How To Raise or Lift Your Car onto Jack Stands

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Most Vehicles

Posted June 30th, 2007 by TheProfessor
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Many repairs and modifications require you to work under your car. If you are fortunate enough to have a lift skip this video! For the rest of us, we need to make sure we raise our cars safely—this video gives an overview of steps applicable to most cars.

Highlights

How many times have you changed your oil or made a quick repair under the car using only a jack? I like to keep things humorous and fun on this website but I say with total seriousness: people have died working under cars that were not raised safely. So read on and next time you go to work under your car I hope you follow the steps outlined in the video.

I have done my best to explain the basics here but ultimately it is up to you to check that the vehicle is supported properly. AutoHow.TV is not responsible for damage to vehicles or property or for personal injury or death. Here are three points to keep in mind:

  1. Always use jack stands and wheel chocks
  2. Identify correct lift points for your vehicle and plan out what points you will use to lift and what points you will support with the jack stands.
  3. Check the car before working underneath of it. This includes making sure the jack stands are not sinking into the ground and giving the car a gentle push to see if it moves or appears unsteady.

What You'll Need

Floor Jack: I would never recommend a scissor jack or a "bottle" jack for working on your car. Keep those in your trunk and save them for emergency tire changes.

Instead get yourself a quality floor jack. If you plan to have your car under the knife on a regular basis you may want to go all out and get a lightweight aluminum race jack. This aluminum, heavy-duty floor jack from Summit Racing can raise a vehicle with a few presses of the handle. You may find that a traditional floor jack will suit your needs just as well. Be sure that whichever floor jack you purchase can support the weight of your vehicle.

Jack Stands: this is the most important item you need. Go with a set of jack stands with flat feet as described in the video above. My top picks are found below (click for more info).


Wheel Chocks: Ok. So maybe I lied a bit. Wheel chocks are just as important as jack stands. But what are chocks? Wheel chocks are the things you put behind your wheels, so that the whole car doesn’t roll off the stands and…well, let’s not go there.

Wheel chocks come in several materials but most share that rounded wedge shape like shown below. In most of our videos you’ll see the orange Tire Huggers made by Blitz. These plastic pieces are durable and stack well for storage. In the past I have used metal folding ones but I didn't trust them as much.

TIP: always place a wheel chock in the opposite corner of the jack. For instance, if you are lifting up the front, passenger-side tire place a wheel chock behind the rear, driver-side tire.

Steel Plate: As you lift the car with the jack a lot of weight is placed on the jack's front wheels. As you saw in the video, this can result in dents all over your driveway. Not to mention, it’s a little scary when your jack starts sinking into the ground!

Do yourself and your driveway a favor and get a nice steel plate to distribute the weight better. 16 gauge or lower (just like wire a lower gauge means thicker) piece of steel will work just fine. Sorry no links for this one but Home Depot or Lowe’s should have 10"x 10" sheets

Plywood/Cardboard: I don’t use either but a thin piece of plywood or cardboard can ease some of the damage to lift points. There is a risk of the car slipping off of the jack so do this at your own risk (just like everything else)!

Applications

The techniques outlined in the video apply to most modern, unibody cars, or cars that have two subframes connected by the vehicle body (floor). The diagrams in the video are specific to most Mustangs.

Notes and Warnings

For the third time, working under a car is dangerous. If at any time you feel it is unsafe have a more experienced person double-check your setup.

Tips, Tricks and Other Resources

There are many times when you need to work under the car, but don't have to remove the wheels. In those cases, you may want to use automotive ramps. This approach is covered in How to Change Your Oil.