How to Use a Portable Car Jack during Car Maintenance

A car jack is a must need car maintenance tool. Without it, you can’t be able to perform some major maintenance in your car. Imagine you are in the middle of a road and need to change the tire.

Get your Mopar Spare Tire Kit, if you have this you can mount it very quickly with a portable car jack. Not only that, for various maintenance tasks you need to jack up your car.

Some mechanics have hydraulic lifts for car lifting, but for us, the best portable car jack is enough to get you out of an extreme situation. Here we will be discussing the procedure of using a portable car jack during your car maintenance. Let’s get started.

How to Use a Portable Car Jack During Car Maintenance

Though the process of lifting your car looks effortless, the reality is different. There are some specific steps that you need to follow. I’ve parted these specific steps into three sections.

1. Taking Safety Precautions
2. Raising the Car
3. Lowering the Car

Step1: Taking Safety Precautions

1. The first thing you should do is parking the car on a flat and hard surface. Otherwise, while jacking up the vehicle, your car jack may not get the grip. Also, if the surface is a ramp, then chances are high that your car will slide down, which can cause an accident.
2. Set the chocks in front of each wheel in the opposite direction. Chocks are made of metals and rubbers. It helps to grip the wheel so that it doesn’t slide. If you do not have chocks, then you could use bricks or concrete blocks. Some say that works too.
3. Make sure the car is in the parking mode. To ensure this, double-check the transmission and make sure it is on “P.” If your vehicle works under the manual transmission, then you have to put it in the lowest forward gear.
4. Check the car jack carefully. Look for dust and rust and clean it before using it. Double-check all other safety precautions before lifting the car.

Step2: Raising the Car

1. You need to find the jack point where your car can be lifted. If you do not find the jack point and place the car jack somewhere else, it can heavily damage your car body, or it can make the car jack slip. Fortunately, your car manual comes with the exact location of the jack point. Typically, the jack points of a car are located at each side behind the front wheel and front of the rear wheel.
2. Now place the car jack under the jack point you just found. It doesn’t have to be aligned perfectly at the beginning. You will be able to slide it left or right direction before it catches the surface of the car. Before you’ve started the lifting, the process makes sure the car jack it placed correctly. Check the user manual carefully for the instructions of using a car jack.
3. There are two types of car jacks available, and each of them has different methods of car lifting. If it is a scissor jack, then you need to place the diamond shape lifter at the bottom of the jack point while facing the hole outside of the car. Place the rod type object inside the car jack. It will come with the jack. You need to rotate the rod to lift the car jack.
4. When the jack touches the surface of the car, it will be harder to lift the enormous vehicle. You need to continually rotate the rod in the counterclockwise direction with enough strength. If you feel exhausted during the lifting process, you can take a rest. This will not have any effect on the raised level. Start to notice for the wheels to leave the surface. When you feel you have raised it enough, you can stop then.
5. If you need to work under the car, you just need to place a jack stand at this point. Jack stands to provide a more secure base for the car than an ordinary car jack. Working under the car is very dangerous, and without a jack stand, it can cause an accident anytime. If you don’t need to work under the car, then you can skip this part.

Step3: Lowering the Car

1. After all of your car maintenance is done, you need to lower the car again at this point. If you have worked under the car, then at first you need to remove the jack stand. Now, you can lower the car. To do that, slip the rod inside the hole and perfectly attach it again. When it is attached, rotate the rod in the opposite direction. You will see your car jack is slowly moving downwards. Then the wheel completely touches the ground, remove the car jack from your car.
2. Now, remove all of the safety precautions one by one. At first, remove the chocks, and then you can test your car.

Tips for Portable Car Jack Buyers

Don’t buy cheap quality products. A car jack will hold up your car during the whole maintenance period. So, make sure the car jack is capable of doing that task. There are a lot of portable car jacks available in the market, but you need to choose a good portable car jack if you want to secure the performance. Also, don’t misuse any tools. Make sure dust and rust don’t get the car jack and lubricate the product regularly.

Conclusion

You can relax your mind if you have a portable car jack with you. It can save you under critical circumstances where getting help becomes a bit of trouble. For DIY enthusiasts, a portable car jack is a must need a tool for daily car maintenance operation like shock absorber or brake pad replacement. So, my suggestion towards you will be getting a better-quality car jack. Don’t forget to read the user manual. It will make you expert better than any other article on the internet. Happy driving.