Is it ok to leave a car on a jack overnight? My front passanger side is off the ground so the back tires and drivers side tire are on the ground. Is this bad for the car for one night? Will it leave flat spots in my other tires? (The car is in a semi warm garage right now)

I had to glue a piece of the underbody together that cracked from hitting a cone, and have the pieces propped together with my goalie pads.

*Edit: "Jacked"

 

I laughed my @$$ off. Great thread.

 

MacGyver,

I'm afraid to ask what's holding your car up...

 

Kind of dumb but original.

You are stressing components on the low side like springs and wheel bearings. Not recommended for long term storage. Overnight its good.

 

Lol. You can't flat spot tires anymore. Even after years of sitting flat my old winter beaters tires once inflated were rough for about 50km and perfect after that. They sat flat not moved for over a year straight.

Jacking up the car leaving the suspension hanging is hard on the bushings but only after a long period of time. People used to jack up the car and leave the wheels hanging thinking they were saving the tires, but all they did was ruin all the bushings in their suspension. You won't do that overnight however...

 

^Thanks

 

When the suspension is hanging how does it wear out the bushings what is the difference then sitting on it?

 

I think it wears out the bushings because you expose metal parts of the joints that normally would be inside the rubber and these can rust over time and then i suppose cause wear you might not normally get. Thats what I read somewhere I think...also the springs and shocks might not like to be fully extended for much the same reasons...correct me if i'm wrong?!

I think it would take a few months or more for this to occur though...

 

You will be fine overnight, not for long periods of time though.

 

Hopefully , you jacked at a strong point and are not putting a nice dent into your undercarriage .

 

I want to see pics of the goalie pads holding the bumper together.

 

You can definitely still flat spot tires. Buy a set of General Exclaim UHP's and leave them parked overnight in the cold. Feel the flat spots for 4-6 miles every morning until it rounds back out.

It's not going to harm the bushings by letting the car hang either, there is no added tension from that. Bushings fail due to wear and unless you're constantly moving the wheels up and down while jacked up there is no wear from being in a hanging position.

In fact most race cars are kept on jack stands at all times in the shop to keep the weight off of the shocks and springs.

The only danger to leaving a car jacked up overnight is from improper jack placement or from the jack leaking down and allowing the car to fall to the ground. Personally I would keep a jackstand or at the very least a block under it to prevent that from happening.

 

Not to mention coming to tire dragging stop wears flat spots like no ones business no matter how technologically advanced they claim to be. Those don't round back out.
I had this happen to a full set of mich's.

 

+1 but, my guess is that the OP is using the screw jack that comes with the car. That thing is just scary. I wouldn't use it for any longer than never.

 

Dial a death, that's what those things are for sure.

 

I hear ya on the tires for 4-6 miles, but I don't mean that. I mean permanent damage like bias-ply tires. My tires are a little lumpy sitting for long period when I first drive but a short time and they are fine..

You will do damage to the suspension by letting them hang. Your pulling the control arms and struts way down below the range they were designed to work in, which is not normally a problem but prolonged periods of time with a 40lbs wheel hanging from it will be. Our shop has three race cars and I'll tell you, not a single one is jacked up, they are all on crappy wheels sitting on wheel dollies rollin on casters. I wouldn't jack up and let the wheels hang. If you do, thats cool.

If you search storing a car for the winter, nearly all the sites say not to jack the car up by the frame and let the suspension droop due to the stretching of the springs, sagging the struts and stretching the bushing in an un-natural position.

Just my Do whatcha like...

Besides who are you gonna trust about jacking up a car. A guy who lives in Canada who MUST store his car, or a guy in Georgia wearing a T-Shirt who has never winter stored a car ever? Just playin...

 

Yea I am using the one that came with the car, I had to warn my family not to go within 50 feet of the thing unless they wanted to loose a leg

 

Stop being cheap and buy a real jack and some ramps to set the car on and keep it elevated. Ditch the stock jack and think of the weight you just reduced.

 

Lol im not going to go out and buy a jack I already took that stupid thing out of my car. If anything really happened id just call AAA. That was just for a quick fix sort of thing

 

Costco sells decent sets for under $200. It comes with a low profile floor jack and two stands.