jacking up / servicing advice

Relapse · Postby **Relapse** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 8:19 pm

Hey,
Firstly i apologise if i am either posting this in the wrong place, or similar questions get asked frequently.

I got my first car after getting my ps recently (99 nb8a) and im looking into servicing it myself - not only to save money nut to get to know the ins and outs of cars in general, ad i have literally no experience working on them.
My car just hit 160,000km and as per instructed in the manual i am going to ATTEMPT to replace; oil, oil filter, coolant, break fluid, diff oil and gear oil.

However today i came unstuck on what would presumably be the simplest task - jacking the car up and putting it on stands.
Initially i figured it would be most logical to jack the front up in the middle, put the stands just behind the wheels, then do the same to the rear.
however it became rather apparent that there is no where to jack the car up under the nose, or the rear.
Then i tried to jack it up from the side, as close to the rear wheel as possible, but i decided to stop as both the front and rear wheel on that side of the car where rather high in the air before i could even just the stands under yet.

So have i made a mistake buying stands that are a minimum height of 365mm?
or am i jacking it up in the wrong place etc?
any advice would be greatly appreciated

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 8:43 pm

Your stands may be a bit too high.

Rear jack point is the diff. Use a piece of wood between the jack and the diff to spread the load.

Front jack point is the centre of the cross member in front of the sump - see the white circle.

Stands should be placed on the reinforced area inside of the pinch welds where the tool kit scissor jack is placed. Do not use the stands on the pinch weld as they will most likely get bent and squashed.

This PDF may be helpful http://www.billswebspace.com/Raise_Your_Miata.pdf

Relapse · Postby **Relapse** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 9:00 pm

JBT wrote:[/url]

Cheers mate,
Tried getting the jack to reach these points, but the jack itself is too tall.
Hopefully super cheap will provide a refund or let me swap them. Although i doubt they will since i tore the boxes apart

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 9:11 pm

You could use the car jack to lift each front wheel and put a 50mm block of wood (a section of step tread would do) under each tyre or drive the car onto low ramps so you can get the floor jack under the car. But yes, try for an exchange for a low profile floor jack and shorter adjustable stands. My stands are 300mm on the lowest setting and look like this:

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 9:15 pm

You can jack up from the sills, however making a 'puck' out of hardwood and cutting a slot in it, like the OEM jack will prevent damaging the sills.

Get some short pine studs and run the car up on them to raise it enough to get the jack under the normal jacking points.

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 9:26 pm

My adaptor made from hardwood.

Jack Stand Adaptor.JPG

smy0003 · Postby **smy0003** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 9:58 pm

My stands are 300mm.
The pictures JBT posted are excellent.
I use the oem scissor jack to lift the car from the front sill, to get access to the front cross member with the floor jack. And that's with a low profile floor jack (Arcan jack from costco, my favourite tool, besides my 75cm breaker bar).
I'd also suggest loosening the drivers side front wheel nuts before jacking it up, as you'll want to remove that wheel for oil filter access, if you can call rolling around on the floor while hyper extending your shoulder 'access.'

Also welcome to the forum!
The first time I tried to do anything with my car I came unstuck getting the wheel off. The wheel.
You're doing the right thing by taking it slow, and next time you go to change the oil you'll laugh at yourself.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Relapse · Postby **Relapse** » Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:31 am

cheers for all the tips fellas, will give it my best shot tomorrow.
Anyone have tips for bleeding/refiling the clutch? cant find any tutorials for it online

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Wed Jun 15, 2016 6:46 am

Difficult to do solo. I take the car to ABS and get a "while you wait" brake AND clutch fluid flush done for under $120. Saves all the hassles.

How to: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/how-to-change-clutch-fluid#b

ManiacLachy · Postby **ManiacLachy** » Wed Jun 15, 2016 7:47 am

smy0003 wrote:I use the oem scissor jack to lift the car from the front sill, to get access to the front cross member with the floor jack. And that's with a low profile floor jack

I do similar, I use my crappy supercheap jack to lift the front passenger side a little to gain access to the cross member with my larger low-profile jack. I can reach the cross member without doing this, but the time spend manoeuvring the jack around to clear everything just isn't worth it compared to lifting the corner a little.

smy0003 wrote:I'd also suggest loosening the drivers side front wheel nuts before jacking it up, as you'll want to remove that wheel for oil filter access, if you can call rolling around on the floor while hyper extending your shoulder 'access.'

Also very good advice, you don't want to get the thing up on stands just to realise you need to lower it down again to loosen the wheel!

I've not attempted diff and gear oil myself yet, but I've heard it's good practice to crack the fill plug before opening the drain plug. That way you won't get stuck with an empty diff/gearbox if you find the fill plug is jammed!

Good luck!

Relapse · Postby **Relapse** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 4:15 pm

When you finally get around to doing it, but then on your way hope your radiator blows up.
Love it.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 5:40 pm

When you say radiator blows up, did you mean it's cracked and spewing coolant?

or that it's just got coolant coming out of the overflow or cap?

When you change coolant you need to bleed the system, which usually is as simple as filling the radiator and the overflow bottle and idling the car for a while until the thermostat opens.
Have a bottle of coolant nearby and be ready to tip it in when the radiator level drops as the engine burps out air bubbles.

If you dont bleed it it can sometimes start to burp coolant from the overflow etc as the air bubbles move around.

Of course if it's leaking from the core, or end tanks then yeah, it's flocked and needs to be replaced.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 5:43 pm

Also.

Dont be tempted to pour in chemiweld, or any of the other "radiator stop leak" products.

They're only really good for absolute emergencies.
While they can stop the leak, it's only temporary, and in the process they clag up the rest of the cooling system with gunk that is near impossible to remove.

kalt · Postby **kalt** » Fri Jun 17, 2016 7:30 pm

Relapse wrote:When you finally get around to doing it, but then on your way hope your radiator blows up.
Love it.

Ouch, ticking time-bomb.

Did you get to do any maintenance at all? I'm guessing it overheated and blew the radiator cap.

By the way, great input from JBT with the jack stand points :beer:

Hopefully it will save some sills from being bent.

Relapse · Postby **Relapse** » Tue Jul 05, 2016 5:36 pm

The tube along the top ( that the cap is attached to) literally just cracked in half all the way along it. was pissing out coolant everywhere.

Finally got the radiator replaced and finished my uni exams. Now today something has flocked up with the suspension.
Feels like a flat drivers side back tire - and has a knocking sound that increases as speed does.
checked to make sure there was nothing lodged in the wheel anywhere, but couldn't see anything.
tightened the lug nuts up, which improved it slightly - but its still there.
When i push down on the suspension on the back right it makes a tiny sound (like 2 bits of sheet metal hitting each other)
Also when jacked up the tire does not spin freely (ill spin in with relatively stong force and it wont even complete a full rotation after i let go) Maybe something do do with the caliper?