DANGER - Factory Jack Collapses!!! DO NOT TRUST IT@!

[charlesj]

SO, haven't been able to run the beast much, no battery tender, battery died, my bad... Researched here & found tons of useful info on best battery, how to jack car up, etc. I even read one post where some dude indicated the factory jack failed & he was looking for another. I thought,... must have been real old... Got my factory scissor jack out. Brand new, never been used. Found proper jack point on car. Raised slowly... Removed wheel... (what I failed to do was put a jack stand under car,... my bad again.)


Removed four screws to access battery compartment, did not put any pressure on car, & on fifth screw, the factory POFS scissor jack totally failed!!! Sounded like a gun went off as the jack broke and the car dropped. FORTUNATELY, I was not underneath any part of the car but I did get knocked in the head a little. Actually looks like someone punched me in the head at the corner of my eye. I deserve that. Reason I am sharing is so you don't make same mistake in trusting factory jack for anything! I had my car up in the air no more than 5 minutes tops. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe ANY jack should totally fail in 5 minutes. After you read this, go to your car, take that factory jack out and throw that f'n POS away!


The other FORTUNATELY is that there was no damage to the car as the rotor never hit the concrete. The jack just got smashed down under the jack point / frame. GOOD LORD!

 

[Blue Pilot]

Wow! Glad to hear you didn't get hurt, it could have been serious with you accessing the battery. I lesson well learned.

 

[Gerald Levin]

Man, if that happened to me I would have crapped my pants. Thank god you are okay. A recommendation are those low profile racing jacks you get at Harborfreight. Lot of the guys here like 'em and they are pretty cheap. But I guess you will always use a jack stand from now on. Even with a jack and a jack stand, I get the heebie jeebies when my VIP **** is under a car.

 

[wastntim]

Did the jack itself collapse or just fall over? Do you have any pictures?

 

[Vic]

You must have been taking those batttery box bolts out in the wrong sequence, therefore my client is blameless.

Lionel Hutz, Atty at Law

You remember Lionel Hutz, don't you, the flakey atty from the Simpsons?

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

You got lucky! You better say your prayers and thank you's tonight I have the harbor freight jack and 2 jack stands from wal-mart...total for everything: under $100

 

[ViperJoe]

Glad you're ok

Throw it away.......? Absolutely not....got to keep the original equipment

USE it........absolutely not, that's what floor jacks and jack stands are for

 

[twinturbo3150]

glad your ok,

 

[Camfab]

Did the car roll back? I was a good samaritan to fellow Viper owner at a SoCal car gathering. He had a flat and called the car club who came over and was going to shove a floor jack under the rear diff. I saw that happening and ran over, pulled the guys factory jack and started to carefully raise the car up. The next thing I noticed, was the car rolling back at me and destroying the jack. I looked at him and said wasn't your parking brake set? He looked at me like I was a fool and said "I never set the brake". Moral of the story, make sure the wheels are chocked. I felt bad doing him a good deed (go figure!) and gave him my perfect jack.

 

[wastntim]

Moral of the story, make sure the wheels are chocked. =.

make sure that you block the wheels on the opposite side. Due to the stiffness of the frame the shole side of the car will pick up when you jack one side up.

 

[PatentLaw]

It is good that you were not hurt. Next time, try to put wood planking underneath the frame of the car so if another jack gives out and the car starts to fall, it will fall onto the uncompressible wood. Nobody gets hurt. Yes, it is a pain to do right, but you can be sure that nothing bad will happen. Multiple points of uncompressible support.

 

[viper spray]

Jack stands always...........

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Have to agree the factory jack in the GEN I's and II's are worthless and dangerous. I started to jack up my 96 RT and the jack started to buckle. Now have a coupe low profile Al racing jacks. And always use jack stands.

 

[jcaspar1]

I have used mine many times without any trouble. Must have been a bad one.

 

[2MANYTOYS]

***** that the manuf. would let something like that go in our cars. That thing should be bulletproof. Glad your ok.

 

[418viper]

Been my unfortunate experience that if items like this don't get addressed much sorrow and misery will follow. File a complaint with the state attorney general. You may save the life of someone close to you.

 

[charlesj]

To answer some of your questions... The jack itself totally collapsed meaning that it imploded down upon itself, not sideways or falling over, no rolling of car either way, just massive vertical descent. And no, I did not take any pictures cause this is burned into the inside of my skull & may be waking up many years from now in cold sweats screaming. Regarding blocks, fortunately I had blocks in front of the front wheels & the emergency brake on of course. I raced to AutoZone immediately & got a low-profile Duralast aluminum jack (viper blue color, looks awesome) and two Duralast jack stands to match (viper blue too.) Cost me around $130. Got home, put it together, started jacking up back under frame & car started to roll a bit as the other back tire started to squeak off ground, front blocks grabbed & car was safe. THANK GOD! Having your viper come crashing to the ground once in a day is terrifying enough.

 

[AviP]

Lucky man! Now please post some good photos of that jack. My mechanical mind is very curious to see that point of failure.

 

[2001 GTS]

I used to only use the scissor jack to get the car high enough for a floor jack to be able to get underneath.

But now an aluminum racing jack does the trick.

 

[v10kingsnake]

i was watching a faces of death video one day and it had a video clip of a guy removing some suspension components off a car in the local junk yard. long story short he removed the rear driver wheel of the car to access the parts he needed and had his leg under the rotor when, YOU GUESSED IT, the jack failed and lets just say this guys left leg wasnt as firmly attached to him as one would like. I never get under my car or any other for that matter using only a jack to support the weight. They were designed to do that but I am a firm believer that if you put yourself in a dangerous situation where something could go wrong, it usually does. consider yourself lucky and dont toss the jack. it is part of the car. just dont use it for that anymore and use jack stands for the added piece of mind. also fyi. many stores that sell you a battery will offer free install and given the complexbattery locale of the viper compared to other cars it is a good idea to let them do it. I try to aviod the shops when it comes to the viper as much as possible esspecially for things this minor tho.