I was jackin up my car(side point) this morning with my dads floor jack, I got it up enough to put a stand under and then one more crank of the jack it just dropped, and my car fell on the stand and it knocked the stand at an angle and the car fell on it, leaving a huge gash in my driveway and under the car. Ill get some pics tommorow but im kind of pissed.

 

ouch, had that happen before because my uncle's retarded idea to jack up the car in his alley where the floor was not level. Car fell on my foot mostly on my shoe luckily it didn't fall all the way down because it crushed the jack but was still standing on the crushed jack.

 

i take it your driveway isnt level

 

If you're referrring to the screw jacks, like the ones in our Honda's and many other cars, they will fail. I had one do the same thing to me when replacing a flat tire. My fault though, as I used that jack so many times and neglected to grease the screw, causing the threads to wear.

 

both a hydraulic jack and the stocks jacks have failed on me b/c of my driveway not being completely on level.

 

i had this exact thing happen to me. created a whole right on the drivers side floor. had it patched up from inside the car with expanding foam and a few screws and sprayed the underside with that black underside coating stuff.

 

this falls under that list of things you'll never do again....just know you're lucky that the jackstand didnt punch through your floor board

....what's that about having to grease the screw-type jack?? (stock jack on 2g TL)
i have abused of that jack for 8 years and never greased it. it even fell in motor oil once. Bearing grease okay?

 

it was a hydrolic jack

 

I got accustomed to completely raising the wheel off the ground in about 10 secs using these jacks. The little bit of grease left on the screw was probably not enough to dissipate the rapid heating of the screw under load and after repeated uses (50+) I noticed it got harder to crank. So I put more muscle into it, but that was the screw telling me the threads were... 'screwed'.

 

thx for the heads up!.....doing my coilover install a few days ago i too noticed it got a hell of a lot harder to crank as i coulnt fit my little hydraulic jack under the car. i'll check my threads and grease ASAP

 

get a mcphearsons lift. solves most of these problems.

 

Id just recomend to any one that does DIY's to go spend the money on a good floor jack. not a cheap one. Look for the one with the largest lifting pad you can. the wider the wheel base on it the more stable the jack will be. And its not a bad idea to replace teh hyd fluid every so often. Ive got 2 craftsman jacks that ive had for about 10 years now and they have lifted more than their fair share of every thing and never had a issue with them once.

 

I just bought the 2 ton aluminum Craftsman. I replaced my 4 ton steel Craftsman because I was too heavy to carry. I havn't opened the box yet. Think its good??

 

I hate jacks, the stock jack doesnt even move the wheels off the ground because my car is too low, haha.

Sucks though man, happened to a friends car one time and wasn't pretty!

 

I got one of those and works great for me.

 

I usually put the wheel I've removed from the car under it near an axel on the side I am working. I'd like to think if the car ever fell off of the jack or the stand the large surface area of the wheel and tire would prevent floorboard damage. Of course, I've never had to test this. It could also save a limb if the car fell of a stand while missing a wheel.

This was before I had a nice car. I don't think throwing the nice factory rims under the car is a good idea.

I may continue this practice, but make sure to orient the outward face of the rim upwards. I guess it would only be scratch if the car fell. Or maybe I could put the the rim facing down on a piece of old carpet.

As a side note, while traveling for work I saw two young men jacking a newish Accord in the parking lot of a Jersey TP rest area. They had the factory jack upside down and crooked. The wide base plate was in contact with the car and the small circular lifting patch was on the road. Long story short, I plugged their tire with a kit so they wouldn't have to drive 140+miles on a mini-spare.

How does a hydraulic floor jack fail? Did it fall off of the jack or did the jack mechanically fail?