How to Lift a Car onto Jack Stands - Explained

How to lift a car. How to get a car on jack stands and remove wheels. Many car part installations require lifting a car up and getting underneath the hood or wheel wells to perform maintenance. This video shows how to lift a car onto jack stands, and remove the wheels. This will serve as a starting point for many future videos, which may require removing wheels.

Note: When lifting the back of a RWD car, putting the car in gear/park will not lock the front tires. Make sure to securely chock the front wheels (both sides).

Note 2: It's always good to have a backup, place additional items under load bearing points in the event the vehicle falls from the jack stands (ex: wood blocks under the lifted tires), and never put a car on jack stands unless on level ground.

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[lightningsmokerXx]

To anyone watching this. Make sure if you buy jack stands, that you buy ones with the extra safety pin (is on a key ring/chain ) pin slips in as an extra safety feature in case the jack fails . As he said don't forget wheel chalks. Torque wrench/ Torque Sticks-Torque Bar, Tire Crayon-Marker might be handy as well. Putting a tire under the car or block of wood is an extra safety measure you might want to take also just in case the jack failed or if you didn't set it right and didn't notice.

[EngineeringExplained]

Most people who've ever touched their cars do, but I'm going to be getting into some installation videos and will start with the car on jack stands with wheels removed. When someone asks how it's done, I want to be able to refer to this video. Always explaining the basics first. :)

[EngineeringExplained]

The chock should be placed on the outside of the tire (furthest from where you're jacking the car) since if the car were to roll it would roll towards the end that is the lowest. To be safe (especially if you're working on a mild incline - not recommend!) you can always put chocks on both sides.

[EngineeringExplained]

Since how-to/installation/repair videos are not the norm for this channel, I'm going to be releasing them with a greater frequency than my "explained" videos. I will have a video released every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between October 2nd and October 16th, so get ready for an overdose of Engineering Explained over the next two weeks!

The focus will primarily be on coilovers, but there will be other videos as well. Hope you call can learn something from the coming installation videos!

[GABRIEL_CRAFT]

So cool to see your progression as a YouTuber... Watching this one for the first time in 2021.

[strballr]

Great video and attention to safety, I see a lot of people who don't know what they're doing have their car fall off of a jack because they don't use the points they're supposed to.

[brad]

Extra tip, slide the tires under the car. Comprehensive insurance ;)

[rds]

Nice vid....I always just lift my truck with my left hand and change the tire with my right. Cheaper that way.

[RevlisGT]

@SuperrBludger

Those jack points are safe to hold the car on jack stands. In fact, if you look in the owners manual or repair manual it will show/tell you to place the jackstands in that location, on the reinforced jack point. Often cars have a unibody construction and do not have a conventional chassis. If you try to jack up the car or place stands somewhere else there is a good chance you could do some damage. You can knock on that area and hear that it is not solid, if you try to jack there you can see the metal start to flex.
Really the only decent places to hold the car are the jack points or certain places on the engine, trans, diff, or suspension. This does depend on the vehicle.

[HailAnts]

If you're jacking the car up high, to work under it not just remove the wheels, after you set it down on the jack stands leave the jack under it and shake the car on the jack stands back and forth vigorously.

*It should be solid as a rock!*

If ANYTHING doesn't feel right or feels wobbly, don't get under it! Jack the car back up and reseat the jack stands until it's solid!

[EngineeringExplained]

It's my first car, and a great one!

[EngineeringExplained]

Ohh, you are correct. Yeah it's Pittsburg one, low profile/high lift. I think it was around $140 but that was with a 2 year extended warranty.

[sauercrowder]

It's funny, I was watching your videos to learn about the clutch/transmission but ended up here after a little while... I only started working on my car recently and the first thing I did was have my older brother show me how to jack it safely. He raised each side from the jack point and then slid a jack stand under a strong part of the frame. While this was happening I asked why not just jack both sides at once and he (as usual) chose to think I was just being dumb.

[COSMACELF]

Putting your car in gear or park to lock the front wheels (for jacking the rear) only works on a front wheel drive. Use wheel chocks always. Also, it's good to give the car a shake before inspecting the jack stands, listen for any shifting, don't raise too high from one side. Good video, but missing some additional safety information. Make sure your jack stand is on a surface that won't sink. Best to check out some other videos from professionals.

[EngineeringExplained]

Maybe people haven't started to work on their cars yet, or change their own oil, etc... You have to start somewhere. I don't want to include getting the car onto jack stands for every installation video I do that requires it, so for those who need it it'll be right here. And hopefully my installation videos will be simple enough that anyone could repeat the process if the chose to do so.

[EngineeringExplained]

I wouldn't put the car on a single jack stand. Ultimately it would depend on the frame completely, but it could be putting some strange forces on it that it typically wouldn't see.

[Priotech]

We just put the whole car in the air on 4 jackstands, that way she can't roll anywhere. Also, in theory the side jacking points (or sills) are really only used for the scissor-jack that the car comes with, over time you can crush the metal tang flat. If you can put the stand under another piece of frame near or on a suspension mounting point it is usually better, but it is also hard to find these points when you aren't familiar with the underside of the vehicle.

[MichelBalik]

An added precaution would be to put the tires under the car around where the frame of the vehicle is so if it does happen to slip off you still have the rims to keep the car off the ground and support it.

[Greg_Grant]

Good vid and explanation.  I have always changed my seasonal tires one at a time using the jack.  Knew it wasn't the right or safest way.  Thanks.

[EngineeringExplained]

You are very fortunate to have such a machine.