Jacking and lifting

[jjad]

I've always managed to change oil in our R4 (and Peugeot 309) by squeezing myself underneath the car. That meant I've never needed a jack or axle stands

However, now that the 309 is no more we've got a Citroen C4 as a second car But the C4 is a lot lower to the ground, and I can't get underneath it to change the oil. So I've bought some axle stands. I've never lifted a car before, so am looking for some advice please! How do people stop the metal of the axle stands from digging into the chassis of the car? Any tips gratefully received.

Thanks

 

[paulandpat]

Must confess we have never bothered, but I have seen people put bits of old carpet or rubber mat on the axle stands to protect the car chassis - held on with the ubiquitous cable ties , a trolley jack will make it much easier to lift, otherwise you might be rushing round from one side to the other using the jack supplied with the car in order to get it level.

 

[jjad]

Thanks for that - rubber matting sounds good. I've also found this page on the forum which suggests using wood.

 

[pepper]

If the C4 is anything like the Xsara before it then it will be quite difficult to get at the oil drainage plug.

With the Xsara we had to jack it up quite high to get the undertray off before we could get to the plug and then let it all back down again to drain the oil out.

 

[angel]

If you use the subframe mounting points or the wishbone rear mountings as axle stand locations you will not need to protect anything as they are, by nature, very strong points.

 

[renault4mad]

Has anyone used one of those oil extraction tanks....sucks the oil out through the dipstick tube.....no lying on your back

 

[jjad]

Thanks for all the tips. I think that the C4 is going to be tricky like the Xsara - you have to get the huge undershield off first.

Angel - I'll look for the subframe mounting points when I jack it up. Unfortunately, the ground clearance is so low you have to jack it up just to look underneath!

I've got a Haynes for the C5 which covers the same 1.6HDi engine as in the C4, but Haynes haven't produced a C4 manual

Citroen sent out a warning to all dealerships saying not to use the suction method in the C4 as it may not get all the dirty oil out. Nice idea though

 

[paulandpat]

A friend had an inaccesible sump plug on a Skoda a while ago - answer was to cut a hole in the plastic undertray, make up a plate in metal slightly bigger than the hole, drill a hole in the four corners of the plate, and fix the new plate over the hole with self tappers, much easier than taking the whole tray off the next time you need to change the oil.
The Skoda dealer thought it was an excellent idea.

 

[jjad]

Trolley jack recommendations?

Neat idea! I'll look into that. Would still have to jack up though. I did it using the supplied wheel changing scissor jack and axle stands. Before I do it again, I'm going to invest in a hydraulic trolley jack which will made it easier to lift. Does anyone have any recommendations/suggestions/ones to avoid?

Many thanks!