I am looking to diagnose a rear squeak and need to be able to put the weight on the car on the suspension with the wheels off.

This would also be good when I have to replace suspension parts and need to do final torquing.

So my question is ... can I put a jack stand under the rotors (with the lug nuts tightened of course)?? Or should I place it under the lower control arm??

Wish I could just fabricate a piece of metal with a 5*108 bolt pattern that would be able to sit on a jack stand. Kinda like this...

 

I have always been told resting the weight of a vehicle on jacks stands can cause damage to the suspension and is not particularly safe or stable. I believe there is a mention of it in the workshop manual. And unless you have hub jacks like the picture I don't think it is safe to cradle the weight of the care on the edge of the rotors either.

 

I think (but don't have quick access to) the owners manual shows approved jack points.
Beyond that, I use safety stands under the lower arm at the inner bushings closest to the jack points..

I have no idea where the idea of "rotor" stands came from, but considering the extreme torsion load (probably 2X to 3X the designed limits) it would place on the bearings, I certainly would not do it.
As GGG says, I can't ever see trusting a jack under the rotors.....

BOL

 

Yeah i'm hesitant to put stands under the rotor or lower arm since the camber changes as the vehicle moves up and down. That would cause the stand to tilt to one side.

Just found this in the manual however...


This would be ideal...

 

Sounds wrong. Cars (over 3 yrs old) are supported like that over here every year for their annual MoT, without problems.

They don't support them via the rotors or lug (wheel) bolts. They use the places mentioned in workshop manuals or the equivalent of there.

(They generally use something better than jack stands (we say axle stands) but the overall effect is the same. You get some suspension droop, which isn't great but also doesn't seem harmful.)

Well, care & safety are recommended

 

The car in your first pic is on a lift so I don't think the jack stands are bearing any weight other than the weight of the knuckle, strut etc. Like Clever Name, if I didn't have a lift, I would use the correct stand points and another set under the inner control arm bushing. I'm not understanding how you could find suspension squeaks with weight bearing on the wheel anyway. Lift it, let the car hang and use prying to find the bad bushings. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

That's for testing a CV joint. You have the car in gear for that test. You still need the car on a lift for that test. You support the car with a lift then also raise the lower arm with a jack and put it under a stand to prevent the CV joint from hanging while in gear.

 

I guess I should have elaborated. I would NOT support the entire weight of the vehicle that way BUT I would support the suspension that way, such as changing out various components but still using jacks at the approved points to support the weight of the vehicle.

 

With the vehicle on the ground, I can push down on the trunk and hear it. I want to replicate that with the wheels off.

I don't think I will have enough leverage to pry up on the lower arm, but you did spark another idea... I will put the car on jack stands at the approved locations, then use my jack under the lower arm bushing and slowly raise it. This way I can do 1 wheel at a time to see what side its coming from.

Disconnecting the sway bar links would isolate each side and also give me a good idea if the noise is coming from the sway bar bushings or something else.

 

Can someone show the proper way to jack up the XKR to put it on jack stands? I'll be changing my transmission fluid and ediff fluid this winter.

 

 

Thanks for the diagram. It's not clear to me where the points are. Please indicate on the following pictures.

 

The embossed arrow at the rear indicates the Lift points inboard of that. I can't see any at the front, but there should be some.

 

Damn aero pieces. What should I do for the "A" points? Don't want to remove the aero pieces.

 

The A point are on the rear of your car the lip on the metal brace were the 3 bolt heads protrude on the front on the metal lip just about were the mark A in the picture is look in your owners manual section wheels and tyres

 

I like to put a hockey puck between the jack and frame to avoid damage. Then drop the car on the jack stands in the area shown:


As for the squeak, I was able to disconnect the sway bar links and lift 1 side of the suspension up at a time. Turns out the noise only comes from the right side. And is NOT the sway bar bushings. Spraying each joint down with WD-40 I was able to isolate the noise to the rear toe link. A part that I replaced a few months ago but has rusted harder than anything else on this car. For now the noise is gone but when it comes back I'll spray it down again just to verify, then i'll replace the toe link with something not as cheap.

 

gkubrak, that's a great picture of the rear jack and lift points. Do you have a similar picture of the front?

 

I'm not due for any front-end work, but if I lift it, I will take a pic for you.

The 2 highlighted locations below seem to match up with the diagram from the manual. Maybe those side skirts are blocking the actual locations? Like Cee Jay said, look for the triangle on the bottom of the rocker panel, like the one in my picture above.