Sanity Check on Outstanding MINI Maintenance Questions
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12-06-2010, 06:29 AM
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Sanity Check on Outstanding MINI Maintenance Questions
So, here it goes. Have some questions for which I have a level of indecisiveness regarding maintenance safety (i.e., bodily) and safe technique (good for the vehicle). I've done some front (top side) maintenance, but no under the car maintenance yet:
1) After struggling with where/how to jack up and lift and support the front end to do an an oil service, I decided on this: Use a 39" inch long 2"x4" under the door sill of my 2002 MC, between the OEM jack points, to jack up the car, then place jack stand under front OEM jack point. Then do on opposite side. Ok to do it this way?
2) Regarding the manner in which the jack stands' contact point meets the MINI's OEM jack point, this does not strike me as ideal and I have seen several ways to deal with this. Is my set up, as follows, ok? In experimentation mode, I simply used Harbor Freight's jack stand rubber pads, so that conceivably there is a superior meeting (the jack stands' metal construction doesn't come into direct contact with the rubber OEM jack points). These are the pads: http://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece...and-95952.html
3) Since I want to keep the floor jack in place as an extra safey measure, in addition to the two jack stands I place, I have this question: Once I lower the second side of my MINI onto the second jack stand, that leaves the floor jack depressurized... In order to bring it back up to "support" some of the load, I need to raise it. Here's the question? Will this last step incrementally remove some of the load from the place it should definitely be ... one of the floor jacks? Ideally, I want to have a jack stand under each OEM jack point AND the floor jack in place under the 2"x4" under a door sill. Please advise on proper way to do this w/o taking any load off one of the jack stands...
4) How does one bend the tabs on the 3-ton Harbor Freight jack stands? This is an explicit instruction on the product. It states you should do this once you put the ratchet in the stand. It seems this is a safety step to keep the ratchet from possibly slipping, but it is not clear how to bend the tab or how it keeps the ratchet from slipping. Am I supposed to bend and unbend this tab every time I use the jacks? Need perspective as I am boggled by this.
5) This guy (follow URL) seems to be wrong. He gives a demo on a R50 MINI Cooper oil service and once he gets to the oil filter and oil filter housing, he says you should discard the rigid cylindrical core and the spring that keeps it in place if you have that type of housing architecture. This runs counter to everything I know, which states that YOU ARE TO KEEP BOTH OF THESE PIECES, even though the current OEM filters have rigid cores built in. Any perspective? Here's the URL: http://www.promini.com/technical/cooper_oil_filter.php
6) What should I make of the health disclaimer on the Harbor Freight floor jack regarding brass components containing lead and having health repurcussions? I have ALWAYS avoided products with the California safety code note, but in this situation are the brass pieces solely internal components -- or are they handled, and are you exposed, when using the jack? Seems like a good jack, but if the brass parts are "in my face" I will consider getting a unit with no health disclaimer. Please let me know.
Thank you from a new poster but an old MINI owner (2002 MC; one of the first to own one in Fairfield County, Connecticut). Still have original but have had many things replaced, including the tranny recently (at ~98k).
1) After struggling with where/how to jack up and lift and support the front end to do an an oil service, I decided on this: Use a 39" inch long 2"x4" under the door sill of my 2002 MC, between the OEM jack points, to jack up the car, then place jack stand under front OEM jack point. Then do on opposite side. Ok to do it this way?
2) Regarding the manner in which the jack stands' contact point meets the MINI's OEM jack point, this does not strike me as ideal and I have seen several ways to deal with this. Is my set up, as follows, ok? In experimentation mode, I simply used Harbor Freight's jack stand rubber pads, so that conceivably there is a superior meeting (the jack stands' metal construction doesn't come into direct contact with the rubber OEM jack points). These are the pads: http://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece...and-95952.html
3) Since I want to keep the floor jack in place as an extra safey measure, in addition to the two jack stands I place, I have this question: Once I lower the second side of my MINI onto the second jack stand, that leaves the floor jack depressurized... In order to bring it back up to "support" some of the load, I need to raise it. Here's the question? Will this last step incrementally remove some of the load from the place it should definitely be ... one of the floor jacks? Ideally, I want to have a jack stand under each OEM jack point AND the floor jack in place under the 2"x4" under a door sill. Please advise on proper way to do this w/o taking any load off one of the jack stands...
4) How does one bend the tabs on the 3-ton Harbor Freight jack stands? This is an explicit instruction on the product. It states you should do this once you put the ratchet in the stand. It seems this is a safety step to keep the ratchet from possibly slipping, but it is not clear how to bend the tab or how it keeps the ratchet from slipping. Am I supposed to bend and unbend this tab every time I use the jacks? Need perspective as I am boggled by this.
5) This guy (follow URL) seems to be wrong. He gives a demo on a R50 MINI Cooper oil service and once he gets to the oil filter and oil filter housing, he says you should discard the rigid cylindrical core and the spring that keeps it in place if you have that type of housing architecture. This runs counter to everything I know, which states that YOU ARE TO KEEP BOTH OF THESE PIECES, even though the current OEM filters have rigid cores built in. Any perspective? Here's the URL: http://www.promini.com/technical/cooper_oil_filter.php
6) What should I make of the health disclaimer on the Harbor Freight floor jack regarding brass components containing lead and having health repurcussions? I have ALWAYS avoided products with the California safety code note, but in this situation are the brass pieces solely internal components -- or are they handled, and are you exposed, when using the jack? Seems like a good jack, but if the brass parts are "in my face" I will consider getting a unit with no health disclaimer. Please let me know.
Thank you from a new poster but an old MINI owner (2002 MC; one of the first to own one in Fairfield County, Connecticut). Still have original but have had many things replaced, including the tranny recently (at ~98k).
#2
12-06-2010, 08:43 AM
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