clarke ali trolly jack failure......with me under the car!

[Beedub]

hi guys while working on my z4m the yesterday my clarke trolley jack failed, it wasnt a spectacular failure but fluid started pissing out from underneath of the jack, and the jack slowly lowered itself leaving my car on the axle stands. The car was positioned on axle stand so their was no issue their but i just wanted to highlight to people these things do fail and it happens reguarly, please please please dont work on your car without proper axle stands. it was abit of a tense moment......... unfortunatly the jack is out of 12 months warranty by 6 months so i now have to fork out for another..... as i an avid believer of doing as much to your car as possible this is a rather large blow........ lol

Strangly the jack will stil jack the car but i wont be risking that again now...... shame as ive only used the thing about 10 times..... sometimes it really doesnt pay to get the cheaper stuff.... i should have paid once and got a proper quality snap on item.

Anyhow back on subject... can anyone recommend a low slung jack, one that can withstand the rigours of lots of use?? anyone else had a similar issue?? im very happy im religously use axle stands ;-)

FYI this is the one supplied via machine mart, clarke ali 1.25 lifting weight unit

Edited by Beedub on Monday 14th March 20:01

[Jimmyarm]

Might still be worth an email to Clarke/Machine Mart. Even though its out of its warranty period I would expect a jack to last more than 18 months of light use.

You could probably replace the seals in it as well

[northandy]

I'd definitely get in touch with them, that's very early failure.

My trolley Jack is at least 15 years old and still works perfectly, but again like you I always just use it to lift and lower and always have axle stands in place to hold the car.

[k-ink]

I like the idea of a worm thread instead of hydrulics. A dangerous failure would be pretty much impossible.

[Beedub]

ill give them a call this morning....... see what they say, needless to say im rather pissed off.

[Silvertop_John]

Glad to hear that you were using axle stands as well! If the jack is only 18 months old, it would be worth going back to Machine Mart. They have the responsibilty under the sale of goods laws. The length of the warrantee doesn't exclude their obligations under the act.

[munroman]

As a jack is a safety related item, a failure after 10 uses is not acceptable, they should last for years.

Sounds like a dodgy Chinese manufacturer cut some corners with the hydraulic seals.

[Beedub]

Silvertop_John said:

Glad to hear that you were using axle stands as well! If the jack is only 18 months old, it would be worth going back to Machine Mart. They have the responsibilty under the sale of goods laws. The length of the warrantee doesn't exclude their obligations under the act.

machine mart opens @ 10am on sundays... im looking forward to hearing the b/s they shoot me. i dont think i will be using a clarke jack again...... at the time i purchased this jack it was 79gbp now its up to 107gbp.... people please be wary of using this item :-) i know its very popular amongst us petrolheads for its lightweight and cheap price.

byron

[heebeegeetee]

A very good and useful thread, which acts as a reminder that we should NEVER get under a car that is not properly supported.

[POORCARDEALER]

Beedub said:

i know its very popular amongst us petrolheads for its lightweight and cheap price.

byron

And thats the thing, it is cheap and made in China.

One thing I never buy is cheap tools...........

[Haighermeister]

Chap down the road from me died a few years back when his jack failed, no axle stands. Just not worth the risk

[LooneyTunes]

This thread has already answered the question I was asking myself yesterday (when I saw the ad in one of the car mags) about whether I should buy one... glad you had the stands in place!

[m8rky]

Nasty incident but were you supporting the weight of the car on the jack or the axle stands? as you say it lowered itself on to the axle stands.A ligtweight jack (indeed any jack) is not designed for prolonged support of the car,that is what the axle stands are for,so while not defending this dangerous failure it is worth bearing in mind that you should only raise the vehicle with the jack then lower the weight on to the axle stands.

[DickyC]

POORCARDEALER said:

And thats the thing, it is cheap and made in China.

One thing I never buy is cheap tools...........

A colleague is involved in a charity that provides aid to quite a small area in Africa. They love receiving tools but, "Please, no Chinese tools."

Apparently donors who prefer to know their money is going directly to the recipients in Africa ask what's required and hearing it's tools rush out and buy as many as their donation will stretch to and that means Chinese. The Africans would far rather have good secondhand tools rather than cheap new ones.

It's a shame because the Chinese could make tools as well as anyone else if they chose to.

Back to the thread: mine is another vote for, "Never get under a car that's only on a jack."

[supersingle]

I've got one of these jacks. It's been great. It's so much lighter to handle than a steel jack. I only use it for jacking the car though. I then rest the car on stands and leave the jack in place without a load. Probably kinder to the seals. I have noticed the massive price rise though... and they reckon inflation is at 5%.

[jagracer]

DickyC said:

POORCARDEALER said:

And thats the thing, it is cheap and made in China.

One thing I never buy is cheap tools...........

A colleague is involved in a charity that provides aid to quite a small area in Africa. They love receiving tools but, "Please, no Chinese tools."

Apparently donors who prefer to know their money is going directly to the recipients in Africa ask what's required and hearing it's tools rush out and buy as many as their donation will stretch to and that means Chinese. The Africans would far rather have good secondhand tools rather than cheap new ones.

It's a shame because the Chinese could make tools as well as anyone else if they chose to.

Back to the thread: mine is another vote for, "Never get under a car that's only on a jack."

There's cheap Chinese products and then there's Chinese products. There's a massive amount of top brand stuff that's made in China, a lot of Snap-On tools being one that springs to mind. I've bought a couple of solid Oak chests of drawers that you'd think were made by craftsmen here but on looking it turns out they are made in China, just because they may pay crap wages doesn't mean that things are always made from crap materials.
I think Clarke stuff however leans more to the former.

[rallycross]

Never get under a car supported just on a jack - if you don't have axle stands at least put a couple of wheels under the car

[sharpfocus]

Frightened the life out of me when I had a jack fail and I wasn't even underneath the car at the time.

I've got two trolley jacks in the garage ... a £30 halfords one and this one!

I wish it was easier to find jacking/axle stand points so redundancy wasn't so difficult.

[anonymous-user]

Glad to hear you were using axle stands! I would deffinately go back to MM and see what they say.


Many years ago i had a cable snap on a 4poster ramp, which i was under, and which had a LR110 on at the time! Of course it only dropped an inch or so till the secondary latches caught it, but, it was deffo an underpant changing moment........... ;-)

[retrorider]

Next time buy an ally trolley jack which is EN1494 approved.The cheap ones are cheap for a reason.The Draper Tools model is EN1494 approved.See link below for info on EN1494...

http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000...