Jack points

Where are the jack points under the front and rear of the car that could be used to safely lift both front and then both rear wheels high enough to place jack stands under the four jack points?

What is it about the four jack points? Those on my i3 are loose and don't seem very substantial. To safely place jack stands under these jack points, must jack pad adapters like this be used?

alohart said:

Where are the jack points under the front and rear of the car that could be used to safely lift both front and then both rear wheels high enough to place jack stands under the four jack points?

What is it about the four jack points? Those on my i3 are loose and don't seem very substantial. To safely place jack stands under these jack points, must jack pad adapters like this be used?

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This has been discussed one before on this forum. Yes you need a set of jack pads, you do not want to do it without them especially on the i3.

The jack pads on pretty much all BMW's are designed to have an adapter inserted when the lift itself doesn't fit properly. Failure to use one, and just put a flat lift on the jack pad can break them. SOme of the lifts have a hard rubber pad that is usually pretty safe, but not if it doesn't contact it exactly square. FWIW, the BMW dealer broke one of mine on my last service, and I was annoyed. They're going to replace it free, but I haven't been back yet. THey just snap out and in and help to both distribute the weight and keep the jack from slipping.

I've had an aluminum one for a long time that I use with my floor jack when swapping from summer to winter tires, but just ordered a set of 4 urethane ones to leave in the car when taking it in for service. NOw, whether they'll use them, I don't know, but I can ask.

Thanks for the clarification about the jack pads. To place my i3 on 4 jack stands, I guess I need to buy 4 jack pads. Which ones do you recommend?

I need to be able to lift the front and back of my i3 so that both front wheels and then both rear wheels are lifted together. To do this, I can't use the 4 side jack points for lifting my car. Certainly there must be some approved jack points under the center of the rear and front ends of the i3 for this purpose, but I haven't been able to find any information about this. Can someone tell me where these jack points are?

I ordered 4 from e-bay for the grand total of $32. The aluminum one I've been using for awhile works fine, but it's only one, and it cost me almost as much as the set of 4. I do not know how robust they are, as I've not actually received them yet.

I have no idea if there is any other approved lift point on the vehicle. The dealer is the likely best place to ask. There was an article on one of the BMW sites on emergency personnel on how to deal with an i3 that had been in an accident. That might show how to lift it...just don't know.

When I put my winter tires on, I found that the thing was almost stiff enough to lift the whole side by just lifting one corner. You might have to do it in stages, depending on how easily your jack stands adjust rather than attack it from each end.

Are there different types of BMW jacking pads or will any of them work?

Different cars tend to have different pads on the car, but the adapters seem to be pretty standard across BMW. I bought a set of four on ebay, and the compatibility list included over 500 bmw models. I know that the one I have had for my GT worked on the i3, as I used it when I changed my wheels out for the winter set on both cars. MB uses a similar one, but the size is different. Not sure of any others.

alohart said:

Where are the jack points under the front and rear of the car that could be used to safely lift both front and then both rear wheels high enough to place jack stands under the four jack points?

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Nothing obvious besides the four points, but perhaps someone will see an area I overlooked in the photos that accompanied this Chuck Vossler piece.

http://www.bmwblog.com/2014/11/11/look-bmw-i3-underneath/#jp-carousel-141883

First, I'll ask my BMW dealer for suggestions. But if they have no suggestion, after I've received the jack point adapters that I've ordered, I'll try using the front side jack points to lift my car high enough to place jack stands under the rear side jack points. Then I will place my jack under one of the front suspension's meaty aluminum lower control arms to carefully lift each front wheel high enough to place jack stands under the front side jack points. Not ideal, but I don't have any better idea right now.

Thanks for the info regarding jack points, had no idea about them.

Ordered. :idea:

There is no approved lifting point on this vehicle besides the 4 jacking points on the sides. The front and rear drive modules are really not made to support that kind of centralized stress.

The control arms are an option, but you will need to make sure you are lifting as close to the wheel as possible. Lifting in center of the arm may bend it.

Use caution!!!

Can I ask why you wish to sit the i3 on jack stands?

I33t said:

Can I ask why you wish to sit the i3 on jack stands?

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We live 6 months in Sweden where our Insight is now on jack stands in our garage and 6 months in Honolulu where I have always placed our Honolulu car on jack stands while we are in Sweden. Storing a car for 6 months sitting on its tires isn't great for its tires. When we purchased our i3 recently, I had no idea how difficult it would be to place it on jack stands

Thank you, GodFollower, for clarifying that only 4 jack points exist.

alohart said:

I33t said:

Can I ask why you wish to sit the i3 on jack stands?

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We live 6 months in Sweden where our Insight is now on jack stands in our garage and 6 months in Honolulu where I have always placed our Honolulu car on jack stands while we are in Sweden. Storing a car for 6 months sitting on its tires isn't great for its tires. When we purchased our i3 recently, I had no idea how difficult it would be to place it on jack stands

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Perhaps you could cut some 4x4s to barely fit under the jack points when the car is at rest, and then just let some air out of the tires? Then, with very low pressure in the tires, the rubber would be far more relaxed and sitting slightly out of round should not make much of a difference. Pump them back up on return, and they should loose the flat spot within a few miles of driving. After the first turn, the four flat spots will no longer be aligned with each other to make them minimally noticeable for those first few miles.

Well, if there are only 4 jackpoints and you want to sit the car on jack stands then I think you need to think outside the box.

Here is my suggestion: Head down to your local mechanic/engineering shop and ask for two bars to be made to fit across the car between the jackpoints. They should interface with the jackpoints to stop slippage, and they should be of adequate tensile strength so that they do not bend when half the weight of the car or more is supported from the centre of the beam. With help from friends, use these one at a time to raise the car with the jack in the centre of the beam, and place the jackstands under the beam under the jackpoints and release the jack. Repeat for the other end.

I'm sure there are other methods, but that's the best I have at the moment.

How about wheel jacks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZxNNssRjPU

or airbag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqBQ8q2mxuY

That wheel jack is a good idea Tomasz, but the airbag doesn't work with an electric car!

I33t said:

That wheel jack is a good idea Tomasz, but the airbag doesn't work with an electric car!

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it does work with electric air compressor, exhaust fumes are just a substitute

I have no personal experience with these, but they (or something similar) might be a good solution for you: http://jackpointjackstands.com/Home.html