Re: Jack stand placement on '92 325i

[alex.fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxx]

"Douglas M. Max" <DMax@domain.elided> wrote:
> Sorry for the presumably "silly question" but where can I safely 
> put jack stands under a '92 325i while I'm changing the oil...and
> if you know of places in the rear too, I'd love to hear them.
> I see only the four 'jacking discs'--those black rubber circles--the
> manual says use them only for jacking...and Bently doesn't show a place
> for the stands.

Doug,
There are no silly questions. Only silly answers!
The best place to put the jack stands is right under the plastic jacking 
pads. Unfortunately, 99% of the consumer jack stands come with 'u' shaped 
saddles. There is no way to securely rest your car on that saddle with the 
factory plastic pad in place. You can either buy jack stands with saddles 
designed to accommodate the BMW plastic pads 
(http://www.ultimategarage.com/acjacks.html). Or do what I did and pop the 
plastic pads off and place one horn of the standard 'u' saddle into the 
jack pad hole. Now the stands are securely supporting the car. I still 
give the car a good push in both directions before I taking the wheels off 
and climbing underneath.
The next question you might have is how to place the jack stands under the 
factory mounting points if you are already using those points for raising 
the car? 
Your choices are to either buy and use Steve D's jack plate (make sure 
your jack's saddle is wide enough to accommodate the plate!) or jack the 
car up under the front/rear subframe. To avoid scratching the subframe and 
to spread the load, I put a $1 hockey puck into my jack saddle before I 
slide it under the car.

Hope this helps,

alex f

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