Jacking points for an E90?

[Grumpa72]

Does anyone know if those cars with RFT have a standard jacking spot on the subframe? Obviously, tires need to be rotated for maximum mileage but, in looking at my '07 328xi, there are small rectangular "pads" that appear to be plastic. Nothing in the owner's manual on this but I would guess that these are the jacking points since they are at all four corners. Anyone out there with RFT who do their own maintenance and have actually jacked up their car?
:help
Thank you,
Gary

[Grumpa72]

OOPS. Jacking points ARE shown in the manual. I had looked up "tire rotation", "tires", and other tire related items in the index but not "jacking poinots". Oh well, next time I will spend more time looking before posting. Of course, they don't give me a jack or a lug wrench.:eek: Thanks to Craftsman for tools.

Gary

[killcrap]

do not rotate your tires, it is not necessary, if you do your still going to spend the same amount of $ in the long run when you need all 4 tires to be replaced. also the front tires are known to cup on these vehicles, the tire noise will be also unpleasnt

[Grumpa72]

do not rotate your tires, it is not necessary, if you do your still going to spend the same amount of $ in the long run when you need all 4 tires to be replaced. also the front tires are known to cup on these vehicles, the tire noise will be also unpleasnt

Don't rotate tires? In my experience, tire rotation prolongs the life of the tire by evening out the wear. By having tires that are evenly worn, you don't wind up replacing two just because they are worn. If they all wear evenly, then you can replace the whole set when needed.

Gary

[mds82]

there are 4 jacking point on the car on the frame. they have little plastic blocks

[E92Vancouver]

Does anyone know if those cars with RFT have a standard jacking spot on the subframe? Obviously, tires need to be rotated for maximum mileage but, in looking at my '07 328xi, there are small rectangular "pads" that appear to be plastic. Nothing in the owner's manual on this but I would guess that these are the jacking points since they are at all four corners. Anyone out there with RFT who do their own maintenance and have actually jacked up their car?
:help
Thank you,
Gary

Don't rotate your tires!!!

Jacking points are those little plastic blocks. I bought a remote control electric jack and it works like a hot damn. I use it to pick rocks out of my tires.

[callahan1]

My dealer also said BMW doesn't recommend rotating the runflats.

[mryakan]

My dealer also said BMW doesn't recommend rotating the runflats.
Did they mention why?

[E92Vancouver]

Did they mention why?

You should not rotate the tires on any BMW, RFT or no RFT. The reason is because BMW runs different camber (the amount the tires lean in from the top toward the centre of the car) between the front and rear tires, so they have a pronounced rear pattern.

Rotating the tires cause increased road noise, abnormal wear patterns and vibration.

[Biglew]

The tires are directional.

[E92Vancouver]

The tires are directional.

Can you rotate from left rear to left front?

[Biglew]

Can you rotate from left rear to left front?
If you want to have them balanced every time you do so.

[aftp302]

Regarding the jack points. Can you put the cup of a standard hydraulic floor jack right up to the plastic jack point blocks or do you need some sort of adapter? Seems silly for BMW to use plastic where you would be lifting the car.

[mryakan]

Regarding the jack points. Can you put the cup of a standard hydraulic floor jack right up to the plastic jack point blocks or do you need some sort of adapter? Seems silly for BMW to use plastic where you would be lifting the car.
I had that on my e36 too, but I don't think they are plastic, they are rubber and meant to have you avoid scratching/denting the undercarriage. If mounted properly, you should not need anything. I wasn't there when they mounted my car to replace the tires but they didn't mention anything, and I've been around to see my e36 mounted many times. In fact when I lost one of those rubber things, I asked they put some cushioning in there and not mount metal on metal. A cardboard was used and that was fine for a 10 year old car.

[aftp302]

Hmmm...I just want to make sure I'm not going to crush this plastic/rubber thing when it gets under pressure.

I saw this "adapter" someone has fashioned and was selling, just not sure if it is necessary.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=741674&highlight=jack+point

I may try to make something out of wood to do a similar thing before attempting my winter wheel install tonight.

[mryakan]

Hmmm...I just want to make sure I'm not going to crush this plastic/rubber thing when it gets under pressure.

I saw this "adapter" someone has fashioned and was selling, just not sure if it is necessary.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=741674&highlight=jack+point

I may try to make something out of wood to do a similar thing before attempting my winter wheel install tonight.
From the overwhelming response to that post, it seems it is redundant :D. But what do I know. Better safe than sorry, so hopefully you'll get more opinions. Never needed such thing on my e36, but things could have changes in 10 years.

[aftp302]

Yeah, I wondered why there was no response at all to his post. Although a lot of people may be letting the dealer handle their tire swaps so were unconcerned?

Here is a picture of the jack point (close proximity so focus is blurry). You can see how the rectangle is hollow and thus if jacking on this point without the little piece to stick up into the void and rest against the chassis, the car would be supported completely by the rectangular plastic/rubber box. Not sure it was a good design...

[mryakan]

Yeah, I wondered why there was no response at all to his post. Although a lot of people may be letting the dealer handle their tire swaps so were unconcerned?

Here is a picture of the jack point (close proximity so focus is blurry). You can see how the rectangle is hollow and thus if jacking on this point without the little piece to stick up into the void and rest against the chassis, the car would be supported completely by the rectangular plastic/rubber box. Not sure it was a good design...
That's is not what I expected to see, so maybe I am wrong. They could have used some other mounting points when they change my tires.

[Takashi]

Be careful with those jack points. I knocked the front passenger side off my car the 2nd day I got it while backing into a driveway. It ripped the undercarriage panel as well. It's going to be $$ to get it fixed and I will find out on Dec 5

[musv]

My car has directional staggerd wheels, so can't do left front to left rear unless I want the wider tires up front, and can't go rear right to rear left, unless I want the tires remounted. is the 328 different?

[aftp302]

Be careful with those jack points. I knocked the front passenger side off my car the 2nd day I got it while backing into a driveway. It ripped the undercarriage panel as well. It's going to be $$ to get it fixed and I will find out on Dec 5

Yeah, these jack points suck. Why they introduced plastic into an area of the car where there will be this kind of pressure applied is beyond me.

Just fitted my winter tires today. Install went well except for the jack points. Unless your floor jack has a flat lift point, I highly suggest cutting a 2.25" x 1.25" piece of 1x3 wood to place into the "cavity" of the jack point. If you don't, it will start to crack and crush.

Not terribly pleased with the offset on the front, but these will do as winter tires.

[Mad Dragon]

Yeah, I wondered why there was no response at all to his post. Although a lot of people may be letting the dealer handle their tire swaps so were unconcerned?

Here is a picture of the jack point (close proximity so focus is blurry). You can see how the rectangle is hollow and thus if jacking on this point without the little piece to stick up into the void and rest against the chassis, the car would be supported completely by the rectangular plastic/rubber box. Not sure it was a good design...
I (along with every single BMW tech in the known universe) lift cars with those plastic pads all day, every day, and I've never had a problem with them. They're designed for it, whether it's a floor jack or a lift. You don't need to waste your money on those fancy-pants aluminium adapters.

[aftp302]

I (along with every single BMW tech in the known universe) lift cars with those plastic pads all day, every day, and I've never had a problem with them. They're designed for it, whether it's a floor jack or a lift. You don't need to waste your money on those fancy-pants aluminium adapters.

After installing my wheels today, I can see the need for something like it. I tried to do the first corner just placing the cup of the floor jack against the jack point, and the plastic started to crush and fold outward. I stopped and cut a piece of wood to fit inside that "rectangular" space which then allowed the jack a buffer and eliminated the issue.

I suppose not all jacks are the same though, the "cup" on my floor jack is similar to others I've seen. If the jack being used has a flatter/wider cup, it might not be an issue.

[ukthunderace]

FWIW, one of the owners contacted Bridgestone about the crappy tire life of the Potenza run flats and was told that Bridgestone recommends swapping the tire sides every so often (think it was around 10K miles). They are not directional (maybe if you have non run flats yours might be)...if they were they would have rotations directional arrows on them. This goes a long way to solving that cupping problem someone was talking about.

[Emory]

Somebody please help me. The last time I took my car in for scheduled service, the tech noticed that the two right side aforementioned plastic jack pad thingys (he called them "lift blocks" on his report) were missing. I don't know how they came off, I've never scraped any curbs or cut any corners too closely.

My question - what is the official name of this part? I couldn't find them on www.RealOEM.com, despite using such search words as jack pad, lift pad, jack block, etc. I want to get the official part name and number and see if online prices are much lower than the dealerships.

TIA.

[Takashi]

They are stored under Vehicle Trim --> Various Body Parts. The part is called SUPPORT LIFTING PLATFORM and the part number is 51717123311. They can come off when you hit them very hard when you drive over curbs, hit potholes, or when you were driving over uneven icy / hard snow surface. I ripped my front right one off < 24h of owning the car. Needless to say, those things are build strong, but stupidly placed.

I mentioned this already in previous posts. Nevertheless, it cost me about $250 bucks CAD to replace the undercarriage panel and replace the lift platform on my car.

[car62]

The German manufacturers have a different philosophy and generally don't recommend rotating tires. Tire noise becomes louder as the tread blocks wear and front tire wear patterns are different from rear. Rotating tires will give you a quieter ride and a few thousand miles more tread life. Obviously you cannot rotate staggered tires front to rear, and you should not rotate directional tires so that they are on the wrong side. You can have directional tires dismounted and remounted, so that the inside is now on the outside, and so forth.
I don't rotate the tires on my BMW, but I do on my Ford F150.