who has had a bmw jack fail on them

[Cpundyk]

today i was jacking up my car with the bmw jack an it decided that i didnt want to do the job an it decided to take out my door, im just SO happy. what do doors go for from the yards any idea? why would they make such a horrible jack for a heavy car. who else has had this problem?

[LouieD]

They're not called "widow makers" for nothing.

[Elekta]

on I-10 shoulder, after a piece of angle iron toasted a $650 9JM//. See the 2nd door? Is yours worse? Mine just slid on the caliche and crashed into the door.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/ggil-tx/bmw/elekta/DSCN3537.jpg

[brettholomew21]

I had one bend right in half on my E30 'vert. It bent sideways, so strange.

[SawheadE34]

Complete fail for this guy. left a nice dent and 2 deep scratches in my paint and is very noticeable :blackeye

[Meeve]

that is the reason why I always use an aftermarket jack to do jobs.. Car stock jack is for flat tire only.

[96 328ic]

Complete fail for me.... crushed to the left and set the rear rotor on the ground. No damage:D


that is the reason why I always use an aftermarket jack to do jobs.. Car stock jack is for flat tire only.

i was changing a tire:shifty

[snake109]

e34's come with jacks????

So far I havnt had to use one, either used a my lift at work or a nice floor jack at home, never had to do the dreaded highway pitstop yet..

[E34ührer]

First mod I do to every E34 I have owned....remove OEM jack and throw in garbage.

If I can't use a floor jack, I won't do the work.

Edit: call German Auto Salvage out in Boring....John is an awesome guy and currently has several E34's with good doors. Fair prices...but I have no idea what a door goes for.

[Meeve]

Complete fail for me.... crushed to the left and set the rear rotor on the ground. No damage:D



i was changing a tire:shifty

If it was on the road, and it was a flat tire, then its all good! it was the only situation appropriate for stock jack use.

[gfycorp]

I was jacking up my rear wheel in the snow and had it go flying out as the car came slamming down. Luckily my crap reflexes told me to grip the handle and swing it away from my legs and my friend and launch it about 10 feet into the road. I can pretty much pass on using one of those ever again unless I'm in the middle of nowhere with no reception and no other option.

[MaxSteel]

I've never had it fail while using it properly (flat ground, wheel chocks). But It has slid off while on a slanted surface, luckily causing no damage.

[Cpundyk]

my door looks like it got side swiped. i will have a pic in a few minutes. I havnt got so mad in along time i was swearing up a storm, i took th at jacked an smashed it all over the front road at my house.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk136/cpundyk_photo/DSCN5412.jpg

i was on flat land both front wheels blocked in front an behind the tires, i guess im gonna strap a jack in my trunk cus its cheaper then doors. lucky theres a parts car with the exact match! but who nos what he wants for it.

[brettholomew21]

my door looks like it got side swiped. i will have a pic in a few minutes. I havnt got so mad in along time i was swearing up a storm, i took th at jacked an smashed it all over the front road at my house.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk136/cpundyk_photo/DSCN5412.jpg

i was on flat land both front wheels blocked in front an behind the tires, i guess im gonna strap a jack in my trunk cus its cheaper then doors. lucky theres a parts car with the exact match! but who nos what he wants for it.

Dayum. Sorry dude, that's a real shame.

[m60b40]

Jack it self is now bad, but it did bent my rear door due to my mistakes.

1. No jack pad
2. No towel under the jack and no jacking point to prevent friction
3. Angeled road

[Cpundyk]

i dont follow m60b40
my jacked had a pad, know its some where in the road.
my driveway is flat
defintly never heard u had to use a towel to prevent friction, is there something im missing?

im gonna pop it out the best i can tomorrow for my satisfaction i guess. it is a shame a real big shame on me for useing that jack atleast a $100 mistake

[sfgearhead]

Dude that sucks. A door and pick-n-pull is $50 and they're easy to pull, 2 bolts and a connector and she's off.

Keep an eye on picknpull.com and they have inventory.

[keith2]

Never had an issue?

[madk0w]

I keep a small aluminum floor jack in my trunk. It weighs about the same as the stock jack. It was only $75 at harbor freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/floor-jacks/3000-lb-capacity-aluminum-racing-jack-with-leds-96562.html

[m60b40]

I keep a small aluminum floor jack in my trunk. It weighs about the same as the stock jack. It was only $75 at harbor freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-motorcycle/floor-jacks/3000-lb-capacity-aluminum-racing-jack-with-leds-96562.html

Does this get your car high enough for jack stands or do you need to use wood?

[Cpundyk]

sfgearhead. did i just buy a drive line from you yesterday?

edit. I did buy it from you, great guy sent me in the right directon

[Skatingzooyork]

I've used it a couple times and it's definitely not stable, even on a flat surface. It gets a little too close to the body for my liking anyway.

[CleanE34]

never had any serious failure with it. put a dent in my old black car. bout it. after that day i went out and bought a low pro jack from sears. 50 dollars, can't go wrong

[BruinBimmer]

Mine failed when I was figuring out how weird the bmw jack is, when I had just gotten the car years ago. I was just trying to see if a side-exit exhaust was tuck-able under the chassis, but i was lucky enough that the jack only fell towards the back of the car, so there was no damage and the car just plopped down and rolled. Had to jump in the car to save it from rolling into my dad's F-350 superduty with herculiner-bumper. Oh, the stupid things 16 yr-olds do...

[cmgreensr]

Never used mine cause I heard they sucked and after seeing that door, I will just throw mine away! That's a shame.

[M Quick]

I have had atleast 3 friends have this stock bmw jack failing on them and they all put a big dent and scratches on the door. I have used it a couple of times myself, but none of the times it felt safe not even safe enough to change a flat tire on flat tarmac. It's definately not well designed..

[sachmo12345]

This must have happened to my car because I have a dent identical to that one in the exact same place on my car.

[hellrot98m3]

happened to me about 4 years ago, ill never use a widomaker again.

[uk525td]

yerp, repeatedly had the jack get close to the door or onto the door, no matter how careful...

[tonyroc14]

when I had mine it worked great

[pushpins]

I use it alot actually. Never had a problem.

A friend of mine was working on his e36 when the car decided to take a drive. The car stopped rolling on it own. A better design on the e36 jack..

Use the jack correctly (mounted where it is supposed to be mounted), and make sure you have the parking brake on.

[uk525td]

yer, trouble is hte car goes up fine, but tends to come down away from the base of the jack, forcing hte top into the door :S

[HlyDvlz1989]

you know these things go for 30 - 50 bucks on ebay?

[upallnight]

e34's come with jacks????

So far I havnt had to use one, either used a my lift at work or a nice floor jack at home, never had to do the dreaded highway pitstop yet..

Three Letters











































AAA

[AHenry014]

ive used mine repeatedly when at school and bought a set of wheels. I can count 3 times last year i did it. never had an issue. just make sure you tuck the bottom of the jack under the car a tad so its not so upright. and keep an eye on it. I still dont trust it at all, this year ive opted to use a friends floor jack whenever i need it. But if used right its fine to use. much better than any VW jack ive used (yikes)

however i did crush my sideskirt a bit with a regular floor jack on one of those jackpoints, so now its strickly framerail lifting.

[BoldUlysses]

First mod I do to every E34 I have owned....remove OEM jack and throw in garbage.

What do you do when you have a flat on the highway?


Three Letters

AAA

Kinda sucks to have to call them for a flat when your car provides you the means to take care of it yourself.

If I'm calling AAA for everything I might as well just leave the spare in the garage. Which would save weight, I suppose...

-Matt

[Lord DRIFT]

Mine did and dented my door. The only reason I used it was because my lone Hydro gave up the ghost while the car was on stands. I saw the car topple over and stop short; then I saw why it stopped short - the tower damn near went through the rear door.

[pennpen]

floor jack in my trunk hatch area 24/7, 1 tried to kill me on my e30 (wasn't under it), never again

[misswin]

front doors on both sides are dented. hate hate hate hate hate that jack.

[Boogieboy]

Funny story about my first E34 when I got a flat and had to change the tire, I used that jack for the first time ever that day! I had a huge speaker box in the trunk so I had to take it out and set it on the ground right behind the car, the flat was on the rear passenger side. I got the car up and the tire off, and as soon as the tire came off, the car started to fall backwards! All I could do was watch while It slowly creeped back and suddenly stopped!? It landed on the speaker box that I set down with no damage to the car....lol.





But yeah......they suck!

[86GT635]

I use them occasionally. Majority of the time, they've been fine. Only time I had a problem was when, I was on my way to work, late. After a night of heavy drinking, it was raining, I was on a hill on the side of the interstate, dark early morning. The jack slipped numerous times. the car landed on the rotor, numerous times. as soon as the wheel was off it fell. I got it back up at least 3 times for it to fall again as soon as it was high enough to put the spare on. Eventually I got wise and used the flat tire as a make shift jackstand. I was off on my way. With one less flat tire and warped jack. No damage to the body of the car or any where else. Fun times.

[camaroguy]

I have used them quite a bit on the past 4 bmw's I have owned. I have never had a problem. I am always very very careful about the angle at which I am jacking the car.

I have also found that starting the jack at like a 35 degree angle from the door works about perfectly as it gets perfectly straight by the time its up in the air enough to get the tire off...it also leaves enough clearance on the way down.

Tire chock, and parking brake are always in effect as well.

I always thought it turned out to be way more stable than it looks to be honest.

[5mall5nail5]

as much as land rovers suck, the factory jack is BALLER.

[87shark]

I usually use a floor jack and this one in case the other fails.

[moroza]

today i was jacking up my car with the bmw jack an it decided that i didnt want to do the job an it decided to take out my door, im just SO happy. what do doors go for from the yards any idea? why would they make such a horrible jack for a heavy car. who else has had this problem?

:wave

Exact same as you, in fact - jack capsized, punched a hole in the bottom forward corner of the passenger door, pushed the top rear corner out, causing a whistle above 90.

Throw that dangerous POS out and get a real jack. Like, off a Toyota Camry.

[BoldUlysses]

Throw that dangerous POS out and get a real jack. Like, off a Toyota Camry.

+1

Toyota scissor jacks (I've had two) are beefy, stable and compact. Wouldn't trust my life underneath a car on one, but they're plenty strong enough for a tire change. Dunno why ze Germans couldn't come up with a better design than they did. :dunno

-Matt

[Hoolie]

Never trust _any_ jack.. You work underneith a car use proper stands..

I use the bmw supplied jack for roadside flats.. Nothing else.. I have a proper garage jack for repairs and maintenance..

Usually put the wheel under the car when jacked up so if it slips it don't fall that far.. And something to stop the car rolling..

I don't have acess to AAA.. I have the poor mans AAA tho.. "*ring* HI DAD! Im stuck at <location> please bring <tools> and come help me get/fix/tow my car back home"

[Mark@EAC]

I once dropped my car off the stock jack, then had to use the thing again to get the other wheel on. Since then, I have kept a low profile floor jack in my trunk at all times. BMW should have recalled these things.

[TC535i]

Mine failed when I was figuring out how weird the bmw jack is, when I had just gotten the car years ago. I was just trying to see if a side-exit exhaust was tuck-able under the chassis, but i was lucky enough that the jack only fell towards the back of the car, so there was no damage and the car just plopped down and rolled. Had to jump in the car to save it from rolling into my dad's F-350 superduty with herculiner-bumper. Oh, the stupid things 16 yr-olds do...

you have a picture of my ass in your sig :rofl :rofl :rofl

btw, the problem with the stock jack is that as it lifts the car, it's no longer "centered" where you placed it under the jack point, and it gets unstable with such a tiny footprint

I did this on my old 535i, my brother jumped in and the car fell on its rear rotor. I was a little pissed to say the least...

[BuckNaked]

I swear it all happened in slow motion. The car started to creep away and my whole life flashed before my eyes. I lept up and managed to stabilize the car before any damage was done. Now my jack has a definate twist to it. Won't ever use it again. Purely for decoration. I learned the lesson. To this day beads of sweat form on my forehead when I think I probably would have thrown myself in front of the car to save it from harm.

[sse34]

Dam dude thats sucks... i had a jack on an 04 325i wagon crunch on me had to call my brother to bring me a jack.. : ( never had that happen on my e34 though... you sure it was in place properly?

[upallnight]

What do you do when you have a flat on the highway?



Kinda sucks to have to call them for a flat when your car provides you the means to take care of it yourself.

If I'm calling AAA for everything I might as well just leave the spare in the garage. Which would save weight, I suppose...

-Matt

I don't carry a spare in any of the LOTUS and the PORSCHE has one of those goofy deflated space saver spare. Much easier to call AAA to come out and fix it or flatbed me home.