

 

GL w/ the jack situation.