I tried my local Auto Zone today, and they had a few choices of jackstands and floor jacks, but they were all made by Larin, which I've never heard of, and which seems to be primarily sold by Auto Zone. Any recommendations on this brand, or should I leave the city and go to Sears?

(Don't tell me to go to Walmart - ain't happening!)

 

Another tip. As most people know, final tightening of the nuts, after the wheels have been changed, should be done after the car is lowered. However, be sure the wheel is flush with mount and the nuts are reasonble tightened before lowering the car.

(Years ago, I was in a remote area in Southeast Asia and our driver replaced a flat on our Toyota Land Cruiser. He did not make sure the wheel was flush on before he lowered the vehicle. Tightening the nuts after the vehicle was lowered did not push the wheel on (because of the weight of the vehicle). After driving for about 5 minutes, the wheel broke off
Fortunately, it was a rear wheel and we did not loose control.)

 

sears has a nice racing hydraulic jack..but kinda costly.
have you tried HarborFreight? i use their aluminum one $70 or so.
very well made and my wife bought it for me for my b-day along with
a 3 year replacement warranty or something earlier this year.

 

I definitely did not know that; thanks!

 

Well, you're the first to recommend that one. General opinion seemed to be that Harbor Freight's stuff was of low quality, but I know you do a lot of wheel-shuffling, so I'll check it out!

 

...Hey, I was just sayin'.... (I try to avoid Wally World myself as much as possible. )

 

you just need to know which stuff to buy from there. majority of their
stuff is kinda cheap (as in junk).

 

Looks like someone got some vowels as a gift for their upcoming big 3-0!

 

Actually, the first step.. maybe I missed seeing this, but the first thing you want to do is loosen the lug nuts slightly while the car is still on the ground. Trying to do it while the car is off the ground could cause it to fall off the jack, since it may take a lot of force.

 

I ended up going with this Craftsman jack and jack stands. I want to have these and trust them for a long time, so I went with quality over low price. Picking them up tomorrow evening, probably doing the job on Saturday. As I shopped around I found that many jacks would not fit under the MINI's 5" of ground clearance.

As a sidebar, daylight savings time sucks.

 

the harbor freight one (US General) is a high quality product at a low price.

but, congrats.

 

Somehow I trust Sears more to be around in 10 years to honor a warranty than Harbor Freight, which I'd never heard of until a few weeks ago. The Craftsman jack is only $11 more when you factor in shipping, and it lifts the car over 5" higher.

 

chrisneal - don't let your ignorance bite you in the *** later on.

most car guys know about this jack. low price, high quality.

 

OK, I'll try. Like I said, $11, and it's all about how safe you feel under the car, right? I guess I'm not a car guy; I've never heard of this brand. I trust Sears, even if their jacks are made in China or wherever.

 

the Sears one I saw was like $150. you didn't buy that micro
hydraulic toy thingie, right? jk it's like 1/4 of the size of the
real one. it's pretty cool.

 

Nope... no micro hydraulic toys for me.

 

Well, I finally did it today. I've been away a few weekends in a row, and it's always freakin' dark after work, and frankly it seems that it will never snow in Boston again, so I wasn't feeling a lot of urgency.

Anyway, I had to go back to my local Firestone, who had mounted my Pirelli snows on my winter alloys, because I realized (after I already had the car jacked up) that they had mounted my directional tires all in the same direction. So, if I had four wheels on the right side of my car and none on my left, I would have been all set.

Other than that, this went very smoothly, thanks to all of the very helpful advice I received from y'all on this thread.

In retrospect, I wish I'd taken the advice on buying a four-way lug wrench; it seems like it's probably much easier than the Tirerack breaker bar.

Oh, and the $30 torque wrench from Tirerack kicks ***!

Overall this was definitely fun (other than schlepping all the wheels, jack, and other tools back and forth from my third floor apartment), and I'm psyched to have this new automotive capability.

Now if the Red Sox would just get some sort of team together, and if we get some damn snow around here, life will be good!

 

To call the HF jack "high" quality is being a bit generous.

Brunnhoelzl, AC, Longacre is what I think of when you say high quality jack.

While many are happy with the HF jacks, I've personally seen more than a couple at the track that were sinking during tire changes, and/or required immediate bleeding to even remotely function right from the store.

 

I'm proud of you for not just doing it, but doing your homework to learn how to do it properly beforehand! Follow that model going forward on any automotive task going forward and you won't go wrong.

As for the Sox...can't help you much there.

 

Well, I got both of my wishes! It's snowing like crazy here this morning (the Pirelli Snowcontrols were AWESOME), and I heard on the radio that the Sox are on the verge of finalizing deals for Coco Crisp (gotta love that name) and Alex Gonzalez.

 

I raise one side at a time.First loosen wheel nuts,jack car up with 2x4 and jack behind front jack point.Put jack stand at front jack point.Rubber mallet rear wheel to remove after removing three of four nuts.When tire loosens remove nut,remove tire,move tire to front of car.Goto front remove with same method,sand hub,apply anti seize move tire to rear.Sand paper rear hub,apply anti seize,remount tire put nouts on,hand tighten.Goto front mount tire ,put on nuts hand tighten.Get torque wrench,drop car so rear just touches,torque to 80 ft# evenly .Goto front lower till front touches,torque to 80 ft# evenly,go around and double check that side again.Raise other side repeat process.I recheck torque after driving one day 100 miles a retorque.Never had problem with wheels or warped discs.

 

Forgot to mention two things:

1) The first time I jacked up the car, I slid the jack straight in to the jack point (inside the plastic one), and then went to put a jackstand at the plastic jack point, but didn't have enough room beside the jack. I lowered the car, and then went at the jack point from an angle closer to the front wheel, which allowed enough clearance to get the jackstand in there.

2) I've put 6,800 miles on my car since June 2005, and none of the four wheels was even slightly stuck to the hub! Loosened the lugs, and they just slid right off. I greased them all just in case, though, since my winter wheels contact all of the way around, rather than just at four points like the holies.

 

To revive this old thread with another "tire changing for dummies" question:

I just installed winter tires/wheels on my MINI, but had a really tough time trying to line up the new wheels with the bolt holes. My previous car (an Audi) had little plastic dowels that could be screwed in and the new wheel just slipped on over to properly position it. Once a couple of bolts had been installed, the plastic dowel could be unscrewed and a proper bolt inserted.

The MINI, with my winter tires from TireRack, doesn't seem to have any such assistance, and I really struggled to get the new wheels on. How do you experts manage to line up the bolt holes properly when installing new wheels?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

I've heard this question asked before. I have never had any problem, so I really don't know how to answer. ...but here's all I do:

I look at the rotor cap to see how the holes are aligned. I then rotate the wheel on the ground so that it is relatively close to the same alignment. lastly I lift the wheel onto the hub. (Which all takes about 3 seconds total.) I hold it in place against the rotor cap with one hand while starting a bolt with the other. ...it's really quite painless since the weight of the wheel is on the hub and I'm just putting pressure on the wheel face to keep it from sliding off. After at least one bolt is started, you're home free.

Now, I suppose if you've gone and bought some of those non-hub-centric wheels, it gets a little more challenging. If the centering rings aren't helping, then I got nuthin' for ya there, bub. Sorry.

 

...upon further reflection....

I have never had to look into this, so it might be a bit of a hair-brained idea, but - if I understand what you're describing with the Audi plastic things - then why not go to the hardware store and find some 3-4" bolts of the same size/thread as the MINI lugs and cut off the head? Then you could just screw one or two of those in a few turns to lift the wheel onto - accomplishing nearly the same thing as the plastic things - probably for around $1.