I looked up this subject in the archives but alas the diagrams or photos describing where the proper points are don't appear. Anyway here is what I'm planning to do I will take the hydrolic jack and place it under the rear usual jack point (that flat spot under the car just in front of the rear wheel) and jack up until both wheels just come off the ground. I will then place jack stand under the rear jack point and place another stand in the front (please advise where is the best front point to put the front stand). I will then lower onto the stands and raise the car on the other side rear jack point and leave the jack in place to hold that side up. I only need to remove the wheels so the tires only need to just clear the garage floor. Will this work with the two jack stands on one side and the jack alone to hold the car up on the other side. Thanks
NEVER support a car on a jack only. Hydraulic jacks have been known to collapse and if they do, they do so without warning and you can get killed at worse or completely trash the underside of your car at best. Go and buy two more jackstands for a start. There is only a single jack point on each side of the car and this, as you say, raises the entire side of the car. This should be an upside down "U" shape where the tyre changing jack slots in - but many of these have been crushed flat. Don't, whatever you do, jack the car on the sill! Unless you have a very low profile trolley jack you might have difficulty in actually getting it under the car. If so, find some wooden planks to drive the car onto to raise it an inch or so first. Also, depending on what the saddle of your jack is like, use some wood or something similarly forgiving between the jack saddle & the car. Once you have one side up then you can place a jackstand on the rear chassis rail behind the engine/gearbox - the ones that run the length of the car, not the rail that runs across the car. You will see that this is close to where the rear suspension joins the chassis so its strong. At the front there is another front-back rail that will take a jackstand just to the rear of the coverplate pretty much in line with the front wheels - there is just enough room to get a stand in there. Again, close to where the suspension pickup point is. If you do a search on jacking a 308 there is a thread somewhere in the archives with a diagram of the main chassis rails & where you can put the stands. The 328 is basically the same. Look for places that are close to the suspension pickup points on the chassis & also where you won't catch/crush/snag any wires or pipes. You want jackstands with a fairly flat cup on the top rather than V-shaped & ideally with rubber pads on top so as not to damage the rails. Once you are done with one side then go around and do the other - but jack the car carefully & watch the stands you put under the first side to make sure they don't tip as it comes off the floor. If you need to get the car up higher then do it in two bites - i.e. take it up a bit on each side & then go back & take it up again (rather than raising the first side all the way up & then try to bring the second side up in one go). Same applies when bringing it down - keep watching the stands on the other side of the car. It goes without saying, don't attempt it on anything other than a flat concrete surface. If the surface is rough then find a piece of sheet steel that you can run your jack on so that it can move as it should as you raise the car - if the jack won't move on its wheels you are liable to pull the car off its stands. HTH I.
If you do not have a jack, go to WalMart and get a 1 ton floor jack (The one I got there was small gray unit for $17.95. Take the wheels off and the jack will slide right under your car with ease. As mentioned prior, GET FLOOR STANDS!
Yep, that's it - although on a 328 finding those points at the front is more difficult because of cover plates etc - same for the ones in front of the rear wheels - and you don't want to miss (!) Not sure what a 308 is like. You'd need a jackstand with a totally flat top I think. I prefer to sit it on the main rails pretty much between the front wheels (though to the rear of the axle centreline) & there is some space to do that if you have the right stands. Its very close to the main suspension pickups (so it must be strong) & I was told it was a good place to put them by the guys at QV. Incidentally, when they put stands under the rear they tend to sit them right under the rear anti-roll bar bushes right at the back of the rails. The casting fits nicely into the cup of a jack stand. I don't do that because my stands have very flat tops on them with just a slight kick upwards on each side. They also have a built in rubber pad on the top. I bought them specifically because the Ferrari rails sit squarely in them on a flat surface & so don't get damaged/creased.
