Quote:
Originally Posted by Richbot
No lift picks a car up perfectly level, especially when it initially takes the load off the suspension. The factory jacking points are designed with this in mind. That's why they're located at one of the strongest parts of the car, the rockers. You're introducing a bending moment in the chassis whether you use a lift or a floor jack and a jackstand, either way the car is "made to withstand" that bending moment.
Like I said, you are free to imagine whatever boogeymen you want to, but try not to spread it around so BMW owners can feel free to work on and enjoy their cars without blowing money on useless things like a scissor lift that precludes access to the transmission. There's already enough fear and intimidation related to working on an expensive and complicated car without throwing things like "metal fatique" (that's spelled with a "g" by the way) from jacking the car up, in the same fashion that people have raised cars off the ground since the beginning of cars, in to muddy the waters.
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The point of the scissors lift is mainly for convenience. Sure, I could waste time playing around with boards, multiple jacks, running around from corner-to-corner, etc. Or, I can just park my car over a lift and push a button when I want to work on it. Eliminating any tests of torsional rigidity is a side bonus. Also, I'm not about to swap trannies out on a car that's still under warranty. Finally, in the old days (probably before YOUR time), cars didn't need jacking points because they had frames. Jacking points came about mainly as a result of unibody construction. PS - Do you race Spec Miata? If so, who built your car?