Well, the title pretty much says it all.

I put the front wheels on ramps to get underneath the car and change the oil. I had the oil drain plug and filter removed and the oil was draining nicely. But because the nose of the car was pointed upwards, I only got 5 quarts of oil out. So I went to jack up the rear of the car to get the rest of the oil out of the pan.

I jacked up the rear so that it was level with the front and could see more oil was coming out. I put jackstands underneath the rear so that the oil would continue draining while I was away taking care of other things.

As soon as I step to the side of the car, I saw the front wheels that were on the ramp begin to roll backwards.

There was absolutely nothing I could do. The car rolled down the ramp and crushed the bucket that was collecting the oil. As it rolled back, it knocked down the jackstands...fortunately, one of them went flying to the side but the other one got caught underneath the car and punched a 1"x1/8" hole in the floorboard right underneath the passenger seat.

Talk about a disaster. I've got used oil all over the garage...a car that I can't start/move because it has no oil or oil filter...and still in a state of shock trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

I started jacking up the car on the front little by little and each time would shove the ramp back under the wheels a little more. I got it to the point where I could just barely get my arms underneath the car from the side and put the filter and drain plug back in. I don't know how deep the puncture was, but I went ahead and used some clear silicone sealant to patch it up.

I think I dodged a missile and the outcome could have been a lot worse. I still don't understand how the front wheels could roll if the car was in park. Anybody out there got any theories on this? For those of you out there that use a ramp to change the oil, what procedure do you use to get the rear up in the air to drain all the oil?

 

Sorry about your bad luck there. Putting the car in park does nothing to lock the front wheels. That only keeps the rears from turning.

Good luck.

 

First i'm glad you were not hurt. Second.... For the record, PARK holds the REAR wheels NOT the fronts. That's why they rolled.

 

All I have to say is glad you were not underneath that damn thing. The reason they rolled was because in "Park" the car is simply in gear and the rears are locked up. The fronts will still spin. I would agree you dodged a hell of a bullet there buddy. Even with the ebrake pulled you would have only locked the rears. I am glad you were not harmed.

 

Apparently your ramps do not have a lip. Most new ramps have a small lip that should prevent the front tires from rolling. I still can't understand how the car would roll unless your ramps don't have a flat spot to hold the fron tires.

 

Yikes, that really sucks, sorry to hear it.

If you had a FWD car then yes the fronts would have been locked in park. However in your RWD car your rear wheels are locked in park.

 

The ramps do have a flat spot..which is the other part of this mystery. I understand now that "Park" only locks the rear wheels...but I'm still puzzled as to why the front wheels would roll if 1) they're on the flat spot of the ramps and 2) the rear of the car is slightly higher than the front of the car.

You are correct...the ramps do not have a lip. I plan to modify them before I do this again.

 

Dang sorry to hear about your problem

Using 4 jackstand may be best. Skip the ramp all together.

Good Luck

 

Man you are lucky! You have to remember that there is no braking on the fronts from either the park setting or the e-brake. With the rear wheels off the ground there is nothing that will stop the car from rolling.

On ramps? You need to chock the front wheels once they are up on the ramps period. I use wooden ramps and have a steel set of chocks that dig into the wood. I got the chocks from an old GM Blazer.

You also have to be careful with the jack. When using a hydraulic jack you will notice that as you jack up the car that if the wheels of the jack are not free and the jack is unable to move that it will pull the car toward you. The jack pad travels in an arc as it goes up. and the reverse is true when it goes down.

Be careful out there!

 

The jack may have been 'pulling' the car slightly backwards as you were lifting it...and it just happened to be enough to get the car rolling off of the ramps.

 

Sounds like my kind of luck. Sorry to hear about it!

 

Irish,

Sorry to hear about your accident. We at Brute recommend that you chock the front (or rear) tires at any time your vehicle is on our Ramps.



Link to chocks..

Race Ramps allow enough room ahead of the parking platform to place a chock behind the front wheel, which is on the ramp. This fortifies the wheel against the front lip stop and the chock for a secure hold. Because the front tires do free spin, some of our customers have fashioned a 2x4 (cut to length) to depress the brake pedal for added protection while jacking the rear. I will dig up some pics and post them..

In a few,

Ben B.

 

There are two ways that I know of to prevent this, 1 use bricks to block in the front wheels or 2 (this is the one I use) apply the brakes and wedge something between the brake padel and driver seat to keep the brake on. Sorry to hear about the nightmare you went through on this.

 

Yes, ALWAYS chock the wheels. I've had very close disasters before. I use a log on one wheel and a large piece of concrete on the other.

 

this is exactly what happened!

 

Also- if you were in your garage. You prob pulled in, and your garage is sloped so water and liquids will drain out. So naturally it was wanting to roll backwards out the garage.
Glad you weren't under it, like a friend of mine was and got crushed and died.

 

unless you have a lift it is wayyyyyyy too much trouble to change your own oil. buy the oil yourself, take it to the dealer and pay them the 15 bucks for labor and filter. holla

 

You are one Lucky puppy.
The car can be fixed, but you could have been fulling that hole in the floor with your nose.
Be more careful we don't want to lose a Forum Member.

 

I would consider you lucky that you didn't get hurt. The same thing happened to me a few years ago while jacking up the rear end to change my diff. I always put chocks behind the front wheels when on ramps. Glad your okay.

 

Glad you're around to tell the story. That could have had a really bad bad ending.

Buy your own oil and take it to somebody with a lift...then do it yourself.