R1's fancy suspension has been outdone

[BigSkies]

So what happened? I've literally lifted hundreds if not thousands of vehicles under the control arms without incident. For any that look fragile whatsoever, it's best to lift as close as possible or directly under the control arm mounting location, so where the bolt/bushing is located. I cannot imagine ever causing damage doing that unless the control arms are made of cardboard.

The jack went under the control arm and I lifted the car.

There was a maybe 20 degree bend in the control arm that hadn't been there before when I lowered it.

I learned to jack under control arms just as you described. It's easy. It avoids suspension travel. It makes jack-stands easy. However, I no longer assume that it will work until proven otherwise. I blame the European brands.

To add insult to injury, this was when I was first dating the woman who is now my wife. I was trying to impress her with my mechanical skills by replacing her brake pads. Not only did I bend the control arm on her suspension, I didn't have the right BMW-specific tool to compress the brake cylinder. I literally accomplished nothing other than damaging her car. I have no idea why she married my dumb ass.

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[White Shadow]

The jack went under the control arm and I lifted the car.

There was a maybe 20 degree bend in the control arm that hadn't been there before when I lowered it.

I learned to jack under control arms just as you described. It's easy. It avoids suspension travel. It makes jack-stands easy. However, I no longer assume that it will work until proven otherwise. I blame the European brands.

To add insult to injury, this was when I was first dating the woman who is now my wife. I was trying to impress her with my mechanical skills by replacing her brake pads. Not only did I bend the control arm on her suspension, I didn't have the right BMW-specific tool to compress the brake cylinder. I literally accomplished nothing other than damaging her car. I have no idea why she married my dumb ass.

Yeah, I guess some stamped steel control arms can be suspect. It's not always advisable to just jack anywhere under some control arms. I should have made that clear in my original comment.

 

[BigSkies]

Yeah, I guess some stamped steel control arms can be suspect. It's bit always advisable to just jack anywhere under some control arms. I should have made that clear in my original comment.

No disagreement here. In my defense, the length of control arms on a mini cooper don't give much in the way of options. It's a "special" vehicle in a lot of ways.

I learned to hate the maintenance side of that car for a lot of reasons.

For example, the windshield on a Rivian has tank-like armor qualities when compared to the windshield on a Mini.

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