How to jack up your car safely

There are a whole lot of jobs from changing your wheels or brakes, to oil changes, to entire exhaust and engine replacements that mean you need your car lifted off the group. For the lucky few that have car lifts, use that. For the rest of us we need to use a jack. I’ve already done a video on comparing a ‘pro’ trolley jack to a basic one, but there is another kind. It’s the one that might come with your car, and is often nicknamed the ‘Widowmaker’. It’s horrific and should generally be avoided, but in this video I’ll walk you through how to use it should you need to in an emergency, plus how to safely jack up your car to work on or under it.

Lets start with this terrifying thing then. This comes in a few different forms, including a more “scissor lift” style unit, but the principle is the same. Make sure the car’s handbrake is on, and ideally in gear too if it’s a manual, then find the side sill jacking point. Your car might have a moulded or rubber jack point, if it does, use that. Otherwise, the side sill it is. Then, place it under and wind it out until it’s flush with the floor and the car. Then, making sure the foot is securely placed and not going to slip, wind is open until your tyre is just off the floor. Do what you need to do, then slowly lower it back down. I cannot stress this enough, do not put any part of yourself underneath the car while using this jack. Not having jack stands, chock blocks and a reliable jack supporting the car is just asking for literal death so please be careful.

Right, that’s the emergency jack, what about getting your car ready to work on? Well, for that you’ll need a few more things. First, a decent jack. Even this cheap Halfords one is miles better than the screw up one. You’ll also want some jack stands. There are a couple of options for these, either this style of manually adjustable bar-through stands, or the fancier ratcheting ones. Ratcheting often gives you more points of adjustment to get the car level and as high as you need it, whereas these manual ones are a bit cheaper and less adjustable, but plenty secure. You’ll also want some chocks, something to stop your wheels from rolling when the car is being lifted. Place these on a wheel that isn’t being lifted – or is being lifted last.

Depending on how high your car is, you might want to use some ramps to help lift it off the ground enough to get your jack under – or just use ramps instead. I made these little ones to give enough clearance to jack up cars like my partner’s Mini, which work a treat.

For jacking up your car, find your jacking points. Most cars have 4 points on the sides, front and rear, left and right, although some like many BMWs have central jacking points too which makes it way easier to evenly lift the front of your car to work on it. Those points have rubber pads on them. Just to make it clear, you shouldn’t try and jack your car up on a random central point – especially not your oil pan. If your car has a central jacking point designed into it, awesome, if not, use the sides and do one at a time. If you try and jack up on a point that isn’t structurally supported you can bend, break or piece into your car doing damage that only a welder can fix so be sensible.

Jacking from the sides can be a bit of a pain, so using rubber protector blocks like this can keep your side sill in good shape. Either way, line your jack up underneath and slowly lift it to meet the body. When it does, make sure its central in the cup then slowly lift, keeping an eye on the jack moving off the floor or the car tipping too much. Once the car is lifted enough, you can place your jack stand under a suitable point – for me that’s on the same sill but at the other end. It’s a tight fit but that’s how it’s designed. Structural points are also generally fine too but again be careful. When removing your jack, do it slowly, resting the car on the jack stand then slowly retracting the jack.

Repeat on the other side to level it out and before getting anywhere near under it, shake the body strongly to make sure it won’t fall off the stands. When removing wheels, it’s also a good idea to lie them under the sills on each side too, so should the car fall of the jacks while you are under it, you have half a chance of not being crushed by an engine block.