How to Safely Jack Your Car up

Learn how to safely prepare and jack up your car. This article will guide you through 4 easy steps on how to safely jack up your car with a scissor jack.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A car
• Scissor jack
• Jack stand

1. In a routine maintenance situation you'll want to use a level spot. If you drive a stick shift(manual transmission) be sure to leave it in first gear or reverse for these next steps. For an automatic(no stick) you'll just leave the car in park.

2. For added safety try using a block either in front or behind your cars tire diagonally opposite to the side you'll be jacking up. Evaluate the grounds incline to determine blocks position.

3. 

   On the side that you'll be using the scissor jack, feel around under the car on the frame. You should feel a thin indented lip or notch, this is where you will want to line up the jack to make its contact. If you have a owner manual handy look in it to locate an exact location of the jacks slot.

4. Once lined up insert the scissor jacks wrench, check the direction the switch is positioned on R takes the jack up, while L will bring it down. Begin turning the wrench until your car reaches the desired level, lock in place and you've safely jacked up your car

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure to leave extra space if you'll be fixing a flat, the new tire won't be flat and will need more room
• If the jack doesn't seem to be lifting make sure its set to be moving in the right direction
• Use a piece of cardboard or something to help steady rough dirt country road.
• scissor jacks are different than jacks used in any auto repair shop, take caution when not using a back up support such as jack stands.
• Do not attempt in mud, if your not on a solid enough piece of ground, land or road try to move to the closest spot you'd trust

Resources

• Free questions and answers on auto concerns, these guys r awesome

[shorty209]

on 3/14/2009 Let me no how this works for you :-)