Recently I had new wheels installed on my C5. The guy at the shop had no clue about the pucks which I did...helped him install and guided him through the process..had no issues. But of the mechanics mentioned the doors needed to be opened. Which confused me, so I asked why...Stated that he had saw one fall without the doors opened during service...I stated to him did they have pucks installed...he looked confused...During my exhaust install the previous year a guy never opened the doors..but he did school me on the pucks and fiber glass body...so my trust was with him....

have any of you heard of leaving doors open while lifted...seemed odd....you could open the doors all you want but if those pucks are not in....it's coming down in my mind...

thoughts...

 

The whole frame-flexing-when-lifted ideology mostly comes from older cars which did not have optimal (i.e. modern) construction techniques and/or were excessively heavy. Convertibles and cars with removeable roof sections would often see visible flexing when lifted, which can subsequently make accessing inside the car for whatever reason needed difficult as the flexing would compress against the latch.

Your C5 regardless of model is constructed from the onset as a convertible-type vehicle; they all are, even the FRCs and Z06s. Unlike a uni-body constructed vehicle the C5 utilizes a body-on-chassis hydro-formed box frame with all the body placed onto it. The best analogy is similar to a truck. The hydro-formed frame is incredibly rigid and the frame itself has a, relatively speaking, small vehicular footprint. With the ideal weight distribution delivered by the front mid-ship LS engine layout and the rear transaxle the overall weight of the car is optimally distributed to minimize any sort of possible flex or movement.

Ultimately if a C5 were to fall off a lifted position it would probably be to improper lifting techniques.

My ultimate thought; In myself having owned my C5 I do not leave anything "open" that I'm not working on sans the hood. If I'm raising the car then for sure I'm probably going to have the hood open but at the absolute most I may have the windows rolled down to be able to reach in form something. Even with one end of the car in the air or the entire car in the air it's still very easy to open and close the door(s) will no ill effect.

 

Thanks for the information...

 

Pucks shouldn't be a problem on a two-post lift. The pads generally sit on top of the lifting arms, so as long as the arms have enough room to swing into place, you're good.

They're more necessary when using floor jacks, since having the jacking point in the same plane as the fragile rocker panel creates problems with the arm of the jack hitting the rocker before the jack pad hits the jacking point.

If you're worried about it, get four of these and pop them in for a permanent solution. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...sn=377&jsn=377

 

I have 4 bright orange lifting pucks. When i go to the mechanic (pretty much for inspection is the only thing it goes in for) i toss them on. I always mention it and you can NOT miss them.

 

the C5 frame is very rigid....you can open and close the doors regardless of where you jack it up.....on older corvettes like the C3 you could literally see the door gaps get bigger when you jacked it up in the middle of the frame.


the comments about the door needing to be open is not based on any facts and is is just a bunch of hot air.

 

I've owned four C5's in the past 17 years. In those years, they have all been jacked up and lifted. Never once have I open the doors. For that matter, I've been on the forum like 15 years and this is the first I've heard of this.

 

I think this goes back to the C-3 days. Those frames were rather flexible.

 

My son-in-law is Service Manager and an ASE Certified Mechanic at a local shop. He did not know about pucks and said I need to leave the doors open when lifting. I politely told him he was full of crap. I lifted my C5 Coupe with my Quickjack using the pucks and lifting blocks. I then carefully tried to open the doors and they both opened perfectly with no rubbing or dragging. He said they always leave the doors open when they lift.

 

Any tire changer that told me he needed to leave the doors open on a car on a lift, I would run away from that shop

 

On the C5, the doors do not have to be opened to lift the car using either a lift or a floor jack. I would highly recommend a set of jacking pucks - regardless of whether you use a lift or a floor jack, keeping the pads away from the bottom of the rocker panels is a very good idea. I have seen the bottom of the rocker panels get cracked without the pucks in use.