Quick Jack works great but....
 

Never lower the car with no wheels lower than it would be with the wheels on. This happened on my BMW but I feel it relevant to Z owners. I was bleeding my brakes and one wheel would not come off (3 wheels were already off) so I thought I could break the wheel loose by lowering the car putting weight on the wheel without the bolts. Some how it got to the point where the level of the car was off. The one side went all the way down and I could not get the quick jack to raise back up!

I got the last wheel off the car but long story short the whole car was almost laying on the rotors and the Quick jack would not raise. Now before you say it's in the manual that the quick jack will not raise a car from it's lowest point. Don't bother. I found that out running around the house and finally pulling up the manual on line and finding out this was the case. I ended up using my low profile jack finding questionable jacking points to get the car high enough to get the wheels back on.

Just though I'd share my dumb ass experience.

Just got my Quickjack a couple of weeks ago. Love it so far. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, I did the same thing.....I believe they call it a "dead lift" or something to that effect.
It needs a bit of run up before it begins bearing the weight of the car.

I don't get that part though. I have a 7000SLX and use it on 4 cars but...……………….

say you got a car lifted up and locked down on the first safety lock and you want to lift up to the second one so you press the up button to the next lock. That to me is a dead lift from the first lock to the second one since the weight of the car is on the QJ already up on first lock.

I sometimes set it up under the car and lift it slightly then check the placement of the blocks to the proper lift point (or remove wheel nuts when the wheels are still slightly on the ground) once I confirm the lift areas are correct with the car slightly up I just continue up. I don't lower the car down then lift again.

Tony

Yeah, it's when the jack is completely lowered onto the ground. I can't remember the exact reason, but they post the mechanical condition that causes this in their FAQ (iirc).....and that ALL lifts of this type experience the same phenomenon, it's not unique to their lift. The dead lift is when there is not sufficient hydraulic pressure in the line and the leverage point in which the jack begins to scissor up isn't strong enough. You'd get the same thing on your 7000 is you pulled the wheels and dropped a vehicle all the way down until the jack is fully compressed.

Are you saying you Z was laying on the ground ? how'd you get it back up??

Yep, almost touching the rotors on the ground. Per their tech support, I had to put my low profile jacks under the car and jack it up off the Quick Jack , then raise the Quick Jack until it made contact, then continued the lift.

Hindsight is 20/20... But whenever I have a car in the air and say I forget to loosen the lugs first while its on the ground, I will use a floor jack and raise the cup up under the tire to prevent it from spinning while in the air. Glad nothing serious came of your mishap!!

One last thing I learned, which also sounds like you experienced......

When I did something similar to what you did, the electronics required to keep both side level was thrown off (proportioning valve ?). This allowed one side to lift, while the other side would make contact with the car, but not raise any further and stall....causing the car to tilt on the jacks.
To get them back in sync, I had to lower both sides completely, pull them from under the car, then stand on both jacks while I raised and lowered it several times. This allowed the electronic proportioning valve to "resync" both sides, so that it would raise both ramps evenly.

Got that little tidbit from their tech support as well :thumbs:

Does the Quick Jack work well on cars with side skirts(Z07 package or ZR1)?

My buddy uses his on his c7z with full aero all the time. No issues.

I'm glad that you didn't damage your car, Quick Jack does mention that their jack will not lift the car if the jack is completely down

2010 ZR1 no problem.

How come I knew someone would give their "Why didn't you read the instructions"post. :rolleyes: Please read the original post. This was just to give the small group of us who don't always read the manual thoroughly a heads up.:)