Jack Pads

[Botanic]

I'm about to buy a trolley jack so that I can change my tyres.
For this I will need a jack pad since the car needs to be lifted on the seams.

I have no experience in jack pads.
I have read a lot of horror stories about rubber jack pads breaking in half.

What jack pad should I get so that I don't damage my car?

Has anyone tried this type (Advanced Grooved UNIVERSAL Magnetic Jack Pad Pinch Weld Frame Rail Adapter)?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DEDC-Advanced- ... 0774H9DTB/

[RUM4MO]

For that design to work well, it the slot would need to be wide enough and the correct depth to make sure that the PTFE or plastic base material was where the metal sill was resting on, and the slot was wide enough to not stop the sill point from being grabbed by the alloy sides, especially at the front.

I made up some hard wood adaptors with thick rubber on them, to use on my 2011 Audi S4, they work very well as I designed them, all 4 of them to fit "their own" allocated position, most of the weight of the car is carried on the inner flat surface and some on the outer with the folded welded seam just resting slightly on the flat bottom area that has dense rubber on it as does the sides and the 2 top flat surfaces, both at different heights to reflect the profile of the 4 individual sill lifting points.

I then used this on my wife's 2015 VW Polo, then discovered that the slot was not wide enough to clear part of the front lifting points, and it stripped off some of the stone chip protection - as well as the Polo ground clearance being more than on the S4, so I made up another set of 4. I tend to only ever lift my cars using 2 trolley jacks and lift up onto stands on one side at a time.

Have you ever considered buying and fitting a set of 4 Audi TT Mk1 jacking point protectors, I fitted them to my wife's 2002 Polo and bought and fitted another set to her 2015 Polo, they are quite handy for when just quickly swopping winter<>summer wheels/tyres - again using 2 trolley jacks and being careful when one side only is raised up and wheels are being swopped.

[Botanic]

I went out and measured the sill on my car.
The slot is not wide enough on the alloy pads I linked to.

I'm going to lift the car two times a year just to change tyres. I don't want to make this more complicated than it has to, but still...

I'm not able to find pads with the same size and design on the groove as on the jack that comes with the car.

What about these? Do these bend or damage the seam of the car?
https://www.biltema.se/bil---mc/verksta ... 2000017051
The slot is not deep at all on those, but maybe the seam is designed to take the weight anyway?

I'll look into the Audi TT mk1 jacking point protectors.

[peter_dk25]

Just buy a set like this:
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-assembled-b ... cs10724kt/
It fit's the Polo and work! I have it installed in my Blue GT!

[Mikeso51]

The ECS jack pads are essentially the same as the Audi pads that RUM4MO mentioned. I fitted a set myself, and they work well. More accessible than the sill jacking point on the Blue GT, which is obscured somewhat by the side skirt. I seem to remember buying mine from AwesomeGTI for about £40 including post etc, though that was a year or two back. My set did not come with the location plate shown in the ECS pictures, but it was easy enough to make one up to fit on my trolley jack. You could get by without this, but safer to have it to centralise the jack on the pad.

[CarbonChaos]

I have a set of these jack pad adapters fitted to my GTI and they work great , but the shipping is expensive from the USA

[spartacus68]

Buy these. They need to have 20mm deep slot: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Halfords-Axl ... SwbYFf8KRk

Regards a decent trolley jack, then Costco were selling Arcan 2-tonne trolley jacks for under £100. They do a 3-tonne version too, but possibly overkill if you are just using it swap wheels. Lastly, get some axle stands as a back-up. Jacks can and do fail.

[veteran]

Botanic & others,

Thought I'd give you my pennyworth on this matter.

The ECS jack pads (and adaptor, if you also want that) are those that have been fitted by owners on some other VAG Group vehicles for a number of years now, and that includes the Audi TT. I bought my own set of ECS pads a few years ago, for my Polo 6C 1.2 TSI, from PSI Tuning of Newcastle-Under-Lyme. They are among one or two Audi-VW specialists in the UK who act as agents for ECS in this regard. So you don't need to order these items from the States; PSI Tuning normally have them as stocked items.

The set of four pads, plus adaptor, plus post-and-packing cost me £57.00. That was actually 3 years ago. Assuming PSI Tuning are still in business, you should be able to see these items on their website at http://www.psituning.com. Although I was sure they stocked them, I remember having some difficulty in finding them on their website. But I think that, since that time, PSI Tuning have revamped their website, so it might be easier now. From PSI Tuning, the part no. of each pad is TPS-8N0804583+8N0803855, and for the single adaptor it's ECS-251745.

The adaptor isn't absolutely essential but I found that, in my case, when raising and locating the jack, it provided a means of loosely keying the jack's saddle into the pad and therefore ensuring that the saddle couldn't slide away and come off the pad.

The places where these are fitted on my particular Polo are several inches in from the cills and therefore it requires some grovelling about on the ground/floor to initially locate the jack with the pad, I discovered. With me having severe back problems in my old age now, this isn't desirable any longer, so I now tend not to go to all the bother of getting out my jack and using these pads any more. Instead, if I want to just remove a wheel or inspect a wheel/tyre in situ I get the vehicle's own little wind-up jack out of the Polo's boot and use that instead. That's the one that fits to the strengthened seam-sections of the cill. The VW-supplied jack, of course, isn't much use if you need to raise and place the vehicle on axle-stands, as it can't raise the vehicle high enough for that, but these days I'm finding it rare that I need to put my axle-stands to use.

Hope this of some help to you.

[Botanic]

Thank you for the replies!

The ECS jack pads feel a little over kill and pricey.

Maybe the kind of jack pad that looks like a hockey puck with a groove is the way to go for me.
Isn't the groove on the one from Halfords not wide enough? It says it's 10 mm wide.
I measured the strengthened seam on my car to be 11 mm wide.
Also the groove on the vehicle's own wind-up jack is 11 mm wide.

Is it supposed to be this complicated...

[RUM4MO]

It might be wide enough, the only way to check is to buy and use it, it looks like it has been designed for its "plastic" base to cushion the lower face of the sill at its strong points and so apply the support there.

My main problem that I made for myself was that I was making my adaptors originally for one car and I made them longer and just the correct height at each of the inner and outer faces and depth and width of slot, to share the weight/support over a much larger area - and when used with the next car, the 6C Polo, that ended up that the front end of these adaptors were now where the sill profile changes as it moves away from the centre of the strong points - and that was where I ended up stripping off some of the stone chip protection.

There will be a minimum length of lifting adaptor support that is advisable to use and I'd be one of the first people to always intend to use as long an adaptor as that car permits to minimise any possible sill distortion, each person to their own interpretation of what is right to use, this is not a competition, just a group of people offering their own thoughts/suggestions/experience - all good stuff!

Edit:- by the way the advert says the slot is 0.47" wide, when I converted that to mm I ended up with 11.9mm so that sounds like it is okay for your car that you measured at 11mm - as long as the 11mm extends upwards to allow that adaptor to support the car sill on its lower compliant (plastic) face - which is 1.38" or 35mm. If that depth is too much for your car, you could grind, cut or file off enough to reduce its height to suit your Polo at all 4 lifting points.

[veteran]

In response to your question concerning the complexity of all of this, No. If all you ever want to do is remove a wheel for a short period for whatever reason, simply use the VW-supplied wind-up jack in your boot accessory kit to lift the car at the appropriate strengthened seam-section of the cill. Do it on flat, stable ground. Bear in mind that although that VAG wind-up jack has been specifically designed to fit the Polo's cill seam, as a jack it isn't especially strong or stable; its use is intended mainly for roadside wheel-changing in the event of a puncture. If, however, you want to raise the car for other reasons, eg. to work on the brakes or on the suspension for prolonged periods, or to be able to clamber underneath the vehicle to get to other things, then you need sturdier and more-assured lifting and support, multiple support even, eg. use a trolley-jack to raise the car sufficient to get axle-stands underneath (if not approached in the right way, this can be a dangerous operation). Irrespective of the kit involved, the raising of the car, if on the cill seam(s), should preferably be done to avoid unnecessary damage to the latter. The ECS jack pads referred to facilitate this by providing you with lifting points that don't involve the cill seams at all.

Prior to my getting and fitting the ECS pads a few years back, I bought and experimented with several rubber lifting pads of the type that could be used with trolley and scissor jacks when lifting on the cill seam. At one stage I even thought about getting the orange-coloured, largely metal puck that you yourself have recently considered. However, as you say Botanic, most of them were not man enough for the job; they badly distorted under load and/or eventually split in two. This was hardly surprising, since the v-groove in these so-called 'pucks' have to take each a quarter of the weight of the car. Obviously, I couldn't try everything on the market at that time, but there was one puck that performed quite well, that being the Planger PowerPad, a toughened puck of german manufacture that, when under load, deformed just sufficiently to nicely cushion itself around the cill seam. The puck just sits freely in the saddle (working head) of any suitable trolley-jack. They weren't cheap. I bought a couple through Amazon. You might yourself want to investigate the Planger PowerPad. It has an unloaded groove profile of 10mm bottom width, 15mm top width, and groove depth of 8mm. The overall diameter of the Planger puck (sometimes advertised as the Planger 'Steady Pad') is 65mm, and the overall height of it is 27mm.

[Botanic]

Thanks for all the very useful replies.

I will look into a "puck", probably start looking at the Planger that veteran mentioned.

I changed the tyres on my Lupo twice a year for eleven years with the VW supplied jack.
I was worried that I would tilt the jack every time I used it. It was quite unstable, but ok to use in an emergency.
Since I had no idea for how long I would have the car, I thought that it would be the last time I use the jack and I didn't bother buying a proper one.
So maybe I will have this car for 11 years as well and change 88 tyres on it...

[Botanic]

So...
I ordered the Planger PowerPad and used it today. Great stuff!
No scratches underneath my car. The pad looks like new after I changed all four wheels.
It was a lot quicker and easier to use than the VW supplied jack.

Thank you for all the tips!