Oil/fluid for hydraulic jack?

[Benzadmiral]

A portable one, that is, a "Rally" brand if I recall right, bought about 10 years ago when the factory jack for my Olds Cutlass proved woefully inadequate.

I'm planning a road trip, and after pumping the compact spare tire up to 60 psi, I checked my aftermarket jack. It would pump up a little, but not enough to lift the car.

It has a filler hole for the oil reservoir. No indication, however, what kind of fluid to use. ATF, power steering fluid, or even engine oil?

 

[alreadygone]

NONE OF THE ABOVE!!!!!!!!

Use only; "Hydraulic Jack Oil". Available at most old school parts stores IE NAPA. Probabaly O'Reilly also. Probably some of the hydraulic oils available for tractors, log splitters etc. would work, but why take a chance? Also these oils usuallycome in 5gallon buckets.

First, you should check to make sure it's really low(seen any wet spots under where it normally is stored?). Check by running wire, bread tie, or my favorite a colored cable tie into hole a couple inches, see if fluid is any appreciable amount below fill hole. If it's within 1/2inch it's probably ok.

Hydraulic jacks will occasionally "air lock" from disuse,or improper storage. Open let down screw, and PUMP jack for several seconds,,,a minute would do no harm. This will flush any trapped air back into oil storage area and proper function should return.

Bob

 

[onion]

Yup. "hydraulic jack oil". But ATF, p/s fluid, motor oil, or any ol' hydraulic oil will also work in a pinch- nothing will come of it.

 

[Merkava_4]

Are you going to be driving the Park Avenue?

Why not use the factory scissor jack for a road emergency?

 

[bruce381]

jack oil has way less AW if any compared to about any motor oil and are a usally in a 46-68 vis so use whatever grade PCMO you have around and you will be fine.
bruce

 

[Benzadmiral]

Merkava, does the stock scissor jack actually work? I recall when I tested the stock jack on my former GM car, the '94 Olds, it wouldn't lift the car. That was why I bought the aftermarket one. Maybe the Buick's will work better.

Alreadygone, that's what I noticed; there was oil in the recesses of the jack's base, and some staining the plastic carrying case.

In any case, now I have a backup system. Once I get back from my trip, I'll test out the stock jack, and if it works as well as the oil-filled one, then I needn't carry that one around any more.

 

[meep]

JACK OIL ONLY!!!! I ruined a hydraulic jack by using... it was either ATF or engine oil a few years back. Destroyed the rubber seals inside.

M

 

[mechtech2]

ATF won't hurt the seals - neither will motor oil.
They were already bad, or you wouldn't have had to add fluid in the first place.
Sears should have jack oil readily available.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I hauled the factory jack out yesterday afternoon, and it works -- at great physical expense. Stored within the compact spare, it's already partly expanded as in the pic above, so you have to crank it *down* to get it under the car. Then crank it *up* to get the tire off the ground. Then crank it *down* to get it free again. Then crank it *up* slightly so it'll fit back into the spare tire's plastic insert.

In contrast, the hydraulic jack -- I tested it again -- pumps the car right up, and the twist of a valve brings the car right down. Same result, one-fourth the effort. (Actually less effort. The lever action of the hydraulic unit is simple up-and-down, and you can put your weight onto it; whereas you have to swing the factory jack handle from one side to the other, then force it over.)

I'll keep the hydraulic for my trip, then check NAPA or Sears for real jack oil when I get back. Thanks, everybody!

 

[BradC]

First time I rotated my tires using the scissor jack.

Fortunately I had spinner handle to use to crank it up faster.

After using the scissor jack once for rotations, I bought an adapter for my hydraulic floor jack that lets me use the floor jack and not damage the pinch welds at the factory jack points. Was able to do the rotations in 1/3 of the time it took when using the scissor jack.

 

[porcupine73]

Specialty Formulations air tool/hydraulic jack oil...when it was available...sigh those were the days...I still have a quart left but then I don't know what I'll do!? Maybe redline air tool oil....

 

[Merkava_4]

Quote:

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Merkava, does the stock scissor jack actually work? I recall when I tested the stock jack on my former GM car, the '94 Olds, it wouldn't lift the car. That was why I bought the aftermarket one. Maybe the Buick's will work better.

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I tried it out on the garage floor one time just to familiarize myself with it. It works very well, but you have the choice of only four jacking points on the extreme outer edge of the body. I'd recommend getting a long ratchet to make the operation more expedient though.

 

[mechtech2]

I hate jacking on the steel rails on the sides of the cars.
Damage always occurs - it's a bad system.