cas2themoe

I'm getting ready to do my all the maintenance on the 8 and wanted to know from the some of the owners what size(lbs) Jacks and Stands they used.
Mainly for me to put the car up off the ground leveled so I can get under there and change the Differential Oil and Trans Oil.
Thanks for the help guys!

expo1

I have a 2 1/2 ton floor jack & 4 jack stands rated @ 2 tons each. I also have a set of homemade drive up ramps.

BlueRenesis82

2 ton jack and 4 stands are 1.5 tons a pop

cas2themoe

So you had no problem with it then? Just want to make sure. I dont want to get under the car and be scared that its going to fall on me!

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

anything that's rated 2 tons or higher will be more than fine for the 8, seeing how ours cars are so light

cas2themoe

Thanks guys, appreciate it!

KYLiquid

any 2ton (4000lb) jack/stand will be fine because even fully loaded, the car is only around 3800-3900. Also remeber than you only jack up one 'side' of the car at a time (front, back, left, right) so the weight is divided by all points of contact with the ground, so your really never going to lift more than half the weight of the car.

I have a 2500lb (1.5ton) jack with 18" of lift and 4 - 5000lb (2.5ton) jack stands with 22" lift (of course I can only use 18" of that.

Always works great for me, I bought the jack and 2 stands as a set for 80 I think, on sale at sears, its a great floor jack, the stands are just avg. I then bought 2 more stand seperate for 20 I think, so it was about 100 bucks for everything!

jack stands are jack stands are jack stands......they are pretty simple and hard to make wrong, as long as its good quality metal, and good welds its fine.....spend the money on a good floor jack first!

PUR NRG

I'd disagree with this. I think there's a big difference between "ratcheting" stands like you find at Sears and those that use a cotter pin to adjust the height--the latter are harder to adjust but intrinsically safer.

The same goes with the feet. Cheaper stands use angle bracket legs that can dig into asphalt and other soft materials. The better ones have a wide foot under each leg that spread the weight over a greater area.
________
VAPOR AIR ONE 5.0

bgreene

one thing to be aware of is that the balance of the car can cause some unexpected up-down movements when jacking up the 3rd point if you do the jacking at the corners, since it's easy to get the CG (which is pretty centered on this car) between two jackstands and one jack-point.

I've had one corner rise up off the jackstand while jacking up another corner before, but I can't remember what order I was working in to cause that.

Also, the back end will want to scoot forward if you jack up the front end first, unless you use a wheeled floor jack and orient it properly (or jack the car up with the e-brake off, which is a far more dangerous alternative which I wouldn't personally reccomend.

one time saver if you've got a jack that'll allow for this is to jack the back end up by the differential housing to put 2 jackstands underneath on one lift. I've never figured out how to get a jack under there in a workable way, but the Mazda workshop manual lists the diff housing and the front cross-member (both of which usually seem too far from the ends of the car to reach with a floor jack) as points for a 2-jack lift.

cas2themoe

What line to you suggest while putting up the car on the stands? Use FR(Front Right), FL(Front Left), RL(Rear Left) and RR(Rear Right) as a reference for me please. Thanks again guys!

PUR NRG

I do this all the time. You have two options:
1. Drive the car up on 2x6" boards to give you some extra room to put your jack under the car.
2. Use a lower profile jack.
3. If you have a lowered car, do both #1 and #2.

I have a low profile jack but still have to get the front wheels on 2x6" boards in order to clear the jack. Most jacks will reach the rear diff. It's the front jack point that's hard to reach.
________
The creativity movement (formerly known as the world church of the creator) advi

Kurt V

Speaking of which, where is the best place to put the jack stands? I am pulling all four wheels this weekend to put on some all season tires.

cas2themoe

Yeah good point. I wasnt even thinking of that!

cas2themoe

Maybe you can show us by using this. Hopefully it will help!

Nubo

I use a 3000-lb "racing jack" (whatever that means) I picked up from Harbor Freight. That's plenty to raise one end of this car, and you aren't relying on the jack anyway -- it's just to get the car up onto the jackstands. Although, I do keep the jack lightly loaded as a backup.

The jacking locations for a floor-jack are the center of the crossmember on the front of the car, and the bottom of the differential case on the rear.