1st Gen R52 Cooper Convertible Most liked posts in thread: Stupid jack points!

I agree - that's why I designed the TSW jack points. I kept losing the plastic ones and finally decided I would make my own set.

 

Take a 30" length of 2x4... place it up under the bottom skirts between the jack point and covertible brace point, up against the seam.

Center the jack, and lift the car.

Then you can slide your jackstands up both sides (front and back) and be done with it.

Blimey (Paul) has a writeup on his blog about this, which is where I learned it from!

 

Nope... floor jack. I wouldn't try it with the OEM jack. For just front-to-rear rotation, the OEM jack works fine - since jacking at the front jack point will lift the whole side...

And you still need jack points to put the jack stands under if you use the 2x4 method.

 

I went to rotate a set of BBS RWII's on my buddy's 545is and he was missing jackpoints. :lol: Bad BMW, bad!

 

Since I am a new MINI owner and am admittedly guilty of having not read my owner's manual cover-to-cover as of yet, can someone please fill me in on these jack points? I've never needed accessories to lift a car before - just my trusty Craftsman low-profile floor jack. What do I need to do to ensure I can safely (read: not damage) lift my '07 MCSc in the driveway for a rotation?

 

as long as your stock plastic jackpoints are in place, nothing. they have a tendency to 'disappear' from road debris, cones at auto-x, etc.

 

I like that idea of using a 2x4 - I've, up until now, been using the factory jack PLUS the floor jack to lift the whole side of the car without "twisting" the body - using both the front and rear jack points. But that 2x4 idea would work fine, as long as you have the exact weight center figured accurately.

 

Works fine, even if you *don't* have the exact weight center figured for the body. The MINI chassis is so stiff, if I stand it on three jack stands, the forth corner sags less than 1/4"... the thing is designed to lift it with one jack point for tire changes... and it lifts the whole side of the car when you do that... I'm confident I'm not going to fold my car in half by jacking at a point that isn't *exactly* in the middle...

FWIW, the flex of the 2x4 is greater than the flex of the chassis - so in reality the 2x4 isn't distributing the load along the whole sill, no matter how long it is. The lifting force is pretty localized wherever you put the jack along the seam...

 

+1 on Dr. Mike's jack points. The low profile ones allow me to use the cheapest hydraulic floor jack available from ac/delco. I can't get the same jack under the stock jack points.

 

The OEM rubber puck jack points also tend to dry out and start to crumble as they age. A friend had one of those rubber pucks break and the MINI fell off the jack, destroying an aero side skirt in the process. Luckily no one was hurt.

Get the TSW ones and you'll never have to worry about it again.

 

I echo what MINIBee has said. I have had to replace a skirt because it popped out while being jacked. luckily it didn't get the door.

I highly recommend getting the TSW ones, from them or one of their fine re-sellers, as the stock composite pieces, are just that, pieces of _____.

I like the 2x4 method, too. Didn't think of that. Have you had one of those slip yet?

 

Haven't had the 2x4 slip... BUT I don't think I'd use that method if I had aero skirts... they're not "solid" underneath if I understand it correctly... because they hang lower...

 

I really don't know how mine are still in place, there's a speedbump I go over frequently enough and if I can't get a really sharp angle because of oncoming traffic, I scrape badly on it. The TSW blocks on definitely on my shopping list.
My friends MINI was missing one of them and when I'd put it on the lift I used a large round piece of aluminum that was about the same height as the factory blocks. It worked, but wouldn't be ideal for a rolling jack or roadside use.

 

thanks, i learned something today!

 

hey paul,
about how many inches in do you put this 2x4, or where is the frame rail?
thanks
boxcars

 

If you look under there... about 5" back there's a seam that sticks down about 1". I put it right up against that. So as far in as it will go and sit flat under the sill.

 

jack points

I'm a new mini driver. In the process of changing out brake pads, I noticed one of the jack points disappeared over the last week. Based on comments, this appears to be a common problem.

I've read the comments about the TRW replacements. The TRWs seem to be pricey, almost a hundred bucks. This may be relative, I don't know how much the OEM jack points cost. I don't jack up the car every day, but lately have done it every weekend since Veterans' Day trying to figure out the brakes.

So, is switching out to TRW cost effective in the long run?

 

The OEMs are about $15 each.

The TSW - Texas Speedwerks (not TRW) ones are certainly more expensive, but also much nicer. If you rarely jack up your car, it won't matter. If, like me, you jack it up almost every week, the OEM points will get "rickety" fairly quickly.

But I went almost three years without losing a jack point, before buying the TSW ones when I saw that one of my originals was about to fall off. So they *can* last quite a while.