Axle stand + Trolley Jack

Mine is just a boggo halfords one. Seems to work.

Ditto on axle stands (possibly not halfords, but definitely cheap. Suitably safety marked though I think).

I'd probably just do discs and pads on the jack, rather than bothering with axle stands. If the worst happens and the car falls down, it's not going to land on me - if there's a chance of that I'll use the axle stands.

cheers, clive

When my "proper" trolley jack finally died last year, I bought a cheapo one from Halfords and it's been fine for the money, though I don't expect it to last for ever. Cost was twenty something quid and it came with a plastic case and pair of axle stands. It's small enough to carry about easily, which the old one never was! Footprint is a little narrow, making all the more important only to work on level ground and use axle stands.

Check lifting height is sufficient for your needs, also that it lowers enough to fit under your car.

When I looked around, I reckoned all the D-I-Y ones were a similar quality, so fifty quid wouldn't have bought anything much better. Decent, professional jacks seemed to start at 90 or so, but for that you'd get something that'd last and be properly serviceable, though too hefty to leave in your boot.

==========================

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 1379 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Try SPAMfighter for free now!

You might be interested in the following AutoExpress reviews (from 2005 but likely still relevent):

Personally, I've had the standard yellow Halfords ones for a few years now and can't really complain. As the review states though, the limited stops on the axle stands could be improved upon.

Mathew

If that photo is anything to go by, they've improved on the chains that hold the pegs - the ones on mine are purposely (I assume) too short to allow you to sit them on top of the stand, rather than push them through the holes, but that shortness makes them very fiddly to fit. Intriguing that they complain about the 1 tonne limit, but the photo clearly shows a "2".

Bad advice - you could easily get caught under something even doing discs/pads. Always use axle stands - it's a habit you'd be foolish not to get into.

Besides which, safety aside, I don't want the car dropping onto the rim of my shiny new disc anyway.

Mathew

If those wheels are as plastic as they look, the otherwise identical looking Halfords jack would seem better value.

The message from "Clive George" contains these words:

Dunno about you, but I often find I have to lean in under the arch to get calipers off etc. I'd not risk that without stands.

Erm - that's nonsense IMO. I'd have to try really quite hard to get caught under something when changing discs/pads. I am quite careful about that sort of thing - I don't put my body/limbs/etc where it would get caught by a falling car if it's only held up by a jack.

Would you use axle stands to change a wheel? (if yes, then you are at least consistently paranoid. If no, then you're ignoring your own advice and have hence pointed out the flaws in it.)

Well, neither do I. I don't expect my car to fall off the jack - and IMO it won't (given suitable care which I obviously take). I'll take the 1/10000 risk or whatever with a brake disc - I won't take that risk with my body/life, since that costs rather more than a few quid to fix.

cheers, clive

The extra 150mm of lift on this one makes life a lot easier.

That's not a realistic comparison - removing a wheel is nothing like tackling the rusted bolts of a brake caliper and unseizing rounded disc screws etc. Quite often you have to practically crawl inside the wheel arch to get the right leverage. Even if the job is straight forward it'd be all too easy have a foot under the disc at the wrong time.

Given the ease with which you can pop an axle stand underneath I really can't see any reason not too.

Mathew

My regular halfords jack (probably 20 years old) was fine until I wanted to work under the car and no longer had the pit. I bought a couple of proper industrial sized jacks off ebay. One is about 4 feet long! ..but I rarely use it as it's not very manouverable.

You can get quick lift jacks which might be nice. One problem with trolly jacks is that they don't lift straight up which might or might not be a problem.

Ah well, my car doesn't appear to have those problems - I changed discs and pads quite recently, and it was all very easy. Hooray for 14 yo cars. Re the foot - I'm actually rather careful about such things.

cheers, clive

I once had a 3.5 ton Albion fall off a bottle jack while I was trying to position the axle stand. It went fairly slowly and I just got out in time. Heart thumping moment.

I bought one of the biggest Machine Mart trolley jacks and it wasn't long before it started to very slowly sink under the weight of what ever was on it. Maybe that's what you get by buying from Machine Mart. It is awkward to manouvre due to it's weight but will lift a car far higher than is needed to slide ramps under the wheels.

Periproct ( snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'd trust Machine Mart stuff, quite happily.

If I know the car is on completely level ground and the ground is solid then I apply the happy go lucky approach. If there's a slight slope and/or I want to jack up quite high then I'm more careful and chock all the wheels etc. With my big jacks I can jack the entire front or rear of the car up and it seems to be more stable that way.

Nobody ever *deliberately* gets themselves injured...

(Well, except for pikeys...)