This is a long one...
I feel like a complete idiot... I'm jacking up the front of my malibu to do an oil change. I have jack stands, but no ramps, so I jack it up for oil changing. I've done this many times before. The malibu as a subframe across the front of the car that I use to jack up the entire front end. I chocked the back wheels, so the car isn't rolling anywhere. Now... here are the contributing factors to my disaster:
1) The subframe is not square to the ground, but is inclined slightly so that the edge towards the front of the car is a bit higher than the edge facing the rear of the car.
2) In what is later shown to be a bone headed move, I place a small wood block on the floor jack so that it won't scratch/make small dents in the subframe component. When did I get so concerned with the aesthetics of the subframe?
Now, I begin my jacking... the car is going up, then I hear cracking...I ask myself "what is that cracking?" I stop jacking, hear silence. I ponder for a few seconds, I eye the car suspiciously. The car eyes me back mockingly, then i hear the final CRACK, and WHAM!, the car falls down.
The jack is still extended, it has slipped forward off the subframe and gone up into the engine compartment. It is pinned between the subframe on one side, and some plastic trim and the radiator on the other side. Luckily, no fluid is pouring out. I jump up and look in the hood to see the top of the jack staring back at me. It went in the only place in the entire engine compartment where there was nothing major to destroy! except for the radiator fan housing, which is completely shattered, but thats just plastic.
after using he emergency jack to get the car back up a little, I am able to get the floor jack out (it was really wedged in there). In the end the damage list was 1 bent radiator that needs to be replaced (the car is definitely running hotter now. When idling, the temp gauge just climbs until the one remaining radiator fan kicks on and the gauge stops climbing, but doesn't come back down), and a spectacularly destroyed radiator fan housing. I took it to a mechanic in shame, but I WILL change that oil myself!
The cracking I heard was the small wood block. It cracked into 2 pieces, and that must have caused it, and the jack, to slide off the subframe. The angle of the subframe and the angle caused by lifting the car a bit was just to much. From now on, I will just scratch the subframe and not place anything between it and the jack. I think I will also place one of the raised "teeth" on the floor jack just behind the subframe when I lift the car so that it will catch if this starts to happen again.
So, this is the most expensive oil change I have ever performed. And, I still haven't changed the oil
Any advice, comments, or similar stories? Any insight into the proper jack placement on a subframe? This definitely reminded me to always be extra careful when working around a raised car.
I feel like a complete idiot... I'm jacking up the front of my malibu to do an oil change. I have jack stands, but no ramps, so I jack it up for oil changing. I've done this many times before. The malibu as a subframe across the front of the car that I use to jack up the entire front end. I chocked the back wheels, so the car isn't rolling anywhere. Now... here are the contributing factors to my disaster:
1) The subframe is not square to the ground, but is inclined slightly so that the edge towards the front of the car is a bit higher than the edge facing the rear of the car.
2) In what is later shown to be a bone headed move, I place a small wood block on the floor jack so that it won't scratch/make small dents in the subframe component. When did I get so concerned with the aesthetics of the subframe?
Now, I begin my jacking... the car is going up, then I hear cracking...I ask myself "what is that cracking?" I stop jacking, hear silence. I ponder for a few seconds, I eye the car suspiciously. The car eyes me back mockingly, then i hear the final CRACK, and WHAM!, the car falls down.
The jack is still extended, it has slipped forward off the subframe and gone up into the engine compartment. It is pinned between the subframe on one side, and some plastic trim and the radiator on the other side. Luckily, no fluid is pouring out. I jump up and look in the hood to see the top of the jack staring back at me. It went in the only place in the entire engine compartment where there was nothing major to destroy! except for the radiator fan housing, which is completely shattered, but thats just plastic.
after using he emergency jack to get the car back up a little, I am able to get the floor jack out (it was really wedged in there). In the end the damage list was 1 bent radiator that needs to be replaced (the car is definitely running hotter now. When idling, the temp gauge just climbs until the one remaining radiator fan kicks on and the gauge stops climbing, but doesn't come back down), and a spectacularly destroyed radiator fan housing. I took it to a mechanic in shame, but I WILL change that oil myself!
The cracking I heard was the small wood block. It cracked into 2 pieces, and that must have caused it, and the jack, to slide off the subframe. The angle of the subframe and the angle caused by lifting the car a bit was just to much. From now on, I will just scratch the subframe and not place anything between it and the jack. I think I will also place one of the raised "teeth" on the floor jack just behind the subframe when I lift the car so that it will catch if this starts to happen again.
So, this is the most expensive oil change I have ever performed. And, I still haven't changed the oil
Any advice, comments, or similar stories? Any insight into the proper jack placement on a subframe? This definitely reminded me to always be extra careful when working around a raised car.
