As most of us know, there is precious little space allotted for jacking up our cars. It's also no fun when a car falls off the jack so we have to be careful in picking the right method for lifting the car. I'm not happy with using a block of wood or hockey puck on this car.

I found that the jack pads used for BMWs that are sold all over the place are a pretty good fit to our jacking location foot print. It keeps the pressure on only the aluminum sill and prevents any pressure on the plastic sill cover. However in the BMW application, the rectangular pad fits into a pocket to prevent the pad from sliding while jacking. On our cars, it would just sit flush with the sill surface with very little purchase on the aluminum sill itself.

In order to ensure that the pad won't slip off sill, I put a 1/2" nylon spacer through the pad that fits into the hole in the sill of the car when used. Adding the spacer is easily done by drilling a hole through the pad and pressing the spacer in. The spacer can be found at a hardware store. Then to ensure that the spacer doesn't pull out of the pad or rotate within the pad, I put a screw through the pad and spacer.

The pad is tall enough that it keeps the jack from touching the plastic sill cover of the car. It also serves nicely under a jack stand to support all the corners of the car.

 

Excellent idea . I have been doing the hockey puck thing since getting my V8V but this really takes the guesswork out if it especially with the spacer to act as a locater peg in the hole of the frame rail .
Seeing as her summer car is a Z4 Coupe I guess I really need a set . Found some on fleabay already next stop ordering them . Tks .

 

I was looking at alloy BMW jack pads this very afternoon replacing the nylon spacer by an allen bolt treaded in the pad (bolt head size to be checked).

 

Aluminum and steel will mar the car's surfaces. The reason the aluminum pad works for the BMWs is that the pocket on the car is plastic and replaceable. Use something softer than the aluminum that the car is made from to ensure no scratching or marking.

 

The car only ends up sitting on about half of a hockey puck if you don't touch the plastic sill. With the chance that the car could slip of with only that much coverage, it's too risky for me.

 

I did something similar for my DBS. Posted this a while back.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...jack-pads.html

 

I use blocks of hardwood sized to fit the lift area (around 4 X 1-1/2 IIRC). They never slip, because I attach them to the car with a piece of double sided carpet tape BEFORE lifting. Makes lifting easy since they provide a good target and you don't have to fumble around trying to hold them in place with one hand while you pump the jack with the other.

The BMW ones look good, but there is nothing wrong with wood, if you attach to car with tape to prevent any slippage.

 

I use hockey pucks as the lift pads with my Ranger Quickjacks.