My friends' car fell off the jack today, any possible damage? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mike690003 · #1 02-04-2004, 09:43 PM

Hello board,

A friend of mine has a 300E (his is an 88), well he caught a flat tire( the rear tire on the drivers side) and went about changing it. He took the tire off and went to mount the spare, when all of a sudden WHAM!! the car fell off the jack. We then quickly went to jack the car back up to prevent any possible damage, when all of a sudden WHAM! again!. The car fell off the jack. It turns out that the base of the jack was bent and could not support his car anymore. We had to use my jack to get his car up.The only visible damage was to a "shield" that protected the rotor. Could there be any damage to the suspension components that could be caused from this happening? We drove the car after and it seemed perfectly fine.

engatwork · #2 02-04-2004, 09:46 PM

Just bend the shield out of the way where it does not run the rotor and you should be fine.

#3 02-04-2004, 09:46 PM

Drive it and let us know what happens. His rotor could be toast.

mike690003 · #4 02-04-2004, 09:56 PM

It drove fine, and the brakes worked fine. I thought it might have messed up his control arms, or shocks, the car fell pretty hard. I guess the W124 is almost bulletproof.

jim16671836 · #5 02-04-2004, 10:25 PM

Just straighten up the dust shield....the older MB's are dangerous because it is not really possible to inspect the jacking points...many are rusty.....I always lay the tire/rim or the spare tire/rim under the car and if it falls it can't go far...cheap insurance...also I think any person that uses the jacking points for jack stands is making a mistake unless they also use mounted tires as a back up for safety.......................Jim

#6 02-05-2004, 12:02 AM

That happened to me this summer! I jacked it up on some newish asphalt on a hot day - I was SO PI$$ED!!! It was the one time I decided not to take my cellphone and for some reason nobody that stopped had one either. It didn't help that the store nearby wouldn't let me use their phone.

Anyway, everything was fine with my car - thank goodness because I had to go on a 2000 mile road trip the next day. I was just on my way home from getting a new set of tires too... ouch.

I know have a floorjack in my trunk. Stupid jack.

Holson Adi · #7 02-05-2004, 01:11 AM

Yeah the jack is kind of weird and bad in design in my opinion. I use the jack that comes with my Toyota when I need to change the wheel or inspect the brakes on the E420 and I always put a tire underneath it too... (the Celica's donut spare)

william rogers · #8 02-05-2004, 02:09 AM

I carry a small 2 ton floor jack in my cars and use the jacking points you can buy them in discount stores for around twenty bucks..........

William Rogers........