More silliness with BMW jack points and UUC sway bars

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 05/31/2016 at 12:40 • Filed to: None

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Remember how I was all excited that I had !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and I was going to put my new wheels on this weekend? Well, I got the adapter, but I didn’t put the wheels on, because I need to buy even more crap just to jack this car up.

I pulled my car into the garage, started to check to see if my floor jack would fit under the side skirt, and checked under the car to see where exactly the jack points are. I found the jack points, but all four of them are missing the little plastic/rubber bumper things pictured above that the jack adapter slots into.

This is the other side of the bumper where it plugs into the frame rail of the car:

In all 4 corner jack points, all I saw was the holes in the frame rail for this side of the silly jack pads! I could have in theory gone and gotten some kind of wood blocks cobbled together to raise the car at something other than the jack points, but I figured if I went to the trouble of buying the jack adapter, I should at least get some of the stupid rubber pads for the jack points.

So...wallet is now $50 lighter, and the stupid rubber pads should be here in a few days, at which point I will finally put these wheels on the car.

In other news, I looked at UUC’s website and they were running a Memorial Day sale with 15% off and free shipping. I had already ordered a set of sway bars from them that !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You have to call them to cancel orders, so I took a slight gamble and re-ordered the sway bars with the sale price, then called today to cancel the original order, which they did with no complaints. So hey, $130 back in my pocket!

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 13:14

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I was able to jack up my BMW using just a rubber jack pad, it was soft enough that the plastic jack points weren’t damaged. What I can’t seem to do is use jackstands without buying special BMW stands, which I really don’t want to do...

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 13:30

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I can’t use the rear jack points, because the metal they’re attached to is rusted and not strong enough to hold the weight. The rear diff works well though.

Invinciblejets > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 13:39

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Your not gonna do somthing to your car because you don’t have these stupid little things?

Throw a jack under the subframe and rear diff. Done.

TylerJ > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 13:44

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Yeah, I picked up my first BMW last week before I left on a short vacation. I found out last night about the weird little jack points. I couldn’t believe they’d do something like that then, and I still can’t believe it’s an actual thing now.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 14:03

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Doesn’t the car come with a roadside lifting device and emergency traction circle?

Textured Soy Protein > Aaron M - MasoFiST 05/31/2016 at 14:21

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Mine doesn’t even have the jack points right now. I have the billet adapter to put on my jack but it would be pushing on the bare frame rail which I didn’t want to do.

Textured Soy Protein > luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! 05/31/2016 at 14:22

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Nope, it came equipped with run-flat tires, no spare or jack that I know of.

Textured Soy Protein > Invinciblejets 05/31/2016 at 14:25

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BMW specifically says not to jack the car by the diff.

I already ordered the little rubber pads. Getting the wheels on there a couple days sooner isn’t worth the risk of fucking up the jack points.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 14:28

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At least they’re cheap. The E36 and E46 ones appear to be 8-10 bucks a pop.

Textured Soy Protein > Aaron M - MasoFiST 05/31/2016 at 14:36

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I paid $9 each plus shipping for the rubber pads for each corner jack point. The hockey puck looking thing is to put on the jack cup to mate up with the little rubber pads.

Invinciblejets > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 14:37

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There is absolutely no reason not to jack from the diff. Every manufacturer says stuff like that....this is just weird...

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > Invinciblejets 05/31/2016 at 14:43

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Don’t know which BMW the OP drives but on my M3, the bottom of the diff is cooling fins. I personally would not want to put 1000+ lbs of pressure on them.

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 14:45

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Must have missed your original post but for my E92 M3 I just cut 3/8 inch plywood boards and put those on top of my Jack stands to prevent chewing up the rubber pads. I also have had no problems with my floor jack chewing up the pads either.

Textured Soy Protein > TylerJ 05/31/2016 at 14:49

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I actually like the concept of these jack points. It gives a nice safe place to raise the car without the potential to mess up the frame rails. It’s just that with buying a used car, the little rubber pads are missing so I need to get new ones.

Textured Soy Protein > Invinciblejets 05/31/2016 at 14:49

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Even if I jacked it up by the rear diff, that doesn’t help me get the front wheels off the ground, since the basic jack stands I have won’t work with the corner jack points.

Textured Soy Protein > Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) 05/31/2016 at 14:50

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My car doesn’t even have the pads on it right now, that’s what I just ordered.

luvMeSome142 & some Lincoln! > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 14:52

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I forgot some manufacturers were doing that.

Textured Soy Protein > Aaron M - MasoFiST 05/31/2016 at 14:54

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I’m kinda tempted by the ESCO jack stands.

But also I’ve seen people take a metal saw to their regular jack stands and cut the tops down to match the little plugs at the jack points.

I don’t have the proper metal saw to do this, but I do have a couple pairs of Craftsman jack stands, so I’ve thought about taking one or both pairs to a machine shop to have them cut them down to fit the jack points.

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 14:56

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I was talking about the adapters from your prior post.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 15:01

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At least the ESCOs would be further use on other cars. I think I’m just fed up at the notion of having to buy special versions of what should be very normal tools.

Textured Soy Protein > Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) 05/31/2016 at 15:06

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The cup on my jack is bigger than the hole in the plastic undertray where the jack point and rubber pad is. With the lack of the rubber pad on the jack point, it looked to me that the jack cup would push through the edges of the hole in the undertray and mess that all up. I thought about putting a board between the jack cup and the frame rail but I figured I might as well just get the rubber pads and jack the car up as intended. The wheels are sitting in my garage, I don’t mind waiting a couple days for the right stuff before I put them on.

Invinciblejets > Textured Soy Protein 05/31/2016 at 17:21

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Put the jack under the subframe and jack it up. This is day one stuff.

Textured Soy Protein > Invinciblejets 06/01/2016 at 00:19

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My non-low-profile floor jack doesn’t even come close to reaching the front center jack point.

I know how to raise the car, it’s very simple: put a jack with the adapter on it under the jack points with the rubber pads on them. I just needed to get the adapter and only checked the jack points themselves after I received the adapter. I assumed the pads would be there and when they weren’t I ordered some.

I’m in no rush here, there are totally fine wheels and tires on the car that I can drive on for a couple more days until the rubber pads arrive on my doorstep.

TylerJ > Textured Soy Protein 06/01/2016 at 00:59

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I bought mine used as well. I should really go check and see if mine are there now that I’m thinking about it.