Wheel Jack Trouble

**jontymo** · 17th February 2007, 21:59

Have any of you had any trouble with your wheel jack?
I changed my wheels front to back last week, on the last wheel i struggled to jack the car up, eventually managed it, when finished i could not get the jack to move to the correct place to fit back in its holder! the jack had crossthreaded!.

Thanks to the guys at Pentagon Odham they ordered me a new jack for free, it had'n't turned up on friday when i went in so they sent me round to the used car guys who gave me one out of 1 of the cars.

Nice to say thanks to the dealers for once.

**Ian** · 17th February 2007, 22:37

I've yet not had the "joy" of using the one in the vectra - i have a decent trolley jack at home - but its nice to hear a dealer using their nogin. My old golf was missing a wheel centre. It went in for a service and, with it being a company car, I asked them to fit a new one. None in stock but didnt have the nogin to "borrow" one from the showroom. Seemed obviouxs to me.

**mrt99uk** · 18th February 2007, 10:33

I had the pain of a flat tyre whilst out and about a couple of weeks ago and I too would say that the Jack is pretty poor to say the least.

The handle doesn't actually engage properly causing the whole thing not to rotate smoothly and I ended up with grazed knuckles (catching them on the gravel on every rotation of the handle)

**CPHB** · 18th February 2007, 11:00

I use the jack every Mars/April and November.( Change from summer - to winter tyres and vice versa). It works fine imo.
I have a trolley jack but I´m afraid to use it.

**VauxVeteran** · 18th February 2007, 15:07

Some 30 yrs ago, on of my school teacher had a Citroen, it was the big futuristic one, can't remember the model exactly D5 or something, anyway I remember him saying it was self jacking, in other words you pressed a button had a stump would hydraulically lift a wheel off the ground, can't say for certain that thats what he meant or if he was just on about Citroen suspension, but what an easy idea it would be in this modern age.

**steve.o** · 18th February 2007, 15:55

Used my trolly jack today to paint calipers,have'nt yet had the pleasure of using the vecs own jack

The only trouble i had was getting the wheels off,i had to wack them on the inside with a rubber mallet to loosen them

Did think to myself its a good job i was'nt trying to change a flat on the m25 or somewhere i would never get the bl***y whell off.Looks like an essential part of the vecs tool kit should be a big muther of a mallett just in case

**m8internet** · 18th February 2007, 16:34

I would never use the jack provided in the Vectra, it is just a token gesture and for EMERGENCY use only (if you are stranded in over 100 miles from civilisation)
Drive the car at 5mph to a safe location, then call the emergency services

As a for swapping tyres, take the car to a tyre agent and have them swap them, they can jack up the entire side of the car and complete this in under 10 minutes
I have this done at each tyre renewal for FREE