mitchkramez

Hey all, did my rear brakes today (with brakemotive parts) with the help of a friend. They turned out great and look really good too... I did have a couple of questions for next time though...

We had a hard time deciding what was the best place to lift the rear end of the car with the floor jack... the hook at the back seemed precarious at best... we ended up using the crossmember of the subframe as you can see here:

http://d.pr/i/R4xP+

We used a piece of wood to spread out the load on that, and it seemed to work really well. There were several different thoughts on where the best place to lift the back up that turned up in my search, but this really seemed the safest - does anyone else any better options for lift points that would leave room to get jack stands set at the points on the sides of the car just ahead of the rear wheels?

We were able to get both wheels up and each work on a side which was great for time. We stripped out on the of heads on the retaining screws on the discs but were able to get it out with a screw extraction tool we picked up at the hardware store... thank God.

At any rate - they turned out great:

http://d.pr/i/jrIG+

rlerman

I jack it up somewhere in the area around the spring, closer to the differential. Once I do that, I put the jack stand along the lip on the side of the car, just in front of the tire. I believe that area is reinforced to hold a stand.

To get the screws off, I spray the with PB blast, let it sit awhile, then hit it a few times with an impact screwdriver. It's important to make sure you have the right size bit.

mitchkramez

Rlerman -
Any chance you have a photo to point out where that might be (or is it visible in my photo?) I'd sure love to have more input on where to jack this car up to get both rear wheels in the air - it seems there's a defined place for the front, but less so for the rear.

Those retaining screws were far too tight on the drivers side and had no problem with the passenger side. We put anti-seize on the new ones.

Also, probably a n00b thing - but brake cleaner will more or less screw up the finish on the center caps of the wheels - my advice, don't spray brake cleaner on the back of the wheels to clean them.

oo7spy

Our incomplete service manual says to refer to the "Lift and support points", but it does not include that in any of the PDFs.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

the rear tow hook is the proper lift point for the rear, however, you can lift it where ever it works, ie: crossmember, control arms, etc.
be smart about it!

FYI, the retaining rotor screws DO NOT HAVE TO BE RE-INSTALLED.

rlerman

These are points I have used to jack up the rear wheel. never had any issues. You can jack it at the far left in the pic (Black arrow) and then place a jack stand at any one of the arrow points (red arrows).

Carbon Legend

old towel on jack and use rear diff cover. jackstands at pinch welds

mitchkramez

Does the lifting with the rear diff cover scare the crap out of anyone else? Wouldn't the cross-member on the subframe be better?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

^you can use the crossmember.

wackjum

I don't have an RL to reference anymore, but generally lifting by the rear differential for any vehicle with a rear diff is fine as long as the diff housing doesn't have a bunch of cooling fins. If it does have cooling fins, I would lift elsewhere. (Although some diff housings with cooling fins have a hardened point specifically for jacking).

mitchkramez

You can see in my first picture - the rear diff does have cooling fins -- assuming I'm understanding you correctly.

wackjum

I was browsing on my phone and did not even see the picture you posted.

Yes if the diff has those fins, I would not jack from there.